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.

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.

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.

Polish and Ukrainian immigrant communities helped establish City Chicken in cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Detroit. Its popularity spread when Southerners working in the Midwest—primarily in the auto and railroad industries—brought home the hearty meal they'd learned to love.

The breed could have been named after the country of Poland. Its name could have also come from the Middle Dutch word pol 'head' (compare origin of poll tax), in reference to the Polish's dome-shaped skull.

The bird has been known by various names including “Poland”, “Tophat” and Paduan. 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.

So the Anglo-Saxon pig became the French porc, which was Anglicized to pork; the Anglo-Saxon cow became the French boeuf, which became beef; and sheep became mouton, (later mutton).

As cities were formed, butcher shops came into being, pork was the breakfast meat of choice. It was easy to cook quickly, filled an empty belly and fitted very well with eggs that were also quick and easy to cook for breakfast.

Chickens are extremely inexpensive to raise, lambs and pork are not as large... Why is pork tenderloin so much cheaper than beef tenderloins? Pigs eat less than cows, take up less space each, and mature to market weight faster. All these factors drive down the cost.

Ma Yu Ching's Bucket Chicken House, or Ma Yuxing, (Chinese: 马豫兴桶子鸡; pinyin: Mǎ Yùxīng Tǒngzi Jī), is a historic restaurant in Kaifeng, Henan, China, said to be originally established in 1153, during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234).

Which breaded chicken dish is named after a capital city? ›

Chicken Kiev, also known as chicken Kyiv, is a dish made of chicken fillet pounded and rolled around cold butter, then coated with egg and bread crumbs, and either fried or baked.

The classification of today's chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) recognizes its primary origin, the Red Junglefowl. Domestication probably occurred 7,000-10,000 years ago in Southeast Asia and Oceana.

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.

There are also certain chicken breeds that more commonly develop spurs; Mediterranean breeds such as the Leghorn, Minorca, Sicilian Buttercups and Ancona, and Polish hens are known for growing spurs. In my case, the spur on my Brown Leghorn made sense since she's a Mediterranean breed.

Generally, a standard female Polish chicken will weigh around 4-5 lb., while the male birds can weigh up to 6 lb. The bantam Polish chickens will weigh no more than 2 lb., and these are the ones you're most likely to have in your backyard.