Making city chicken
Let’s straighten this out right off the bat. City chicken isn’t “chicken” at all. Rather, it’s pieces of pork skewered onto a stick, breaded, fried and then baked. My guess is that possibly two percent of this readership has ever heard of city chicken. It’s an old, money saving recipe that was inspired before the Great Depression.
Supposedly, back around 1908, chicken was a food that the working class couldn’t afford. So some genius came up with the clever, alternate idea of creating a drumstick-like, meaty food that could be fried and eaten off a stick. As a kid, city chicken was one of my all-time favorite meals. The fact that it wasn’t chicken made it even better! If I remember correctly, my mom would also make gravy and serve it with mashed potatoes.
It was the request earlier in the week for fried cornmeal mush (another favorite food from my childhood) that got me thinking about city chicken. I did some checking and it wasn’t hard to locate recipes. I don’t recall that my mom did the two-step procedure of frying then baking, but this method got high marks from reviewers.
As you can see from the picture, I didn’t have the required, raised rack to set my city chickens on. I jerry rigged a workable substitute by taking the rack out of my toaster oven and setting it on a few kitchen implements that I placed in the pan. It worked perfectly.
City chicken is just as good as I remembered. I apologize for not giving you the plated photograph, but things got a little crazy around here last night as we were sitting down to eat.
A recipe modified from allrecipes.com. This recipe made 5 city chickens.
- 1 1/3 pounds pork, cut into 1 ½-inch cubes
- Seasonings – salt, pepper and Lawry’s Seasoning Salt
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten, and poured into a wide bowl
- 2 cups cracker crumbs or Panko bread crumbs, pour onto a plate or shallow container
- Oil for frying
- Water or chicken broth for baking
- Special equipment – 5-inch wooden skewers, a candy thermometer, and a raised rack to place in a pan.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Set a smallish-sized rack in a 13x9-inch pan. Pour water or chicken broth in the pan.
Heat an inch of oil over medium-high heat to 350 degrees F. While oil is heating, thread 3 or 4 pieces of pork onto each skewer. Liberally season all sides with seasonings. Dunk the skewered meat into the egg and then roll around in the crumbs, to coat. Repeat the procedure of dunking in the egg and then rolling in crumbs.
Fry city chickens for several minutes on each side, until a deep, golden brown.
Place city chickens on prepared rack and cover with foil. Carefully place covered pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake 10 more minutes.
Update! See the conversation I had with my mother after posting this. She gave me a different method of making city chicken.
