The lineage of American barbecue is difficult to track, but it’s thought by many to include techniques and recipes pulled from Caribbean, Taino and Southern cooking traditions. The American North isn’t closely associated with BBQ, but a notable recipe developed in the early 1950s by Ivy League food science professor Robert Blake is thought to be among the first on record.

Cornell Chicken leans on a marinade of apple cider vinegar, beaten egg, vegetable oil, salt and poultry seasoning, and it was initially dreamed up to get people excited about chicken at New York state fairs. It didn’t stay confined to fairgrounds for long. The recipe traveled through handwritten notecards, church cookbooks and neighbor-to-neighbor recommendations, the same slow, word-of-mouth path that all the truly great recipes seem to take.

It’s deceptively simple — just a handful of ingredients you may already have — but that tangy, vinegar-forward marinade is what gives you shatteringly crisp skin wrapped around chicken that stays remarkably juicy, practically every time you make it.

And here’s the best part: no grill required. This recipe works just as well in a cast-iron skillet or an air fryer, making it a genuine year-round fix for chicken dinners that have grown stale and predictable. Turns out the old, unfussy recipes still have some fight left in them.

What’s special about Cornell chicken?

Baker wrote the proverbial book on barbecue chicken, according to many, after extensive recipe testing in the 1950s. He was unhappy with the bland state of American cuisine and created this recipe to help serve tasty food en masse at large cookouts.

“Cornell chicken,” as it’s known, is beautifully simple and remains one of the most lauded chicken marinades and summer cookout recipes. You’ll find Cornell chicken served at restaurants — particularly in upstate New York, where the university is located — at family picnics, food fairs and festivals across the country.

What’s different about Cornell chicken?

Cornell chicken uses one unusual element, a beaten egg, to add a creamy coating and let the chicken skin get crispy without burning. There’s also poultry seasoning for depth of flavor and vinegar to add tang and help the marinade penetrate. 

If you’re wondering how to make Cornell chicken, it’s easy — use just five ingredients and a similar cooking method to traditional barbecue chicken. This chicken marinade is vinegar-based, so it’s more akin to a Carolina style than the sweet Kansas City or St. Louis styles. Baker suggests using a charcoal grill to keep unwieldy flames from cooking the skin unevenly.

How to make perfect Cornell chicken

Ingredients

• Bone-in chicken pieces
• 1/2 cup vegetable cooking oil
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1.5 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 1 beaten egg
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Step 1: Beat the egg. Add oil and beat again.
• Step 2: Whisk together all the ingredients in a bowl.
• Step 3: Add chicken pieces and toss to coat. Refrigerate for at least three hours and up to 24 hours.
• Step 4: Place coated chicken on a medium-high grill (Baker suggests charcoal) or hot cast-iron skillet and reserve any leftover marinade.
• Step 5: Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, flipping and basting the chicken with leftover sauce every five minutes. The basting should be light at first and grow heavier toward the end of cooking.
• Step 6: Cook until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F.

Can you make Cornell chicken in an air fryer?

Yes and I did. I put half of my batch in the air fryer and the other half over a hot flame, the way Baker intended. Both methods worked well. The grill gave me a slightly more caramelized char, while the air fryer was faster, and there was less to clean up.

Can you use any chicken for Cornell chicken?

Baker’s original recipe calls for broilers (small whole chickens), but this recipe can be applied to any bone-in, skin-on chicken. You can use boneless, skinless chicken, but you won’t get that coveted crispy skin that Baker’s Cornell chicken recipe achieves.

As it turns out, some forum users have even experimented with using the Cornell chicken cooking recipe on wings, with pretty immediate success. One person from the r/Wings subreddit shared their successful Cornell chicken wings, after using the same basic six-step process included in Baker’s original recipe.

If you don’t feel like making this sauce, these are the best bottled barbecue sauces we’ve tried.

David Watsky

Managing Editor / Home and Kitchen

David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips. David earned his BA from Northeastern and has toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom. Right now he's likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or tinkering with a toaster. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week. See full bio