"City Chicken" on Farro Risotto .. I thought I would take a step back in time to my youth when my Mom and later me, would make "City Chicken" at least once every couple weeks. I simply crave this dish.
The pork is threaded "drumstick" style on wooden skewers and either breaded and fried like "chicken" OR in a more German style, braised in a rich "Mushroom" gravy. Either way you go, this is a great dish.
The first references to city chicken appeared in newspapers and cookbooks just prior to and during the Depression Era in cities such as Akron and Pittsburgh. As the recipe gained favor, it popped up throughout the Steel Belt and later Rust Belt of the eastern Great Lakes region of Ohio and Michigan as well as the northeastern Appalachian regions of Pennsylvania and Upstate New York,
As mentioned above, city chicken is typically meat scraps to fashion a makeshift drumstick from them. It was a definitely a working class food item. During the Depression, cooks used pork because it was then cheaper than chicken in many parts of the country, especially in those markets far from rural poultry farms, hence the name.
I paired my dish with another classic .. or should I say "ancient" grain .. Farro. The grain was a popular food source in ancient Roman times and before as a main grain staple.
I hope you enjoy this "elder" statesman of a dish. It holds a lot of family history in each bite.
Read more about this historic "Steel Belt" dish on facebook.com/TheBaldChefCooks #LetsEat
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