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Breaded Chicken
Cut a tender chicken into seven pieces as if for frying, roll in beaten yolks of two eggs, then in finely grated bread crumbs seasoned with chopped parsley, pepper and salt; place in dripping-pan, dot the pieces with bits of butter (one table-spoon in all), add a little water, bake slowly, basting often. When done, take out chicken and make gravy in the pan by adding a mixture of flour and butter, make smooth by stirring. Add either cream or milk to make sufficient gravy, which season to taste.
A straightforward oven-fried chicken from the era before shallow-frying in a skillet became the default. Two details carry the dish: keeping the oven low enough that the crumbs brown rather than burn, and keeping enough liquid in the pan to build the gravy without steaming the coating off.
- "Seven pieces as if for frying"Seven pieces would most likely be two drumsticks, two thighs, two wings and the breast (whole, with the back removed), though the book does not say. A modern 8-piece cut works the same way; discard or stock-pot the back.
- "A tender chicken"A young bird, of the sort sold today as a broiler-fryer; period frying chickens were often smaller than the modern equivalent. An older stewing hen will not become tender by this method.
- "Bake slowly"The book gives no temperature; a low oven, somewhere around 300 to 325F, keeps the crumb coating from scorching before the thighs are done. Figure roughly an hour to an hour and a quarter, and go by an instant-read thermometer: 165F in the thickest part of the thigh, away from bone.
- Dripping-panA shallow roasting pan or a rimmed sheet pan with sides. It needs to be shallow so the pieces roast rather than braise, but not so shallow that the added water boils away unnoticed.
- Making the crumbs stickYolks alone are thick and clingy, which is the point — no white, no thinning with milk. Let the coated pieces sit 10 to 15 minutes before they go in the pan so the crumb layer sets. Dry breadcrumbs, not fresh, give the firmer crust the recipe intends.
- "A little water"Enough to film the bottom of the pan, poured in around the chicken rather than over it. It keeps the drippings from burning and gives you a base for the gravy. Top up with a splash if the pan runs dry mid-bake.
- BastingWith one tablespoon of butter total and a shallow film of pan liquid, there is not much to baste with — spoon the pan juices over every 15 or 20 minutes, and expect the crust to soften slightly where the liquid pools.
- The gravyThe "mixture of flour and butter" is a beurre manié: work about 1 tablespoon soft butter into 1 tablespoon flour and whisk it into the hot pan juices off the direct heat, then simmer a minute or two to cook out the raw flour. Add cream or milk to reach roughly a cup of gravy.
- YieldServes three to four.
The Dixie Cook-Book belongs to a family of late nineteenth-century American compilations built by accretion — regional contributions layered onto a stock of recipes that circulated freely between household manuals of the period. What distinguishes it from the fried chicken the same books also print is thrift and labour: no deep skillet of lard to heat and later strain, one tablespoon of butter for a whole bird, and an oven that could be doing other work at the same low heat. The finish is pure American household practice: nothing is wasted, and the browned residue in the dripping-pan becomes a milk gravy that would have gone to the table with the chicken.