When we first moved to the North East corner of Pennsylvania, well it was actually months latter(springtime) we would notice signs "Chicken BBQ Saturday". These were advertising what seems to be a favorite fundraiser for organizations during the warm months. Having spent many years in the south, I am a big fan of BBQ of all sorts of meats. So one busy day I said to Lori, "Why don't you pop down there and pick up some chicken, and we won't have to cook." Seemed like a good idea, support a local charity and save some effort (and get to eat BBQ!).

What she brought back, was well, disappointing. Laying limply in a Styrofoam container was a chicken half, browned in places, darker in others. That's it. No sauce??? Flavor, well there was a sense that salt had been involved, but aside from that nothing to spoil the pure taste of chicken. Later I found out that some organizations baste the chicken in a mix of vinegar and salt as it cooks on the grill. Now that's fine dinning.

Friends of mine that owned a local restaurant, came up with a great improvement on this local fare. They had a large gas fired pit, about 25 feet long and would cook up hundreds of halves of chicken for organizations using their facility for fund raising. Their method depended on basting the chicken with a mixture that contained many herbs and spices imparting a wonderful flavor. The kicker was that the baste had eggs, beer, vinegar and oil. The egg protein (and beer to an extent) give the skin and meat an even brown crust. The salt and vinegar helped dry the skin and make it crisp. The oil helped transfer the flavors and lube the flesh not covered by skin. Their product was many levels of magnitude better than the local style. So, I had to hijack their recipe.

I was after a specific flavor, Greek, but wanted to take advantage of the mechanical properties that their baste provided. So here it is Greek Marinade and Basting Sauce.