City Chicken — The Pittsburgh Pork Recipe That Pretends to Be Chicken

Late September. Cody is on day two hundred and fifty-six of his sentence. The leaves on the maple have moved past yellow into orange. The morning bus stop air is in the low fifties most mornings now. Junior year is six weeks in.

I want to write down what Cody told me at the visit on Saturday. He has started writing his next short story. He is keeping the topic to himself again until the draft is finished, which has become the routine he writes by. The Tulsa Review piece — The Sister at the Stove — is in copy-editing now and is going to run in the February 2018 issue, three months from now. The editors have asked Cody for a short author bio to run alongside the piece. The bio is supposed to be three sentences long.

Cody asked me to help him draft it at the Saturday visit. I wrote four drafts on the back of a napkin while we sat at the round metal table. The drafts came out funny in the way drafts always come out funny — we wrote one that was too modest, one that was too proud, one that was too long, one that was too short. We landed on this one: Cody Moreland writes from Tulsa, Oklahoma. His work has been featured in the chapbook Twenty-Eight Pages. This is his first publication. Three sentences. Honest. Plain. He is going to send it to the editor on Monday.

And the recipe Sunday was city chicken, which I had heard about from Aunt Tammy in passing during one of the Easter dinner conversations. Aunt Tammy had grown up part of her childhood in Pittsburgh, where Grandpa Earl was stationed for two years in the early 1970s with the Air Force, and city chicken was a thing the local Catholic-school families served at Sunday dinners. Aunt Tammy had said the dish over deviled eggs at Easter, and I had filed the words in the back of the notebook, and a recipe for it had turned up in a Family Feast post two weeks ago, and Sunday was the day to make it.

City chicken is, despite the name, not chicken. The dish is cubed pork (and sometimes veal) on small wooden skewers, breaded and pan-fried to a deep golden crust, then baked low and slow until tender. The recipe dates to the early 1900s in Pittsburgh and Buffalo and Cleveland, when chicken was an expensive holiday meat and pork was cheap, and the breaded-and-skewered pork was meant to look like fried chicken pieces on the plate. The trick is the appearance plus the taste — the dish does not pretend it is chicken when you eat it (the pork tastes like pork) but it has the texture and presentation of fried chicken, and the slow bake makes the meat tender in a way that pan-fried-only pork cannot match.

The math: a one-pound pork loin on sale at Walmart $3.99, six small wooden skewers $0.99 from the dollar store, two eggs, a cup of all-purpose flour, a cup of plain breadcrumbs $1.49, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, two tablespoons of vegetable oil, a half cup of chicken broth from bouillon. Total: about $7.40 for the dinner that fed Mama and me Sunday and Monday.

The technique is the breading and the slow bake. You cube the pork loin into one-inch cubes. You thread three or four cubes onto each wooden skewer. You set up a three-step breading station: flour seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder; beaten egg; plain breadcrumbs. You roll each skewer first in the flour, then dip in the egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs, pressing gently to coat.

You heat two tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. You pan-fry each skewer for two minutes per side, until the breading is golden and crisp. You transfer the seared skewers to a 9-by-13 baking dish. You pour a half cup of chicken broth into the bottom of the dish (not over the skewers; the broth is in the bottom for steam). You cover with foil. You bake at 325 for forty-five minutes. The slow bake tenderizes the pork without drying out the breading.

You serve with mashed potatoes and a vegetable. Mama said, when she ate this Sunday night, baby, this tastes like Aunt Tammy’s old neighborhood. Aunt Tammy when I called her Monday morning to tell her about the dish said, baby, you are cooking the food of my second-grade year and I have not had it in fifty years. Some recipes find their way back home through three generations and a Family Feast post.

The recipe is below. The trick is the slow bake after the pan-fry. Do not skip the foil-covered forty-five minutes; the steam in the bottom of the pan tenderizes the pork while the breading stays crisp.

City Chicken

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs pork shoulder or pork loin, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
• 6–8 wooden or metal skewers (about 6 inches)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/4 cups seasoned breadcrumbs
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup chicken broth

Instructions

1. Prep the skewers. Thread 3–4 pork cubes onto each skewer, leaving a little space between pieces so they cook evenly. Pat the meat dry with paper towels.
2. Set up your dredging station. In a shallow dish, combine flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika. In a second dish, beat the eggs. Place the seasoned breadcrumbs in a third dish.
3. Bread the skewers. Roll each skewer in the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess. Dip in egg, letting it coat fully. Press into breadcrumbs on all sides until well covered.
4. Brown in oil. Heat vegetable oil in a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown the skewers on all sides, about 2–3 minutes per side, until the breading is golden. Don’t crowd the pan. Transfer browned skewers to a 9x13-inch baking dish.
5. Add broth and bake. Pour the chicken broth into the bottom of the baking dish. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.
6. Finish uncovered. Remove foil and bake an additional 12–15 minutes until the breading crisps back up and the pork is cooked through (internal temperature 145°F). Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 33g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 21g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 540mg