dishes are possibly the most nearly ubiquitous menu items of a non-vegetarian kind. They may be taboo in certain circumstances in some cultures, but are generally available to all irrespective of religion and with fewer financial constraints than other flesh.
The history of the species is discussed under hen/chicken breeds. It has also been the subject of a fine book by Page Smith and Charles Daniel (1975), which carries the story from antiquity through publication of the famous book on chickens by Aldrovandi (1600) up to the late 20th century and does not shrink from describing the horrors of some intensive rearing practices. It is these practices which have tended to turn chicken—once something of a luxury for most people—into an inexpensive meat, lacking flavour and provoking uneasy qualms of conscience. This consideration applies in many parts of the world. The ‘free-range chickens’ of, for example, Britain have equivalents in distant places. Thus gai ban (yard chicken) in Thailand is superior to gai yang, a cooped chicken.
The lack of flavour has meant that chickens are particularly suited to dishes which involve distinctive added flavours. Many ethnic cuisines are rich in such dishes, and many of them have become popular in the western world on tables where they would formerly have been seen as almost unimaginably exotic. The simple roast chicken, with a simple flavouring of herbs, which was a Sunday treat in England in the first half of the 20th century may still be a treat, but only for people who are prepared to make the effort and meet the expense of procuring a chicken which has been properly reared in a good environment (e.g. certain French chickens whose origin, as explained under hen/chicken breeds, is officially established by metal tags).
Among well-known or particularly interesting dishes are the following:
Hindle wakes, a strange name for a dish, comes from ‘hen de la wake’, meaning hen to be eaten at the wake (fair). A medieval festive dish, to be eaten cold, it presents a fine appearance with white meat, black stuffing, and yellow and green trimmings. See Elizabeth Ayrton (1975).
Coronation chicken, devised for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, has proved remarkably persistent as a menu item, never in sophisticated restaurants, but otherwise popping up all over the place. It is cooked pieces of cold chicken served with a curried mayonnaise sauce, often accompanied by apricots.
Chicken à la Kiev is a chicken breast coated with breadcrumbs and stuffed with flavoured butter which spurts forth when punctured by the diner's fork. It has been described by Lesley Chamberlain (1983) as a ‘Soviet hotel and restaurant classic’, which so far as she could discover had no pre-revolutionary history.
Chicken Marengo is the name of a dish supposedly cooked for Napoleon's supper immediately after the battle of Marengo in 1800. The chicken is fried, then cooked in a sauce of white wine, garlic, tomatoes, and perhaps mushrooms, which were supposedly the ingredients which the chef had to hand on the original occasion; but he would not have had tomatoes at that early time and the first printed recipe for the dish makes no mention of them.
Southern fried chicken is a dish which arouses strong emotions whenever there is discussion among Americans about techniques, ingredients, or accompaniments. Mariani (1994) does a masterful job in setting out the various points which may be disputed. He also identifies antecedents in the 19th century (‘Maryland fried chicken’ crops up in the 1870s), but remarks that the dish did not acquire fame as a southern speciality under its modern name until the early decades of the 20th century. The only conclusions one can reach after reading Mariani are that there are lots of ways of making southern fried chicken but that there is only one appropriate way of eating it—with the fingers.
Tampumpie, a dish from the Solomon Islands (not otherwise represented in this book), is recorded by Emerson (1908), who explains that it is made in a stone oven. Sliced taro or yam is placed in this, with a prepared fowl in the centre and a mass of grated coconut over all. Water is added and the dish cooked. ‘While the oven is a primitive affair it is most effective, and in the hands of a native woman who is at all desirous of pleasing her lord and master it can be made to do wonders.’
See also spatchcock, tinola, satay, tikka.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Chamberlain, Lesley (1983), The Food and Cooking of Russia, London: Penguin.
Emerson, Edward R. (1908), Beverages, Past and Present, vols i and ii, New York: The Knickerbocker Press.
Mariani, John (1994), The Dictionary of American Food and Drink, 2nd rev edn, New York: Hearst.
