​​Ginger Rogers' Favorite Post-Rehearsal Meal Was A Classic Southern Dish

Early Hollywood starlet Ginger Rogers was a force on the screen and stage, but she truly danced her way into American hearts and cemented her legacy as the longtime on-screen dancing partner of Fred Astaire. The two starred in nine movies together starting with "Flying Down to Rio" in 1933. The endless rehearsing to perfect her performances must have certainly helped her work up an appetite and she famously shared that her favorite post-rehearsal dish was Southern fried chicken and gravy.

In an era when some Hollywood sirens adopted strange fad diets, such as Joan Crawford's supposed lunch of broth, a dish of rhubarb, and crackers spread with mustard, Missouri-born Rogers went the other way, and embraced the comfort of food that she grew up eating. She even credited her mother's recipe as her ideal fried chicken preparation in a 1936 issue of Movienews Weekly (archived via University of Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections). Rogers was not the only musically-inclined A-list celebrity with a fried chicken habit. Many stars have lauded fried chicken over the decades, including Michael Jackson, who specifically loved KFC fried chicken.

Ginger Rogers was clear about the method being the most important part of making the best fried chicken. Her mother's recipe mentions several critical steps that have stood the test of time and still rate as top tips for making the perfect fried chicken, like breaking down your own chicken (she mentions a small bird being key), not overcrowding the pan, and making sure to drain it. Rogers emphasized that her mother always covered the pan while frying, made sure to heat enough oil in the skillet so that it covered each piece of chicken half-way up, and only turned it once while cooking. She also calls out the importance of resting the fried chicken on brown paper bags to absorb excess oil after frying.

The homemade gravy was another critical component of Rogers' favorite dish, and she details her mom using a bit of the leftover oil to lovingly bring this rich element together. Her mom slowly added flour and stirred it on the stovetop for a roux that thickened over time and formed the base of the gravy, then finished it by continually whisking (to prevent lumps) as she added the milk. Rogers shared with fans that she enjoyed eating her fried chicken and gravy with peas, mashed potatoes, buttered biscuits, and an olive and celery aspic salad. Obviously, one of those cherished dishes went by the cultural wayside, but her hard-earned fried chicken remains popular today.