The Unconventional Meat Americans Ate Before Chicken Became Affordable

Nowadays, chicken is firmly an affordable meat in most U.S. stores (and depending on which part you want, it's sometimes the cheapest — chicken legs in particular sell for an average of less than $2 per pound). But this wasn't always the case: Before the commercial poultry industry started to appear around the 1930s (although it arguably took up until the '70s to fully develop), chicken was typically an expensive meat that might only crop up for special occasions. So, some butchers and cooks devised a workaround, called "mock chicken" (no relation to the present-day use of the term, which sometimes refers to vegetarian meat substitutes).

Mock chicken was created by Polish and Ukrainian immigrants in industrial cities around the Great Lakes like Cleveland and Pittsburgh; this origin also led it to sometimes be called "city chicken." It basically involved taking other types of meat and arranging them into a drumstick-like shape on a skewer before breading and frying or baking them. There were even reportedly molds available to help cooks form the drumstick shape. The meat was usually veal or pork, which were more affordable at the time (it probably helped that, when cooked, these meats appear white, even if they're not actually white meat, making it easier to pretend that they're chicken). Mock duck also existed, although it was made with a mixture of lamb kidneys and beef (and was perhaps more specific to Pennsylvania Dutch communities).

Recipes for mock chicken are typically fairly simple affairs: The meat would be roughly cut into cubes, seasoned with salt and pepper, and threaded onto skewers. They'd then be dredged in flour, dipped into an egg and milk mixture, dipped in breadcrumbs, and fried in butter or oil (depending on who you ask, it could be either pan- or deep-fried). It was sometimes served with gravy, too.

Why go to all this effort to transform pork and veal into a vaguely chicken-shaped lump? It was about the illusion: Since chicken was a more expensive, higher-end meat, being able to serve "chicken" might give a veneer of higher socio-economic standing. That said, it's not totally clear whether diners at the time believed that it was actual chicken, or if they were just playing along — it seems more likely that people generally didn't actually believe it was chicken.

City chicken would be considered a regional dish: It's most commonly associated with Ohio, though it did crop up around different Great Lakes cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh, and made it as far south as Kentucky. Despite being connected with the Polish and Ukrainian communities, it's not a dish you'd find in Poland or Ukraine. It's also faded from the American food world thanks to actual chicken becoming available, although you can still find it today, more commonly made with pork instead of veal, as the latter is pricier. It's most common in Cleveland, although you may still find it in a few places in cities like Detroit or Pittsburgh, particularly Polish restaurants.