City Chicken a Polish-American Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Polish city chicken made of? ›

Traditionally, city chicken consists of cubes of pork, veal, or both, which are threaded onto skewers, battered with flour and breadcrumbs, and baked or deep-fried to tender perfection. Cooks often shape the skewered meat to mimic chicken drumsticks, and the dish indeed tastes like chicken.

The reason city chicken came to be goes back to the early 1900s when cuts of pork and veal were far more affordable to city workers in meat-packing hubs like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Louisville than chickens, which were largely found in the country.

Born out of desperate times, mock chicken was a way of bringing the luxury of a chicken dinner to those who simply could not afford it. Popular during the Depression for the working class, it came to be known as City Chicken, served in cafes, boarding houses, and available in meat markets for you to take home and cook.

City dwellers longed for chicken, that fancy delicious bird that only farmers got to eat, the lucky devils. But the elusive fowl were raised in the country, and were hard to obtain in the city and expensive when found. So city mice fashioned a pork-veal dish as a sort of mock chicken.

It was a working-class food item. During the Depression, cooks used pork or in many cases veal because it was then cheaper than chicken in many cities, especially meat packing centers such as Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Louisville, and Pittsburgh where such cuts were more readily available than chicken.

Charles Darwin classified any chicken with a crest as a “Polish” or “Crested” chicken, most likely due to the resemblance of the feathering on the head of the bird to the sprouting crests on the feathered caps worn by Polish soldiers.

Europeans arriving in North America found a continent teeming with native turkeys and ducks for the plucking and eating. Some archaeologists believe that chickens were first introduced to the New World by Polynesians who reached the Pacific coast of South America a century or so before the voyages of Columbus.

The state that produces the most chickens is Iowa, followed closely by Ohio and Indiana. Not only does Iowa produce loads of broiler chickens, but it also contributes significantly to the egg production of the US.

Genomic studies estimate that the chicken was domesticated 8,000 years ago in Southeast Asia and spread to China and India 2,000 to 3,000 years later. Archaeological evidence supports domestic chickens in Southeast Asia well before 6000 BC, China by 6000 BC and India by 2000 BC.

In the best case scenario, you're going to walk away from the grocery store with an organic, antibiotic-free, air-chilled, free-range chicken. But if your grocery store isn't packing that kind of heat, at the very least, you should buy air-chilled chicken. That's an absolute must for us in the wide world of chicken.

What is the highest grade chicken? ›

The highest quality is the United States (U.S.) Grade A. Grade A chickens have plump, meaty bodies and clean skin, free of bruises, broken bones, feathers, cuts and discoloration. According to AMS, Grade A is the only grade you are likely to see in the store.

We serve chicken made from breast meat, breaded by hand in-restaurant. Fresh produce is delivered to our kitchens several times a week.

Our Chicken

Chick-fil-A sources 100% real, whole, boneless breast of chicken that has never been ground or separated, and that contains no fillers or added steroids or hormones*.

First of all, no, pork does not taste like chicken. Secondly, the taste and texture of pork depends on the cut you are using. Some cuts can be more stronger flavored than others largely due to amount of fat in the cut. Then third, the taste is greatly influenced by the method of cooking.

The Polish is mainly an ornamental bird, however, at one time they were use for their eggs, but when the Leghorn became popular they were no longer widely used for egg production. The Polish are very prolific, laying around 200 or more eggs.

Polish chickens are not typically raised for meat production as they are a smaller breed and do not have a lot of meat on their frame.

Weight. Because Polish male chickens tend to be bigger, they're also heavier. Polish roosters usually weigh in at around 6 pounds (2.7 kg). Hens are a little bit smaller, and typically weigh around 4.5 pounds (2 kg).

Polish hens lay around 150 to 200 medium or large white eggs per year. They start laying eggs late in the season but are persistent once they start. They rarely brood and don't sit on their eggs until they hatch.