City Chicken is a plentiful dish for a family summer gathering.
It’s easy and fun to make, as you will see below.
As most of you know from following us, we believe in this:
Food is not only nutrition and good taste. We think you have to use all your senses – taste, smell, sight, sound, and feel – to go with your vast desire for new knowledge and information, which makes good food, in many cases, the remembrance of history and culture.
And City Chicken has lots of American history.
My wife Teri’s family enjoyed City Chicken back through the Great Depression and continued to serve it decades later.
As a result, Teri helped make the Jetsetter version of City Fish.
We urge you to try it for the taste, but also to relive some of America’s resilience and resourcefulness that helped the US become the world’s leader in the 20th Century and into today.
City Chicken, which ironically has no chicken, was a staple of the diet of Americans in the Cleveland and Pittsburgh area before, during, and after the Great Depression and World War II.
This creative and substantive dish was created by first-generation immigrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, Scotland, and Ireland.
My mother-in-law Sarah Williams, now in her 90s, is a first generation Scottish American, raised in the Pittsburgh area and later lived in Cleveland area.
She remembers how popular City Fish was and became. “They had packets with skewers already in it,” she told me.
She grew up as part of a working-class laboring in the steel mills and factories but still struggled financially with limited resources.
Sarah said, “We never went hungry but by the end of the week we were eating mayonnaise sandwiches.”
There’s the resilience.
The resourcefulness came as Depression families relied on inexpensive, basic ingredients to create meals that were filling and nutritious.
Dishes like City Chicken — and Macaroni and cheese, Potato soup, Meatloaf, Corned beef and cabbage, Ham and beans — reflect the resilience and resourcefulness that have become a part of American culture and history.
Sarah remember Steak and Kidney Pie. Another creation she recalled — that wasted nothing from the pig — was Potted Head which was a meat spread that came from boiling the pig’s head and feet.
Not so yummy sounding today.
But these were the Americans that survived The Depression, got us through World War II, and led us to the greatest industrial growth and prosperity in the latter half of the 20th Century. Cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh played a crucial role.
Think About These Benefits — When You Delight on City Chicken.
- Industrial production: Cleveland and Pittsburgh were both major industrial centers during the war, producing steel, machinery, and other materials needed for the war effort. The output of these cities helped fuel the war effort and provided the materials necessary to build tanks, planes, and ships.
- Labor force: The cities had a large and skilled labor force that was instrumental in producing the goods needed for the war. Workers in Cleveland and Pittsburgh were able to quickly adapt to the demands of wartime production, which helped the United States win the war.
- Research and development: Cleveland and Pittsburgh were also centers of research and development during the war. The cities were home to universities, research institutions, and companies that developed new technologies and weapons that helped the United States win the war.
- Post-war economy: After the war, Cleveland and Pittsburgh continued to play an important role in the United States economy. The cities continued to produce steel and other materials, which were in high demand as the United States began to rebuild after the war. Additionally, the research and development that took place during the war led to new innovations and technologies, which helped fuel economic growth in the years that followed.
That’s a mouthful.
We hope you enjoy the video recipe below.
We adjusted a few things from the traditional recipe.
- First, we cut the pork in strips. Usually, City Chicken had cubed pork.
- Second, we added an ingredient that wasn’t around back then and has only become popular in America in the last few decades.
- Third, you can use chicken. In addition to pork, our American ancestors also used veal.
- Fourth, we urge you to check your City Chicken in the pan and in the oven. Sometimes we’ve noticed it can cook faster than expected. For some of you, just using the fry pan may cook City Chicken enough.
- Fifth, we chose Cole slaw as a summer side dish. You can use mashed potatoes and gravy, rice, and various green vegetables.
Enough talking. Let’s start cooking and eat.
Enjoy.
Susan Anzalone and John Daly are the Co-Creators and Co-Hosts of Undercover Jetsetter, a show on travel, food, wine, mixology and, of course, golf. They show you how to jet set the world and at home. They also co-authored the book, The TV Studio In Your Hand: How to Shoot, Edit & Deliver the Easy Way on Your iPhone. Join them for tips and hacks on the road, at home, or in the kitchen. Yes, as you will see, all on the iPhone. Susan is a native of Australia, near Sydney, with her Dad from the UK. Both her parents worked for the original Pan Am Airlines that set the standard for international travel. John is a third generation Irish American from County Cork whose grandfather became a prominent doctor in the Hartford, Connecticut area while his Dad was an insurance executive but was an accomplished pianist, chef, and opera afficiando who directed opera as a US Army service member during the American invasion of Italy during World War II.