How did 'city chicken' get its name?!
Answers: Just got back from a dinner outing and my aunt gave me an assignment to find this out lol.
City chicken is a food entrée that consists of cubes of meat that are placed on a wooden skewer (approximately 4-5 inches long), breaded, then fried and/or baked. The origins of the entrée and its name are not entirely known, however it is rumored to have begun during the Depression Era, when people took meat scraps and fashioned a make-shift drumstick out of them. During this period, pork was cheaper than chicken in many parts of the country, especially those far from rural poultry farms. Sometimes the meat was ground, and a drumstick-shaped mold was used to form the ground meat around a skewer. Today, better cuts of meat (usually pork loin, beef, and/or veal) are used. In spite of the name, the dish usually contains no chicken.
The dish (and hence the term) seem to be regionalized to the areas surrounding Pittsburgh, PA, ranging from Central Pennsylvania, Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, to as far west as the western suburbs of Cleveland, OH and Hamtramck, MI. It is also known as mock chicken.
What in god's name is city chicken?
I guess she thought you knew how to do a web search. Try this:
http://recipes.robbiehaf.com/C/224.htm
City chicken: A Western Pennsylvania delicacy!
The history of City chicken (aka mock chicken) is relatively easy to trace. The definative origin of the name continues to elude food historians. What we do know? This recipe calls western Pennsylvania "home."
The culinary evolution of City chicken:
"Mock" foods (foods that are named for an ingredient that isn't in the recipe) have a long an venerable history. Medieval cooks employed by wealthy families were fascinated with illusion food. The practice of calling one food by another name (mock sturgeon was composed of veal) or making one meat resemble another was quite an art and highly respected. Victorian-era cooks were also intrigued by mock foods. They enjoyed mock turtle soup (calve's head...remember this character in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland?), mock goose (leg of pork) and mock apple pie (soda crackers). Depression and World War II-era cooks created mock foods to stretch the budget and satisfy family tastes. The 1931 edition of Irma Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking has recipes for mock chicken sandwiches (tuna), mock pistachio ice cream (vanilla with almond extract and green food coloring) and mock venison (lamb).
The Oxford English Dictionary does not have an entry for city chicken or mock chicken, but it does have an entry for "mock duck and mock goose." These are defined as "a piece of pork from which the 'crackling' [skin] has been removed, baked with a stuffing of sage and onions." The OED traces this usage in print to 1877. Here is the referenced recipe:
"Goose, Mock. Mock goose is a name given in some parts to a leg of pork roasted without the skin, and stuffed just under the knuckle with sage-and-onion stuffing. It is a good plan to boil it partially before skinning and putting it down to roast. When it is almost done enough, sprinkle over it a powder made my mixing together a table-spoonful of finely-grated bread-crumbs, with a tea-spoonful of powdered sage, half a salt-spoonful of salt, and the same of pepper. Send some good gravy to the table in a tureen with it. Time, allow fully twenty minutes to the pound. Probable cost, 11d. Per pound."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery [Cassell, Peter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1877 (p. 262)
Late 19th and early 20th century American and English cookbooks contain many veal recipes. Veal loaves (meatloaf!), veal cutlets, and roasts were popular. We find recipes for "veal birds" in depression-era cookbooks. Veal birds are composed of flattened veal stuffed with pork meat balls. The are held in place with toothpicks and served with cream gravy. Guessing from the pictures, the finished product is supposed to look like little birds. Hence, the name.
"Veal had never been an American meat staple...And though the amount of veal we did eat fell off after the war [WWII], it was used occasionally (except by immigrants who liked it) as an inexpensive substitute for the desirable high-priced chicken or turkey, which where not yet being raised in huge numbers by poultry factories."
---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [MacMillan:New York] 1995 (p. 142-3)
Curiously enough? German weiner schnitzel [breaded veal cutlets] morphed in the 1940s in many southern states into "chicken-fried steak." The recipe for "city chicken/mock chicken" is almost identical. The difference is that city chicken is made with pork and veal cubes (as opposed to a single type of meat) and shaped on a skewer. Our notes on chicken fried steak.
The earliest recipe we find for Mock Chicken legs [pork & veal cubes on a skewer, dipped in egg, rolled in breadcrumbs and sauteed) is dated 1936. The earliest recipe we find for City Chicken [virtually identical recipe as mock chicken] is also from 1936. Both books were published in the midwest. Compare:
"Mock Chicken Legs
1 lb beef steak
1 lb veal or pork
2 tesapoons salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 cup fat, melted
1/4 cup flour or 3.4 cup cracker crumbs
6-8 wooden skewers
Have steaks cut about 3/8 inches thick. Pound well and cut in 1 or 1 1/2 inch squares. Arrange 6 pieces alternately through one corner on each skewer, having top and bottom pieces somewhat smaller to represent drumsticks. Brush over or roll in fat, then in flour or crumbs, season with salt and pepper. Fry in fat left over and brown on all sides. Cover pan closely, cook slowly about 1 1/2 hours, or until tender, adding water if necessary."
---The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander [Settlement Cook Book Co.:Milwaukee WI] 21st edition enlarged and revised 1936 (p. 161)
"Mock Chicken Drumsticks (City Chicken)
6 servings
Cut into 1X 11/2 inch pieces:
1 pound veal steak
1 pound pork steak
Sprinkle them with salt, pepper
Arrange the veal and pork cubes alternately on 6 skewers. Press the pieces close together into the shape of a drumstick. Roll the meat in flour.
Beat 1 egg, 2 tablespoons water
Dip the sticks into the diluted egg then roll them in breadcrumbs.
Melt in a skillet 1/4 cup shortening
Add 1 tablespoon minced onion (optional)
Brown meat well. Cover the bottom of the skillet with boiling stock or stock substitute or water. Put a lid on the skillet and cook the meat over very hot heat until it is tender. Thicken the gravy with flour (2 tablespoons four to 1 cup of liquid). If preferred, the skillet may be covered and placed in a slow oven 325 degrees F. Until the meat is tender."
---The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [Bobbs Merill:Indianapolis] 1936 (p. 95)
[NOTE: Mrs. Rombauer does not offer an explanation regarding the origin of the term "city chicken".]
The western Pennsylvania connection
We don't claim Chicken Chicken originated in Western Pennsylvania. Just that the overhwelming majority of people who have heard of this dish live in/have connections to that region. Notes here:
"Want to avoid confusion? Practice Pittsburghese before your visit. For example, city chicken is not poultry but breaded pork and veal skewered and grilled."--- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
"Today's recipe satisfies our occasional yearning for a hearty, homemade meal and has been an oldie but goodie for decades. It's the kind of dish you'd expect Aunt Bee from Mayberry to serve Andy and Opie. City Chicken is a basic dish made with cubed pork, veal or beef. The cubed meat is placed on skewers, breaded, then fried in oil or butter. We found meat labeled city chicken at Giant Eagle. It was a combination of veal and pork (this seems to be the most popular). The package also contained the skewers. You can, if you desire, cube you own meat. Try City Chicken with buttery mashed potatoes and a vegetable and maybe a salad on the side and you have delicious meal. Why is it called City Chicken? Sandra Smerilli of Monessen tells us "It is called City Chicken because it resembles a chicken leg." Sounds right to us."
---Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"Even though we left Pittsburgh almost 19 years ago, we still read the Post-Gazette, either in print or online, every day. I enjoy Martinson's comments on wedding cookies, Christmas cookies, pierogi sales and other local traditions. We miss New Year's Eve pastry pretzels, city chicken, good chipped ham, Irish potato candy and ladylocks."
"I'm throwing my two cents in here kind of late but in western PA my Mom made "City Chicken". It was CUBES of pork and veal, floured, browned in the pan, then braised in the oven with chicken stock and mushrooms. (Maybe she threw in a little chopped onion) The meat was definately cubed and not ground."
"Food from the Coal Region is something missed the most by ex-Coal Crackers. The multi-ethnic heritage of the region makes it home to wonderful recipes from all over the world. From boilo to halupkies, city chicken to mozhee, many a Coal Cracker's mouth waters at the mere mention of these culinary delights."
"CITY CHICKEN Bedford Gazette Friday, March 14, 1930 Bedford, Pennsylvania ...different for the Sunday dinner CITY CHICKEN A tasty supper for Sunday.. Pg. 10, col. 2: Something different for the Sunday dinner" ---"a href=http://answers.yahoo.com/question/"http://listserv.linguistlist.org/c... Gazette.
Other cities with early mock/city chicken citings include Milwaukee, Sheboygan, & Detroit:
"CITY CHICKEN (Caldwell's Market--ed.) Sheboygan Press Thursday, May 08, 1930 Sheboygan, Wisconsin ...May luncheon: Fruit Cocktail Pretzels CITY CHICKEN Chopped Potatoes Enzo-Jel....."
The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander (Milwaukee, 21st edition, enlarged and revised c. 1936) offers a reicpe for "Mock Chicken Legs" which is strikingly similar to Irma Rombauer's City Chicken (c. 1936).
The debate rages on.
"Apparently the name ”city chicken” originated during the great depression when poor immigrants would take scraps of meat and skewer them together in order to create a “drumstick.” The skewers were then baked or fried."
"The name comes from the Depression years. In the country people kept chickens and could have fried chicken when they wanted. In the city, chicken was hard to come by, so they created their own!"
Which then makes sense; the meat wasn't specific to veal or beef or pork, so really any street person could use chunks of...shall we say, "questionable" meat, dunk them in a batter and fry them into a "chicken drumstick". City-style chicken legs.