Drunken Church Chicken Recipe

August 31, 2021August 31, 2021

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After an incredibly disappointing Covid-19 shortened season and an off-season filled with coaching changes, Michigan football kicks off its 2021 season this Saturday with unusually low expectations.

The Wolverines started 2-4 last fall and cancelled the final three games due to the virus. Great uncertainty surrounded the future of Jim Harbaugh through the winter, but he held onto his job with a restructured contract and a retooled coaching staff.

Now, with more youth and energy leading the way, Michigan looks to start the season with a bang against Western Michigan on Saturday.

When I think of Kalamazoo, Mich. — where Western Michigan University is — I think of beer. In fact, the whole state of Michigan is known for its breweries. With Bell’s leading the way, Kalamazoo is one of the great beer cities in the state. In this week’s recipe, we combine beer with a historic method of cooking chicken. The result is a juicy and flavorful grilled chicken unlike any you’ve had before.

A Brief History of Church Chicken

Church chicken is sometimes referred to as Cornell Chicken, State Fair Chicken, or Fireman Chicken. Former Cornell University poultry since and food science professor Dr. Robert C. Baker is credited with creating the recipe in 1946.

Variations of the recipe are still widely used in upstate New York, but in those days Baker invented the recipe to get Americans to eat more chicken. It caught on because the recipe and the method were ideal for large groups of people. The ingredients were relatively cheap. The method was hands-on but fairly quick. And it produced great results.

There was no social media in those days, but church chicken spread down south. Virginia claims a similar version — Virginia Barbecue Chicken or Shenandoah Valley Chicken — and the sauce itself is similar to an Eastern North Carolina vinegar sauce. Ask anyone from the south what they ate at church potlucks and they’re likely to tell you church chicken.

To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with it until I watched Episode 4 of Moonshiners: Smoke Ring on Discovery+. In that episode, they had two cooks compete to see who could cook the best southern barbecued chicken. I suggest watching it if you’re interested in making this recipe.

There are many different methods for cooking chicken — spatchcocked, fried, baked, rotisserie, and beer can, to name a few — but the “church chicken” method presented on that show intrigued me. I had to give it a try.

The first time I made it, my parents were in town. It came out incredibly juicy with a nice char and crispy skin. It had a citrusy flavor from the lemon and a zing from the apple cider vinegar. My mom remarked, “Wow, this tastes just like the chicken my uncle Ray used to make when I was a kid.” Turns out, he was well known in Eastern Ohio for his chicken, which he served at the county fair in the 1950s and 60s. The chicken I made brought back those 60-year-old memories for my mom.

That’s the great thing about food!

The Details of this Recipe

The historic Cornell Chicken recipe called for just a few ingredients: egg, vinegar, vegetable oil, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.

To tie in Western Michigan to this recipe, I added beer. I also like to add in plenty of fresh squeezed lemon juice to my version of the recipe because you can really taste the zip from the lemons in the finished product. Because of this, the beer I chose is Bell’s Oberon. It’s not my favorite beer from Bell’s to drink, but the fruity notes of the wheat ale go well with this recipe.

As I was planning my recipe for this game, my initial thought was to use the beer for beer can chicken. But I’ve never been overly impressed with how they turn out. I mean, they’re good. Not great. There are different schools of thought about beer can chicken. Meathead from AmizingRibs.com isn’t a fan, but Steve Raichlen debunks the myths about it.

So I settled on the church chicken method.

While cooking the chicken is fairly quick, this recipe does take some foresight. Marinating is incredibly important to getting those flavors all the way through the bird and keeping it from drying out. If you’re cooking this at your tailgate on Saturday, make sure to start marinating on Friday.

You can use any cut of chicken you want — even a whole bird — but I like to use quarters and/or individual legs and thighs. Give each piece a nice trim and place them in a food-save container or large Ziploc bag. The proportions in this recipe are enough to brine about 8 halves plus 8-10 legs. Adjust proportions as necessary based on how much chicken you are cooking.

The Drunken Church Chicken Recipe

In a large bowl, mix 4 cups of apple cider vinegar, juice from 4 lemons, 2 bottles of Bell’s Oberon Ale, 2 TBSP Kosher salt, 1 TBSP red pepper flakes, and 2 TBSP of our Song Bird chicken seasoning. Mix well until the salt dissolves and the seasoning is well incorporated.

Dump this into your container or bag of chicken, making sure it completely covers all parts. Add in the juiced lemons as well. Place in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

When you are ready to cook, fire up your grill or smoker to 350 degrees using direct heat. We’re cooking directly over the coals in this one because you want to get that skin nice and crispy. I did mine on the Big Green Egg using the Eggspander on the highest level to give more separation from the coals. I also used pecan wood which is great for chicken.

While the cooker is getting up to temperature, go ahead and make another batch of the same sauce you used to marinate the chicken. Since the marinade touched raw chicken, you don’t want to reuse it for the mopping step.

Place your chicken onto the grate and put the juiced lemons right onto your coals. Close the lid. You’re going to smoke for about 30 minutes without opening the lid to give it a subtle smoke. Then, open the lid and start mopping with your mop sauce. Do this about every 10-15 minutes, as it will keep the chicken from drying out. It will also drip down onto your hot coals and send that flavor right back up. This is where the magic happens.

Also, flip the chicken each time you mop it. Depending on where the hot spots are on your grill, you may have to rotate them too. Keep mopping every 10-15 minutes until your chicken is over 165 internal temperature and the skin is nice and crispy. It should have a good char on it, but not be burnt.

Remove drunken church chicken from heat and serve.