Cornell BBQ Chicken

Right before my college graduation, one of my favorite professors invited me over for dinner with his family. Dr. Munson was a Horticulture professor, I had him for Woody Plants. He grew up in Ohio and attended Ohio State, he received his Doctorate from Cornell. That night he made Cornell BBQ chicken, now I'd never had anything that tasted like that in my life. It was delicious. I understand that if you grow up in upstate New York, this is a summer staple. I've never forgotten how good that chicken was. Unfortunately, I didn't get the recipe, and as time went by, I even forgot the name. Then about 3 years ago I ran across it while looking for BBQ sauce recipes and the light bulb went off!! I was ecstatic, I made some right away and it was just as good as I remembered it. Now, I make it several times a year, and tonight was one of those times.

My understanding is that this recipe was developed by a Cornell professor who was working at the Cornell Extension sometime in the late 50's. It's super easy, but it's much better if you make it a day ahead and marinate the chicken in it overnight. This is a clear sauce, it's white when you brush it on, but becomes transparent or clear as it cooks.

When you cook it, you must cook it indirect or over very low heat or you'll have major flare-up problems. Also, when you make it, reserve a cup or two for basting the chicken while cooking. I baste mine at least 7-8 times.

Cornell BBQ Chicken

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups cider vinegar
1 egg
3 TBSP salt
1 TBSP poultry seasoning
1 tsp black pepper

I mix everything in a blender.

Had some blanched broccoli and salad w/tomato-avocado salsa to go with it.

Cinco de Mayo

Well, better late than never.....I took the pictures w/my sons camera and then I couldn't find the patch cord until today. Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, we celebrated w/shredded pork tacos w/roasted poblano and onion, guacamole, rice, and fruit. I put a 4 1/2 lb. pork roast in the slow cooker first thing yesterday. I cut it into about 2-3" chunks, added a couple of cans of diced chile green peppers, chipoltle sauce, a couple of fresh sqeezed limes, and about a cup of chicken broth. I cooked it all day. The meat turned out very tasty, but not near spicy enough for my taste. I'll spice it up more the next time. I roasted 4 poblanos in the oven, peeled the skin and cut into strips. I sliced 1 onion and sauted in olive oil until I got a nice brown color, added 3 minced cloves of garlic, cooked for about another minute or two then added then poblano. It was delicious. I just shredded the pork, slapped some of it on a flour tortilla and topped w/the poblano/onion, sour cream, cheese, and guacamole. I had cilantro, but I forgot to get it out...cilantro makes everything taste better!! Yo made the rice and guacamole, it was excellent...as usual. My wife makes the absolute-very-best mexican rice. Period.


The fruit was just a mix of watermelon, mango (fruit of the Gods), cantalope, and red grapes.

Papas con huevos

I think I've mentioned before that I like papas con huevos (eggs w/potatoes). The best potatoes for papas con huevos are left over baked potatoes. However, earlier this week I had roasted some potatoes, spicing them w/salt, coarse-ground black pepper, garlic, chipolte powder, paprika, and olive oil. I like spicy food!!! The chipolte gave it a very nice kick. Anyways, I had some left over roasted potatoes that I used.

To make the papas con huevos I sweated some finely diced onion in olive oil, added in the papas- just to heat and crisp them up. Then I added in eggs that I had beaten. Since the papas had already been spiced, I didn't add any seasoning.

Birthday Party BBQ

My daughters boyfriend celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday. He asked me to cook for his party, he wanted BBQ. Now, I haven't had much opportunity to fire up the smoker for about 3 months, this was a great excuse to:

1. Take a day off
2. Fire up the smoker
3. Take the day off
4. Assume the smoking position-in the rocking chair w/the remote for xm radio
5. Did I mention taking the day off??

The party was for about 30 of Chris' family and friends, Chris' Mom (Chris is my daughters boyfriend) provided the meat. Four slabs of ribs-she chose loinbacks, two 12lb. briskets, and six chickens.

I halved the chickens removing the breast plate and cartilidge, then brined overnight. I usually trim briskets a little by cutting out the hard fat and trim the fat cap to 1/4-1/2 inch where needed. The ribs only needed the membrane peeled. I put the dry rub on the meat right before I put it in the smoker. For the brisket, I first put on a thin layer of wooster sauce, they make it in a thick version now that I really like. Then I rubbed w/ Texas BBQ Rub - brisket blend. I put the briskets on at about 5 a.m. At about 11:00, the briskets had reached 160 degrees, I sprinkled some more rub on them and completely wrapped them in foil and put them back on. Right after I foiled the briskets, I slathered the ribs w/a thin layer of yellow mustard and rubbed w/Texas BBQ Rub - original blend and put them in the smoker. At about 1:00 I made a paste of Texas BBQ Rub - original blend and Italian dressing. I worked the paste under and over the skin then sprinked some dry rub on top. Put those on at about 1:30. At about 2:00 I pulled the ribs out slathered w/honey and sprinkled more rub on, wrapped them in foil and put them back in. At 4:00 I pulled the ribs out and removed them from the foil. Then I basted w/Texas Pepper Jelly - pineapple habanero. I put the ribs back on the smoker for about another hour to let the pepper jelly glaze set and to 'firm up' the ribs. The briskets reached 200 degrees at about 4:30, I left them in the foil and let them sit in the (off) oven until we left. The chickens were done at about 5:00.

I didn't get any pics of the brisket.............my bad. In the end, I was MOST pleased w/the results. The brisket was very moist and fork tender, the ribs were moist, juicy and still had a little 'pull' to them,. The chicken was squirting juice all over as I cut it up. Everyone loved it (at least that's what they told me).

It was a great day!! The weather was very nice, I got the day off, it was most relaxing to assume the smoking position, the food turned really good, and I got the day off!!

Breakfast for dinner.....

While looking in the refrig for dinner ideas I realized that we still have about 3 dozen eggs left over from Easter (that didn't get colored) so I fixed one of my wife's favorite dinners - breakfast. Nothing special or spectacular, omelets and made-from-scratch biscuits. Sorry, but I'd taken a few bites before I remembered the camera.........

As you can tell from the picture, I'm not the best omelet cooker..... but they were tasty. I sauteed onion, green pepper, and mushrooms together, turkey bacon cooked in the oven (gotta keep it healthy ya know) and threw on a little cheddar cheese. I was quite distressed when I realized that we're out of salsa. I didn't have the ingredients to make it either. I voted for chorizo con huevos or papas con huevos (we're currently out of tamales - we'll need to remedy that situation) but as you can see, I lost that one. The biscuits turned out ok, next time I'll do buttermilk biscuits.

SUPERDOODLES!!!!

I really didn't cook much this weekend. Spent all day Saturday in Ft. Worth at a college Air Force ROTC event that one of my nephews was participating in. This morning after church, we went over and cooked breakfast for about 20 kids. I cooked migas, hash browns, bacon, beans, and tortillas. No pics...........

This afternoon I baked some cookies. I used a recipe that I've not tried before, but when I first saw it, was totally intrigued by it. I found the recipe at the King Arthur Flour web site. www.kingarthurflour.com The recipe is called SUPERDOODLES, it takes the classic Snickerdoodle cookie to another level. I think it accomplishes this by using cinnamon chips (they're like mini-chocolate chips) You can find the recipe here. Yes...they are incredibly delicious!!!!! The only drawback is that I haven't found cinnamon chips locally, so I ordered them online from King Arthur Flour.

The Last of the Chickens

Well, I still had 4 of the grilled breasts left. And of course, I must make it healthy. Somewhere along the way tasty, quick, and easy need to enter the picture. Here's what I ended up doing...




It's kind of a take on Parmesan chicken, without the breading. It was simple, quick, tasty, and...healthy!! I added about a tablespoon of olive oil, about 2 cups of tomato sauce* (homemade that I had in the freezer) about 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, and about 1 tablespoon of fresh diced Basil; adding everything together in a non-stick pan. Laid the 4 chicken breasts in, covered them w/sauce and simmered covered for about 20 minutes. Then I added some nice thick slices of fresh mozzarella on top of each breast and sprinkled some Oregano on top of that. Simmered for a few more minutes until the cheese melted.

*Home made tomato sauce - if you're not making your own tomato sauce, you're throwing money away. I buy the the BIG (like half of a gallon) cans of crushed tomato at COSTCO for about 3 bucks instead of 5 bucks for one measly jar of preservative-laden tomato sauce at the store. Add your own spices, simmer, put in freezer bags, use later.