The surprising origin of fried chicken

The surprising origin of fried chicken Yulia Reznikov The surprising origin of fried chicken Fried chicken is as emblematic of the US South as collard greens and sweet potato pie. MSMcCarthy_Photography/Getty Images For years, Southerners boasted that "authentic" fried chicken was only made by African Americans, many of whom were enslaved For centuries, fried chicken’s pure Southern heritage remained unchallenged until food writer John F Mariani wrote the following in The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, first published in 1983: “Almost every country has its own version, from Vietnam’s Ga Xao to Italy’s pollo fritto and Austria’s Weiner Backhendl.” But, he continued, “the Scottish, who enjoyed frying their chickens rather than boiling or baking them as the English did, may have brought the method with them when they settled the South.” Wait a minute. With fried chicken so imbued with religious connotation, it’s no surprise that its “Gospel Bird” or “Sunday Cluck” nicknames endure in African American culture. Wail Alameen/Getty Images "Colonel" Sanders adopted traditional African American cooking techniques to help catapult Southern-style fried chicken to worldwide fame But interestingly, just as Scottish immigrants may have introduced their fat-fried tradition to the US centuries ago, different methods to fry the birds from around the world have flapped back to the US in recent decades, as new generations of entrepreneurial immigrants have arrived. “In terms of modern Scottish food, fried chicken is KFC to us,” said Rachel McCormack, a Scottish panellist for BBC 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet.