moist city chicken

City Chicken a Polish-American Recipe

City Chicken isnt actually chicken; its also been known as mock chicken. Its sometimes thought of as a Polish recipe, although its not actually from Poland. Whats up with this dish?

Dating back to the turn of the previous century, City Chicken, a Polish-American recipe, has roots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cleveland, Ohio and spread to Great Lakes cities such as Detroit, Michigan and Buffalo, New York. Nostalgic comfort food from the Rust Belt.

Made of small bits of meat, usually pork and veal because during the Great Depression, they were less expensive than chicken. The meat used was often scraps, placed on a wooden skewer and formed to resemble a chicken leg. It was breaded and fried and/or baked.

I made City Chicken over the weekend, it was the first time Id sampled the mock chicken, and I have to say the experience is very similar to eating fried chicken. My husband, Ed, grew up near Pittsburgh, and is a more experienced connoisseur of City Chicken than I. When I said I was going to make it, he knew what I meant.

He told he that the last time hed had City Chicken was probably in a restaurant in the Strip District, at the foot of Polish Hill (home to the Immaculate Heart of Mary church), on a visit to Pittsburgh. If youre ever in the area, its worth a stop in the Strip District.

Wonderful food markets and restaurants. Theres a Polish Deli, Wholeys (an amazing fishmonger). This is where I first visited a Penzeys Spice store (long before they had a location in Tucson), first sampled the Pittsburgh classic of steak strips and french fries garnishing a green salad, but thats another story.

Ed remembered seeing City Chicken the grocery stores when he was growing up, packs of stew-like meat with skewers included, but his family usually ate chicken. I think by that time, the price pendulum had swung the other way because even though money was tight, his mother fried a huge platter of chicken every Sunday as they hosted extended family.

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Like most recipes, there are many variations. You have many cooking options: deep fry, pan fry, fry and then bake to finish, or just bake. Some like to serve City Chicken with some kind of gravy, we had it with my mushroom sauce.

If youd like to make this a low carb recipe, try any of these substitutions for the bread crumbs; all are tasty and satisfying ways to get the desire texture in the coating:

1. ground almonds
2. ground almonds & Parmesan Cheese
3. ground pork rinds

City chicken is a tasty nostalgic dish that I think youll enjoy. Can you think of other recipes with such misleading names? Im sure this isnt the only one.

Smacznego!

Lois

PS I found a vintage city chicken mold, an advertising item for a butcher supply company, and did a taste test using ground pork, a mix of cubes and ground pork, and the only cube version that I have written up below. Ed and I have given up meat for Lent, but we had a friend over for dinner, and Jeff was the official reviewer even though he had never had city chicken before.

As I suspected, the mold shapes the meat best when using just ground pork, and that was Jeffs favorite version. He just liked the texture best. If you want to give it a try, I mixed the ground meat up much like meatloaf: 1 pound ground pork, 1 egg, 1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground marjoram, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. Then I breaded the skewers as described below. I just baked them at 350 for 25 minutes, but you could pan fry and bake as below.

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Season pork with seasoning salt, and thread onto 4 inch skewers
3. Set up three bowls or plates with rims in a row (fill one with flour, one with the eggs, and the last with breadcrumbs)
4. Roll the pork skewers in flour, dip in the eggs coating all side, roll in the bread crumbs
5. Heat oil to 350, even brown the pork skewers in the hot oil
6. Place the skewers in a baking dish and cover with foil, bake for about 20 minutes, then remove foil and bake uncovered for 5 minutes to crisp breading

Notes

If you have a wire rack that fits in your baking dish, you might use it and add a little water to the bottom of your dish to steam your chicken city and keep it moist as it bakes.

Another possibility is to place the skewers on top of crumbled foil (to keep it out of the water) or on top of vegetables that youre roasting at the same time. Because the chicken legs are only in the oven for 20 minutes or so, the vegetables will 1. need to be in thin pieces to cook during that time, 2. or they will be al dente, 3. or you could bake the veg a bit before or after the meat.

Keywords: City Chicken, mock chicken

An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Pozna, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.

Moms City Chicken Recipe

My moms city chicken recipe was a family favorite growing up.Its an easy to make weeknight meal. The crazy thing is that it doesnt have any chicken in it! Check out the comments for other peoples comments on their familys city chicken recipes.

You might also like my low carb city chicken in the air fryer!

I grew up eatingcity chicken a lot as a child and never once did I wonder why it was called that seeing as theres no chicken involved. Recently my father in law, who used to be a butcher, explained this mock chicken to me.

City chicken is one of his favorite dishes so I wanted to make this regional meal for him and thought Id share it with you because its easy and tasty!

What is city chicken?

My father in law went on to say that back his day fresh chicken was more expensive than pork and veal in grocery stores. So people made city chicken which is essentially cubes of pork and veal on a stick that is breaded to act as a fried chicken leg or chicken drumstick.

Its a regional dish and very popular here in Pittsburgh. And from my readers comments below, it is also very popular Ohio, Michigan and parts of New York. To learn more, check out this article about city chicken.

What type of meat to use?

Classic city chicken is usually made with a mixture of lean pork and veal and not chicken. However sometimes I just use pork because its cheaper and easier to find. Today I stopped by agreatlocal butcher, Lamperts,that my friend had told me about. They had great cuts of meat and lots of delicious looking prepared food.

And there in the case was city chicken already cut and placed on wooden skewers as you can see below.

Many grocers in the area carry city chicken packs with skewers made up of a combination of pork and veal cubes ready for you to assemble.

If your grocer does not carry these, do not despair. Just find some wooden skewers and a nice piece of boneless pork and/or veal and cut it into pork cubes yourself.

Sometimes I just use boneless country pork ribs and since they are already cut into thick strips its very easy to cut them into cubes.

How to make city chicken.

You can make this dish many different ways but my mom makes it like this:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the cubes of meat on the wooden skewers.

Step 2: Get out a shallow dish for the beat egg and one for the breading (dry bread crumbs, paprika and parmesan cheese). Dip the city chicken skewers in a beaten egg mixture or egg wash and then the seasoned bread crumbs. Do this with all of the skewers and place on plate and season with salt and black pepper on both sides.

Step 3: Get out a large skillet like a cast iron skillet so you can place it in the oven as well. Or if you dont have an oven safe skillet, you can also use a baking dish in the next step.

Add the vegetable oil and heat to medium high heat. When the oil is sizzling turn down the heat to medium and brown both sides of the city chicken skewers. This should take just about 2-3 minutes per side.

Step 4: Finally transfer the skillet to the oven and bake them for 20-25 minutes until they are cooked through. The internal temperature should be at least 145F.

If you dont have an oven safe skillet, you can transfer the browned meat skewers to a pyrex baking dish and then bake them. Make sure to spray the dish with cooking spray first.

Step 5: You can use the same skillet with the brown bits to make a brown gravy if you want. We usually dont use gravy but many people do. (Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.)

If you read the comments below you will see LOTS of ways other people make city chicken and hear about some of their fond memories of this delicious dish.

The final result is tender and juicy city chicken. I have made a bit of gravy at the end with the pan drippings but my mother never really did and my father in law doesnt like it that way so normally I would not bother to do that.

Low carb version and how to make city chicken in the air fryer.

Because I am mostly a low carb blogger I of course had to make a gluten free, low carb version that you can see below. The breading is made with a blend of almond flour and a few other ingredients. You can see it pictured below.

I made it in the air fryer and it was fantastic. My family liked it just as much as my moms recipe. If you are on a low carb or gluten free diet this might be a good recipe to check out.

1. To make this recipe in the air fryer prepare the skewers as above. Preheat the air fryer for 5 minutes then spray the basket with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Place the skewers in the basket and spray those with cooking spray too.
3. Cook in the air fryer at 390F for 12-15 minutes until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 145F. You can flip them half way as well if you want.

As they say, pork is the other white meat. You can see above how it does look like breaded chicken. And there you have my moms recipe for city chicken.

It is a nice and easy weekday meal that Im sure your family will love. At least thats how we do it in the burgh and its nostalgic comfort food for us. Enjoy!

Frequently Asked Questions

How to make city chicken low carb or gluten free? I have a low carb recipe here but basically you just use a combination of almond flour, parmesan cheese and spice. You can also try crushed pork rinds for the breading. Where can I buy the wooden skewers or sticks? Many grocery stores will have the sticks but you can also try Asian grocery stores or they are on Amazon. What kind of meat is best for city chicken? It was originally made from pork and veal but I just use pork because its easier to find and less expensive. I like to use boneless pork loin country ribs. What to serve with city chicken? Plenty of people make a gravy with the pan drippings and serve with mashed potatoes. Really you would treat this as any meat main dish. We eat it with a hearty side dish like mashed potatoes and green beans.

PS Please read through the comments below. I guess this dish is a beloved recipe of people in this area and many people have variations on the recipe that you may remember or enjoy. And if you have any questions, please just ask.