Recipe: Eastern Shore Barbecue Chicken

Eastern Shore Barbecue Chicken
rec.food.recipes/J. Helman (2001)

Over the summer, the Washington Post published an article about an Eastern Shore fire department chicken barbecue that did a brisk business selling chicken to people traveling to and from the Maryland and Delaware beaches. They did not include a recipe, but one of the firefighters was kind enough to provide a general description of what goes into the chicken marinade along with information on how they cook the chicken. I've made this at home and it turned out great, as good as the chicken from our local (south-central Pennsylvania) fire department's summer barbecues. I can't provide exact measurements, but if you already know how to make a marinade, you should do fine.

EASTERN SHORE BARBECUE CHICKEN

Chicken halves
Basting sauce containing vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar, poultry seasoning, salt, black pepper, and hot sauce

Grill chicken halves, turning frequently and basting with sauce at least six times. Dab on more sauce just before removing the chicken from the grill and again just before serving. Serve basting sauce on the side with the chicken.

If you don't know how to make a marinade, try this:

2 chicken halves
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon hot sauce

Blend, taste, and add more seasonings if you like (I would add more pepper and hot sauce). Use 1/2 of this mixture to marinate the chicken, 1/4 to baste while cooking, and 1/4 for a final baste and to serve alongside the chicken. You'll want to keep this last 1/4 of the marinade apart from the rest so it doesn't get contaminated by raw chicken juices. I can't vouch for these measurements because when I made the chicken, I just dumped ingredients together until it looked right to me.