Growing up on the farm in Wells County, we enjoyed a fried chicken dinner about every other Sunday. It amazes me that one chicken fed all seven of us.
Mom cut up the chicken herself into more pieces than you’ll ever find in a KFC bucket. And we all had designated pieces. Mom, Brenda, and Mary shared the breast meat. Bobby got the legs. Sharon ate the neck because she loved all that crunchy skin; there really wasn’t much meat on those vertebrae. I loved the wings long before wings were a thing. I still do. Dad ate the thighs — one for dinner and the other in his lunchbox on Monday. In addition, he savored the heart, liver, and gizzard. There were also two back pieces that vanished before we left the table.
Dinner included boiled potatoes. Since Dad did not like his potatoes mashed, we mashed them on our plates. Potatoes were plentiful. When we ran out of those we harvested from the garden, we bought huge bags (must’ve been 20 pounds) at Maloley’s grocery store in Waynedale. Mom’s delicious gravy covered those potatoes. She made it in the same black cast iron skillet where the chicken had been fried. We loved those crunchy morsels (we called them “leavins”) in our gravy.
There was always a vegetable of some kind from our garden—fresh corn or green beans or peas in season and canned or frozen that Mom put up in the summer or fall. We often had cottage cheese with Sunday dinner and Mom’s pickled beets and always bread and butter. Potatoes and bread were great fillers. We could eat as much of both as we wanted.
What particular family meals do you recall growing up?
Today across the nation, fried chicken lovers are celebrating National Fried Chicken Day. Perhaps they are celebrating by feasting on the fowl meat at a restaurant nearby or dining at home or picnicking en plein air. All of us chicken lovers can thank Scottish immigrants for importing to the southern United States their tradition of deep frying chicken in fat, originally lard. Fried chicken soon became a staple in our diet whether the chicken pieces were floured or battered and then pan fried, deep fried, or pressure fried.
Through the years cooks who wanted to enhance the flavor of the bird added seasonings and spices.
In the U.S. we eat 8 billion chickens annually, according to Kelsey Piper of vox.com (2/19/21). Our consumption of chicken has increased over the last half century. In 1970 the average person consumed 50 pounds of meat from chickens yearly; currently it’s more than 100 pounds. I guess we obeyed the command given by one fast food restaurant chain to “eat more chikin.” Don’t think we are cooking all that chicken in our own kitchens or on our outdoor grills. The fast food industry provides a whole lot of “finger-looking good” poultry for our consumption.
KFC, formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, adopted the acronym when fried foods became synonymous with clogged arteries. (If we don’t use the word “fried” in the name of the restaurant, we don’t have to think about the hazard, right?) According to Wikipedia, KFC is the world’s second largest restaurant chain after McDonald’s as measured by sales. As of 2022, KFC recorded 24,998 locations in 146 countries. (Their numbers have decreased somewhat as operations in Russia have been suspended in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.)
During the Great Depression, Colonel Harland Sanders began selling fried chicken in Corbin, Ky., from his roadside restaurant. An entrepreneur, Sanders recognized the potential franchising concept, and the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened in 1952 in Utah. Overwhelmed by the company’s rapid expansion, the Colonel sold Kentucky Fried Chicken (the company, not a bucket) to a group of investors in 1964. By the mid-1960s KFC had spread to Canada, the UK, Mexico, and Jamaica. It became the first Western chain to open in China, where it is now the company’s single largest market. The company changed hands a few more times and is now owned by Yum! Brands.
A couple years after his uncle, Colonel Harland Sanders, sold the company, Lee Cummings began developing his own fried chicken recipe. His uncle’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices morphed into something known as “Famous Recipe” that had a bit more spiciness to it and a sweetness attributed to the honey into which the chicken pieces are dipped. Their most popular menu item was a three-piece box with mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw, and a biscuit for $1.25 (leesfamousrecipe.com). What a bargain!
In 1966 in Lima, Ohio, Cummings and Harold Omer introduced their famous recipe chicken at Harold’s Take-Home. Wikipedia explains it spread to Columbus, Springfield, Dayton, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Kalamazoo, Mich., in the following years and became known as Lee’s Famous Recipe. Cummings sold the chain to Shoney’s Restaurants in 1981, who later sold it to a restaurant group in Atlanta. It is now owned by Famous Recipe Group LLC and has 135 locations in 12 states and British Columbia.
Another popular provider of fast food chicken is Popeyes (named for Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle of The French Connection, not the muscular sailor who smoked a pipe and ate spinach). Fifty years ago the restaurant was started as “Chicken on the Run” by Alvin C. Copeland, Sr. Months later Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken & Biscuits was founded in a New Orleans suburb in 1972 with a spicy, New Orleans-style chicken. As of 2020 Popeyes had 3,451 restaurants located in more than 46 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Popeyes has spread to 30 countries across the globe, says popeyes.com. In 1980 we were first told by Popeyes to “Love that Chicken.” In 1993, Al Copeland Enterprises, Inc. was renamed AFC Enterprises Inc., or America’s Favorite Chicken, and became the parent company of Church’s Chicken and Popeyes. In 2010 in National Taste Test, Popeyes BONAFIDE chicken beat KFC’s original recipe. I guess I should try it now that we have a Popeyes in Warsaw.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Chick-fil-A in a piece about fast food chicken. Wikipedia notes that it is the largest fast food chain specializing in chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in College Park, Ga., Chick-fil-A boasts 2,797 restaurants in 47 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and Canada. The chain’s humble beginnings can be traced to the Dwarf Grill in an Atlanta suburb. S. Truett Cathy opened the restaurant in 1946. Fifteen years later, he acquired a pressure-fryer that could cook the chicken in the same amount of time it took to cook a fast food hamburger. The “Eat more Chikin” cows debuted in 1995 to the delight of consumers. Doodles the chicken, the company’s mascot, still appears in the chain’s logo. According to zippia.com, in 2008 Chick-fil-A became the first fast food restaurant to be trans-fat free. Also, their grilled nuggets at 130 calories are delicious. I’d like to see the addition of a Chick-fil-A to Warsaw.
Here’s the thing: We all have favorite meals from our childhood home or at Grandma’s house. When I think about some of those meals, I can almost smell and taste the yummy goodness. Fried chicken is one of those meals. Since Mom and Grandma are no longer around and I don’t care to fry a chicken for dinner, today I am fortunate that I have so many restaurant options that feature chicken. Where do you like to get your fried chicken?
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Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of articles written by a group of retired and current teachers — Ken Ballinger, Billy Kreigh, Marianne Darr-Norman, and Anna Spalding. Their intent is to spur discussions at the dinner table and elsewhere. You may also voice your thoughts and reactions via The News-Banner’s letters to editor.
