#FoodFeature - American Chicken Dishes

Almost anywhere you go in the world has it's very own recipes and dishes featuring chicken in some way, shape, or form. The US is no exception! One thing that can be said for the American cuisine is that is is made up of dishes that are based off of a lot of other cultures. All over the Us you can find Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Indian, Korean, British cuisines and many many more, but it we are also known for dishes or variations that originated in America!

It can sometimes be difficult to find dishes that originated in the US. Because there is such a widespread culture in cuisine, even if something was created in America, is was likely curated from a dish that is similar to that in another part of the world. Here is a look at some of the chicken dishes that were created in America and are most popular!

Chicken Pot Pie

Although this dish can be traced back to its origins in Greece, where ingredients were places in an open pastry shell and baked, the Pot pie came to the US in the 19th Century. Americans were obsessed, they would create their own recipes and take them with them as they moved across America. They would fill these pie shells with meat like chicken, vegetables such as potatoes, peas carrots, celery, and onion, and then topped with a flaky pastry crust. Paying homage to the name, these pies were traditionally cooked in a pot or skillet on the stove top, but can also be baked in the oven. In the US this dish is considered home cooking or a comfort food, and it is very common and popular as a frozen meal in grocery stores. You can even order this popular dish at chains like Popeyes and KFC, although the preferred method to most is to enjoy having it cooked at home.

Buffalo Wings

Fun fact: These are not actually made from Buffalo meat. This popular American dish originates from Buffalo, New York where an unbreaded chicken wing (either a flat of drumette) is deep fried and dipped in a sauce consisting of a mixture of vinegar, cayenne pepper, hot sauce and melted butter. This crispy, messy, handheld meal became so popular in the US, that it has become one of the staples for American "bar food". The term buffalo sauce typically refers to a hot sauce that can either be mild, medium, or hot. This indicates how much cayenne pepper is used in the mixture, so if you don't like things too spicy, you can still enjoy buffalo sauce on the milder side.Buffalo wings are typically served with celery or carrot sticks, and ranch or bleu cheese sauce for dipping! Most Americans refer to this dish as just "wings" or "hot wings" and you can order them out at restaurants as a fairly cheap meal, or buy them in the frozen section at grocery stores. Variations of this recipe have also developed into buffalo chicken dip and buffalo chicken pizza because of the immense popularity of buffalo flavoring. 

Southern Fried Chicken

You can find variations of fried chicken all over the world, but everyone does it a bit differently. It first showed up in America in the 1860's and has been traced back to both Scottish and West African cuisines. It became most popular in the Southern United States brought on by cooks who brought their spices and recipes from Africa. Fried chicken pieces are separated into white (wings) and dark (thighs and drumsticks) meat sections. They are coated in a batter typically made up of flour, milk and eggs, and can be seasoned with salt, pepper, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, or paprika. Fried chicken is usually fried in lard, which is fat from a pig, but you can also fry it in corn, peanut, canola, soybean and vegetable oils. Southern style fried chicken is also known for using buttermilk in their batter, which is believed to give the chicken more of a buttery taste after being fried. In the US it is common to serve fried chicken with side dishes like mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, vegetables, and biscuits.

Chicken and Waffles

One of the more recently popular chicken dishes in the US is Chicken and Waffles and consists of exactly what it sounds like. Pieces of either boneless or bone in fried chicken are placed on top of perfectly cooked waffles with butter and syrup. This is a beautifully sweet and savory meal that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner! The exact origin in the US can't be distinguished traced, but you can find this recipe in America as early as 1840. Though it has been around for a while, restaurants have just recently started serving it on menus and it has greatly increased in popularity. 

Chicken and Dumplings

This is a very popular dish in the Southern US as well! Chicken breasts are cooked in water until done, then the water that the chicken cooked in is used to cook the dumplings afterwards! The dumplings are biscuit dough that is either rolled flat, or dropped in balls to be cooked in the chicken broth. The consistency of the dish can range from a thinner soup to a thicker consistency like a casserole. It is typically on the thicker side though, with the sauce almost resembling a gravy. This can be done by adding more flour to the mixture, creating a thicker sauce. Generally speaking this is not a dish that gets seasoned very heavily, usually just with salt and pepper. Some recipes will add vegetables like carrots or peas to the dish, but that is not the most common recipe. 

Chicken Salad

To some, this dish may seem a bit odd a first, but it really isn't bad at all! There are many different ways to prepare chicken salad as well, but the original way it was created was with chopped chicken pieces, mixed with mayonnaise and fruit like grapes or cranberries and seasoned with salt and pepper. It originated in Rhode Island in 1863. The dish was initially made with small pieces of leftover chicken from a whole rotisserie. Today, there are many ways of creating this dish! With ingredients ranging from apples, grapes, celery, buts, spinach, tomatoes, bacon, blueberries, cranberries, and many many more, you can whip up this easy meal any way you would like. Chicken salad is typically served cold, and either on a sandwich with lettuce and tomato, or as a topping on crackers or cut bread!

The US actually has a pretty good amount of chicken fast food places as well, here are some of the more popular chains -

- KFC
- Popeyes
- Chik-Fil-A
- Royal Farms
- Zaxby's
- Wingstop
- Buffalo Wild Wings

While America has a lot of culinary influence in our dishes from other places, we also have a lot of great food items to call our own! If you ever seen any of these dishes on the menu, be sure to give them a try if you haven't already! Let us know if you have had any of these dishes before and what you think of them in the comments!