There is a write up of the chicken nuggets part [1].
Reading that inspires me to try a variation of chicken nuggets some time: slow-cooked, bone separated, bones pressure cooked and blended into a puree, added back to stripped chicken, refrigerate so the gelatin in the bone sets, make a coating from egg and freshly-ground ancient wheat grains, and nuggets baked made from that. The wheat germ is preserved, and while processed, contains nothing other than whole foods.
> bone separated, bones pressure cooked and blended into a puree, added back to stripped chicken
To me, this part just sounds like it would make the end result unpalatable; I think I would stop at just making the bone broth, and adding that to the chicken (for the gelatin) - but get rid of the bones.
I should have clarified that I eat the bones for their calcium content. Blended in a Vitamix, they are turned into unidentifiable particles. You are free to add other binders, of course.
When you make this yourself you have to be careful not to let the sauce break. Add in the egg and oil and beat vigorously then slowly add the vinegar while mixing. You want a nice emulsified mixture. Also make sure you base every 5-10 minutes, thats a lot more frequent then you might do when normally cooking chicken, but you really need to build up the layers of sauce on the outside. Finally I have never gotten a good result off propane, so give it a try on coal if its not turning out right
It took me a while reading the recipe before it clicked what this is. The sauce is basically a thin mayonnaise — an emulsion of oil and egg with an acid added to it. Mayo is thicker and usually uses lemon juice instead of vinegar, but Cornell sauce is a variation of that theme.
If you use melted butter instead of oil, you'd get a Hollandaise sauce. I wonder how that would work as a marinade or basting sauce.
I used to make a chicken recipe on the grill that involved marinating in mayo. It was fantastic, but the heavy oil coating had a tendency to turn the chicken pieces into poultry Molotov cocktails, so I haven't made it in a while. (Now that I think about it, simply turning off the burner under the chicken would fix that.)
Seems like I've got some chicken grilling ahead of me.
The ratio is way off from what you would use in Mayo ( Mayonnaise is 1 part water to 16 parts oil, cornell BBQ is 2 parts water to 1 part oil ), but its along the same lines, which is why you want to get a good emulsion. There is a slight variation called roadside chicken that doesn't use the egg to emulsify so for that I always use a blender or food processor to get as much of a mixture as I can.
Yeah, poultry seasoning is mostly sage and thyme. different brands will add in Oregano, Marjoram or rosemary, but they all grind it to a powder which ruins it for me. If you want to really class up your BBQ go get some Herbs de Provence and use that.
Also, you can add a teaspoon of vinegar (white, apple cider, balsamic, etc. as the mood strikes) to lots of dishes that don't call for any vinegar at all, to perk up the flavor in pleasant ways. My favorite use case for this is split pea soup.
