If it's one thing that we Southerners love to eat. It is chicken. I could eat chicken at every meal.
No lie. Maybe it would not be the healthiest thing for me, but it's true. Southern cooking and
fried chicken go hand-in-hand. Every family style restaurant down south is going to have fried
chicken on the menu, you can bank on that.
But, where did fried chicken get it's start? Well in America, it dates back to the Scottish
settlers that cooked the chicken in fat, and it was unseasoned. In West Africa however,
the chicken was seasoned, battered and cooked in palm oil. In Egypt, fried chicken dates back
to ancient times, appearing on images of Pharaohs' tombs. The meat was fed to the slaves building
pyramids.
In the times of the Civil War, fried chicken became popular in the South because it was
the only animal that slaves could raise on a plantation. They would often fry it for the plantation
owners. After the war, many African-American women sold fried chicken as a way of earning money.
Fast forward to Harland Sanders, founder of KFC, who came up with the frying method
that we know and love today. He started out working many jobs in Corbin ,Kentucky until he found
success after sold his idea at the age of 65.
Today, fried chicken is popular all over the world, but will always be a southern staple. Many
churches in the south continue have a warm plate of various vegetables, mashed potatoes, and of
course ,fried chicken served with a smile at homecoming dinners on the grounds on any given Sunday
of the year. That is a Southern tradition that I believe will never go away. I'm hungry right now just writing about it!
