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City Chicken a Polish-American Recipe

by 81 Comments

City Chicken isn’t actually chicken; it’s also been known as mock chicken. It’s sometimes thought of as a Polish recipe, although it’s not actually from Poland. What’s up with this dish?

Dating back to the turn of the previous century, City Chicken, a Polish-American recipe, has roots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cleveland, Ohio and spread to Great Lakes cities such as Detroit, Michigan and Buffalo, New York. Nostalgic comfort food from the Rust Belt.

city chicken skewers on Polish pottery

Made of small bits of meat, usually pork and veal because during the Great Depression, they were less expensive than chicken. The meat used was often scraps, placed on a wooden skewer and formed to resemble a chicken leg. It was breaded and fried and/or baked.

I made City Chicken over the weekend, it was the first time I’d sampled the mock chicken, and I have to say the experience is very similar to eating fried chicken. My husband, Ed, grew up near Pittsburgh, and is a more experienced connoisseur of City Chicken than I. When I said I was going to make it, he knew what I meant. 🙂

three city chicken skewers on polish pottery

He told he that the last time he’d had City Chicken was probably in a restaurant in the Strip District, at the foot of Polish Hill (home to the Immaculate Heart of Mary church), on a visit to Pittsburgh. If you’re ever in the area, it’s worth a stop in the Strip District.

Wonderful food markets and restaurants. There’s a Polish Deli, Wholey’s (an amazing fish monger). This is where I first visited a Penzey’s Spice store (long before they had a location in Tucson), first sampled the Pittsburgh classic of steak strips and french fries garnishing a green salad, but that’s another story.

Ed remembered seeing City Chicken the grocery stores when he was growing up, packs of stew-like meat with skewers included, but his family usually ate chicken. I think by that time, the price pendulum had swung the other way because even though money was tight, his mother fried a huge platter of chicken every Sunday as they hosted extended family.

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Like most recipes, there are many variations. You have many cooking options: deep fry, pan fry, fry and then bake to finish, or just bake. Some like to serve City Chicken with some kind of gravy, we had it with my mushroom sauce.

If you’d like to make this a low carb recipe, try any of these substitutions for the bread crumbs; all are tasty and satisfying ways to get the desire texture in the coating:

  1. ground almonds
  2. ground almonds & Parmesan Cheese
  3. ground pork rinds

City chicken is a tasty nostalgic dish that I think you’ll enjoy. Can you think of other recipes with such misleading names? I’m sure this isn’t the only one.

Smacznego!

Lois

PS – I found a vintage city chicken mold, an advertising item for a butcher supply company, and did a taste test using ground pork, a mix of cubes and ground pork, and the only cube version that I have written up below. Ed and I have given up meat for Lent, but we had a friend over for dinner, and Jeff was the official reviewer even though he had never had city chicken before.

As I suspected, the mold shapes the meat best when using just ground pork, and that was Jeff’s favorite version. He just liked the texture best. If you want to give it a try, I mixed the ground meat up much like meatloaf: 1 pound ground pork, 1 egg, 1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground marjoram, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. Then I breaded the skewers as described below. I just baked them at 350 for 25 minutes, but you could pan fry and bake as below.

City chicken on Polish pottery and a chicken leg mold.

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city chicken skewers on Polish pottery

City Chicken a Polish-American Recipe

★★★★★ 4.7 from 10 reviews
  • Author: polishhousewife
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 min
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: serves 4 - 6 1x
  • Category: Meat
  • Method: fried
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A nostalgic comfort food

Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pound pork, cut into 1 – 1 1/2 inch cubes
  • Seasoning salt (another indicator that this Polish-American rather than Polish)
  • flour, for dredging
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 tablespoon water
  • 2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs
  • Oil for frying

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350
  2. Season pork with seasoning salt, and thread onto 4 inch skewers
  3. Set up three bowls or plates with rims in a row (fill one with flour, one with the eggs, and the last with breadcrumbs)
  4. Roll the pork skewers in flour, dip in the eggs coating all side, roll in the bread crumbs
  5. Heat oil to 350, even brown the pork skewers in the hot oil
  6. Place the skewers in a baking dish and cover with foil, bake for about 20 minutes, then remove foil and bake uncovered for 5 minutes to crisp breading

Keywords: City Chicken

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. we make this alternating pork and veal cubes. use plain breadcrumbs. no seasoning salt! do not dredge in flour. dip in egg wash, roll in breadcrumbs. repeat at least once, more if you like breading. fry in oil til brown, turn over, brown the other side, layer in roasting pan. mix leftover breadcrumbs in egg wash, shape into a patty, and fry that too. add this patty to the meat that’s been browned.(there’s always someone at table who like breading!) add a lil water to bottom of pan, cover tightly, bake at 350 degrees F. until tender. tip- it’s easier to skewer meat cubes if they’re frozen! but these need to bake longer because they don’t thaw all the way through when browned. the ones on bottom of pan will be softer, bertter for older people. the top layers will be crispier. but all are great! serve with mashed potatoes, a veggie, and a salad.

    Reply

    • My mom made City chicken when we were growing up! I loved it. It was always so tender and delicious!! She used salt, pepper and paprika in her flour dredge. I haven’t had it since she passed. Going to make it for Sunday dinner just like she did. Thank you for the recipe!

      Reply

  3. My Polish grandmother lived in Racine. wI and made this all the time while my mom was growing up. Recently my mom compiled a list of all our family heritage recipes for me and low and behold, City Chicken was in there! Thanks for sharing the history!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  4. We call it City. Chicken too! I use pork and veal cubed and alternate pieces on a skewer. I then dip the stKewers in egg wash then roll in bread crumbs and place them ina fry pan with a little oil to brown the.m. Remove and place in 9×12 square pan and pour 2 cans of cream of chicken soup over skewers and add one can of water and one can of chicken broth overskewers. Bake for 1. 1/2 hours longer if not cooked….delicious!

    Reply

  5. I remember when my MOM these and we loved them in Toledo Ohio. Yep a Polish neighborhood.
    We called them “Mock City Chicken Legs”. I had looked for the How Too’s many times.
    Thank you for giving me the recipe.
    PS We also ate a lot of chicken then. So these stood out for me.

    Reply

    • I had to chuckle when I saw this post. I made city chicken as did my mother. She was raised in Charleroi PA while I was raised in Cleveland, OH. I liked city chicken. There is a post on Facebook asking what is the one thing your mother made when you were a child that you hated and won’t eat today. I said liver while my daughter said city chicken. Oh well, can’t please everyone. haha! Had to read this to my husband who is Polish. Thanks for the memory.

      Reply

      • I grew up on city chicken as we are american poles but have been away from it for a ling time. I live in Michigan and getting ready right now to head out on a snowy January afternoon to Sabina’ Polish Restaurant in Melvindale just outside Detroit. It might have been an economy meal in its day but I plan on making it for Easter dinner. After all, I am on a budget but I know itvwill be well received!

        Reply

  8. Love City Chicken. Realized it was not truly an ethnic Polish recipe when I asked a recent Polish immigrant to share her recipe and she did not know what I was talking about. Never heard of it.

    Reply

      • Lois,
        I grew up in Southeastern Ohio, the son of a second generation butcher. I discovered your site and this recipe while searching for another recipe for “Mock Chicken”. My mother, God love her, was German (as was 75% of the county) and though I’m older than dirt I still smell those wonderful aromas every time I think of her.
        Everything I’ve read here sounds familiar. That generation was so demonstrably shaped by the Great Depression and WWII that wasting anything was a sin. I had forgotten City Chicken. I saw this recipe and the memories came rushing back. She used lard. In fact, my mother could have gotten us to the moon with just two items: Lard and her Cast Iron Skillets. As I recall, the chicken was browned perfectly, never heavy or greasy. I seem to remember that she added white cornmeal to the breading which gave it a crispness; the texture was amazing. In the summer time green pepper, finely diced was a welcome addition to the recipe.
        At that time, small town butchers were also unofficial “culinary consultants” and I realize now that many family dishes gained a wider audience in this way. Many, many times I remember my Grandfather, Uncle or Dad waiting on a young bride new to the kitchen or a middle-aged mother of six whose reputation as a Supreme Commander in the kitchen was well established. As I swept the floor or cleaned the display case glass, I listened as they walked the bride through choosing a cut then offering simple instructions on preparation; always simple, basic and delicious. Her confidence grew and they gained another loyal customer. The seasoned kitchen veteran called for a different strategy. She knew her way around and could spot a phony from a mile away. I’d listen, her choice made and wrapped, as the familiar, “Say, Mrs. Fleighman have you ever tried doing this with that roast?” Her confidence in the boys with the aprons and perhaps familiarity with my mother or her family, made her want to know more. In all cases, these were family recipes passed on, genuinely in the name of customer service, and soon could be found on the tables of any and all. I’d wager City Chicken could be found on someone’s supper table, in some form or another, every night of every week in that little hamlet. I’m sorry for the nostalgic detour.
        Briefly, mother would hand grind beef or pork or both (therein lies the problem, I don’t know) together with garlic, onion, black pepper, and some celery I believe. To that coursly ground mixture she added Miracle Whip and salted to taste. She made all of our bread and rolls. All of it. I can’t put into words how yeasty and glorious it was, I would come in from playing and she would toast two wonderful slices of that bread and spread it with homemade butter she bought from dairy farmer friends of theirs. She would take that meat concoction out of the “Fridge” and spread a generous portion on a slice of toast and top it with lettuce, onion and a slice of tomato from the summertime garden. I know I sincerely appreciated it then, but now? Oh what I would give. My sister is 13 years older and married right out of high school. They moved to Detroit. When they were planning a visit home, she would always ask Mom if she could make some MOCK CHICKEN. My sis always had some waiting for her when she arrived and went back to Detroit with a Tupperware tub as well.
        That’s the Mock Chicken search that brought me to your site. I’m so glad that it did. Forgive my diatribe, please. Thoughts of food distract me.
        Love your site. Happy New Year!
        Warm regards,
        JB Hayes
        Greensboro, North Carolina

        Reply

        • Thank you for sharing your stories. I make almost all of our food from scratch (and work full time). I often wonder if my sons will remember any of it. It’s great to hear that you remember your mom’s cooking so fondly.

          Reply

        • I am so glad to read that so many people cherish the memories of our childhood days, and I relate totally! I have many of my mother’s Recipes and being the second of 8 children, I was blessed to be her assistant in the kitchen! She became a Chef at a restaurant called Chef Paul’s (heading out of White Oak to Route 30), and I washed dishes there, and moved up to “salad girl”. I watched those huge trays of lobster tails, Filet Mingnon to name a few, and the smell and sight of those meals she made were indescribable! I am so proud of her!! She went to the 5th grade, and was taken out to raise her two younger brothers, so no diploma, or culinary degree…she was amazing. Dad used to say anything she touches becomes purer than Gold! I guess by now you realize that I am retro girl. I treasure the 50’s and 60’s and I am so grateful for being born in 1951 and living with clothes from the church basement, making up games to play outside, playing jacks, roller skating, sled riding, getting squirted with the hose in our yard to cool off in hot summers, walking to school, sitting on the curb downtown Mckeesport watching the parades, all 10 of us going to the drive-in on a Saturday or Sunday. I loved the food commercials and the swings and that cool speaker hanging from our window! Sorry …I could go on forever!
          So mom made City chicken with pork, and the polish gravy, mashed potatoes and fresh out of the garden sliced ripe tomatoes for her tribe of 10 at least once a month. Or when the budget allowed. It was our favorite meal! We never felt deprived or poor. We were happy kids. When we got clothes given to us, we were thrilled to get something new (to us), and I only wish our future generations could experience even half of the life I had. Thanks for letting my spirit get carried back to the times that were so great!

          Reply

        • Thank you for reminding me of this dish my grandma used to make! She used a deep electric fry pan. When you went to grandma’s on ‘your day’ and had City Chicken? The rest of us would sigh. There were 4 of us. We each has a day each week when we got to go to grandma’s after school.

          ★★★★★

          Reply

    • As an immigrant, I can confirm this as well. I had a similar experience of someone asking me about city chicken and I was at a total loss. I did grow up eating kotlety, though, which is similar… meatloaf-like ground beef patties, breaded and pan fried.

      Reply

  11. I grew up in the Pittsburgh area and now live in Tucson also. My mom always made City Chicken, thank you for sharing your recipe!

    Reply

  12. I would make these all the time , my mother made them when we were kids. My father was from Austria/Hungry when it was one country. He remembers his mother making them when they were kids. My family just loved it .

    Reply

  14. Grew up in Chicago, mom was German dad was Polish, enjoyed mock chickens legs often……haven’t thought of these in a long time, thank you for wonderful memories

    Reply

  15. I have made this dish many times on a regular basis since i couldn’t wait for Christmas and Easter to enjoy it at both my Polish and Ukrainian families. This City Chicken version with flour…may be a spin off from the original recipes from Eastern Poland and Western Ukraine. People in the north and west of Poland have other influences and of course would not hear of this. They are originally named PATYCHKI (sticks), marinated cubes of pork and/or veal with garlic(lots), onions, paprika, olive oil…..(I use Italian Dressing to speed things up) then dredged in egg wash and rolled in breadcrumbs. Flash fried then either laid length wise on celery stocks or stand on end in a roasting pan for the oven. If you search “Patychki” you will notice another side of this delicious entry.

    ★★

    Reply

  17. I am 1st generation Italian American and my mother made this. She used Pork & Veal. The recipe is similiar but we would put grated parmesean cheese in the egg mixture with Italian seasonings and fresh parsley. After frying and browning, she would layer celery stalks in bottom of roaster so chicken pieces didn’t stick to the bottom of pan. Delicious. My two grown sons, her grandsons still ask me to make it for them.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  18. I grew-up in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood. Wagner’s Meat Market at the near corner of Penn and Winebiddle Avenues was a landmark, originally Moebler’s Meat Market. Harry and Earl Wagner continued the tradition of H. Moebler. The saw-dust covered floors, Monarch Bally Blocks, and oak-doored, beveled glass doored McCray ice-boxes, meats in full view. Oh, yes and city/mock chicken on a stick, in the case. Wagner’s used a ground recipe then molded the mixture in a hand-held metal press shaped like a large pair of scissors with a hole for the wooden skewer—when finished they looked like chicken legs. Those were the times! Like the steam locomotive – I lived and witnessed the end of many eras.

    Reply

  19. I was born and raised in Washington Pa but spent most of my adult life in Pittsburgh until I moved to Tennessee 15 yrs ago. I just came home yesterday from a shopping trip to Pa. I had a list of things to bring back to TN and, yes, City Chicken was on the list. I brought 3 packages so I could give one to my son but 1 package was only pork, the other 2 were pork and beef, not veal. I don’t remember my mother breading the City Chicken. I think she just fried it, at least that’s the way I made it.

    Reply

  20. Thanks for this surprise discovery. My (recently deceased) Mom’s long-gone Aunt (Cioci) made this for us kids and we couldn’t get it often enough. Except for Mom’s Golabki, & her Cole Slaw (nobody on earth ever came CLOSE to it), the City Chicken is what I miss most in Polish cuisine. Mom also made better lasagna than any restaurant, pizzeria or private citizen, despite being 100% Polish-American..
    Thanks for the mushroom gravy recipe, too. I’m fully stocked for this week’s menu, but will be making city chicken next weekend. Can these be frozen, then defrosted & re-heated ?

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  21. My family came from the Pittsburg area and we’ve made it with pork and veal. But if changed to beef cubes. Our recipe is the same. Love my Polish heritage.

    Reply

  22. I was raised on these. I’m from Natrona,Pa. These were mainly served on Sunday’s with mashed potatoes, creamed corn, beets (moms canned beets), and those little sponge cakes with strawberries & whipped cream. I love city chicken. Thanks for the memories.

    Reply

  24. It was a staple at Polish weddings, funerals etc along with the best meatballs! Pork and veal most definitely! Mock city chicken was ground pork and veal shaped like a chicken leg on a skewer rolled in corn meal and bread crumbs! Still love it!

    Reply

  25. I live in Ohio, but was raised in Pittsburg area. I learned to make city chicken from working in a restaurant. I use all pork cubes, dip in flour, then egg wash, then bread crumbs, I then brown them in skillet, then i put in baking dish. Pour over 2 cans of creamed chicken, plus 2 cans of water. Bake at 350 degrees foe 2 hrs. Serve over cooked noodles.[ I forgot i put them on a stick first. i use salt , pepper, and garlic powder.} enjoy.

    Reply

  27. My mother made city chicken for my birthdays it was my favorite meal as a child. I’m 83 years old now and I still remember how it was eating this wonderful dish. Question do you have a recipe for szarlota Or in English Polish apple cake?

    Reply

  28. I was born in Washington PA in 1951. Mom made this for our big family of 10 throughout our childhood and I have missed it so much. I was surprised to find a number of videos for preparing City Chicken on YouTube. I plan on making it for our small church pot luck lunch in the New Year. Until then, I will be searching for the Knorr mushroom bullion cubes and the Magic Fry breading mom used to put in her Polish gravy. That’s what we call it in Pittsburgh. I have been researching which part of the pig would be “roasting pork” or pork scraps. Does anyone know?

    Reply

  29. Grew up in Fayette Co. PA. My Aunt & Uncle had a grocery store in N. Charleroi, PA. We would get the cut veal and pork from Wuja. Smaczny!!!

    Reply

  30. Rating it before I try it (tonight) because my Mom gave me the exact same recipe this morning and hers were wonderful! My husband and I lived for 31 years in the Pittsburgh area before moving 5 years ago. We were homesick and just moved back. I went to Giant Eagle to pick up some groceries, and saw the pork cubes + skewers in the meat case so I just had to buy it. :). Ahhh, home sweet home!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    • A quick edit to above. 🙂 I have made this recipe a few times and have settled on what works best for us. First, 2 eggs is too many, I use 1 with a tablespoon of milk beaten in. Instead of seasoned salt, I use salt with pepper, dried thyme, and paprika. Delicious comfort food! Now is my go-to recipe.

      ★★★★★

      Reply

  31. Found this googling city chicken recipes. Grew up in a Slovak-Polish household in Cleveland so city chicken is part of my heritage. I used to collect antiques and just now realized that puzzling kitchen gadget I found years ago was a chicken leg mold! Thanks for solving that mystery!

    Reply

  32. Hello all, my grandmother was Polish and my grandfather Croatian and I was born in Detroit near Hamtramck, Michigan which we called little Poland. According to grandmother city chicken which is pork came about due to ordinances. You could raise chickens once with roosters to your liking but once areas became populated they no longer wanted to rise to roosters , hence egg layers only and you don’t eat a layer..but you could still have pigs. Obviously the depression was involved as my Mom spoke she felt privileged in Detroit Michigan to have meat as family -had one acre farm but no chickens as a flock, due to ordinance. They had a couple of cows, ducks and pigs. Grandmother said city chicken came about after the no chickens as a way to mimic fried chicken. The way she made was depression era…slaughter pig and put cuts..scraps went to city chicken and sausage. The odd and left overs were put with chopped onion, garlic, salt- heavy, and pepper. She would chop onion and garlic , ad s &!p and add small amount boiling water plus small amount of oil – she said it drew out flavor and after it cooled few minutes added odd cuts of pork and marinated over night. In morning she picked out prime pieces for city chicken and rest with chopped onion and garlic went through meat grinder with other spices and became breakfast sausage. City chicken in my house per grandma didn’t use bread crumbs..flour only..splurge is bread crumbs..grandmother was frugal.

    Reply

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