Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is an American specialty based on medieval and Renaissance fricassee recipes as reinforced, refined, and improved by African American cooks. It has had many meanings over the course of American history—from an aristocratic banquet dish in colonial Virginia, to a Sunday dinner after church for ordinary Americans, to a travel ration, a fast food, and even a snack food. Recent immigrants have added new forms and flavors and perhaps restored some of the oldest forms of fried chicken cookery from Southeast Asia, where the chicken was originally domesticated.