Much like scrapple, Maryland fried chicken is a topic that I intend to revisit on Old Line Plate many times. There’s a lot of background, a lot of recipes, and enough confusion to go around.
So what IS “Maryland fried chicken”?
There is a European dish known as Chicken Maryland or Chicken a la Maryland, usually featuring bananas. This is probably the dish that is now famously known to have been on the menu of the Titanic.
There is a vanishing regional chain (outside of Maryland) known as Maryland Fried Chicken. Their main website is now shilling viagra and I never had the chance to try this chicken.
There are also some who would insist that Old Bay is essential to Maryland fried chicken. Old Bay and chicken make a fine combo but that is the kind of myopic thinking this blog stands firmly against.
There is also a controversial, questionable step included in some Maryland fried chicken recipes that flies in the face of modern fried chicken preference. That step entails steaming the chicken in the pan after frying it. This results in a very tender chicken but eliminates the crispiness. Sacrilege to some!
Fear not, that step is not essential. I am not sure when it became popularized but BC Howard’s book “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen” mentions no such thing. It appears in two of the five fried chicken recipes in Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland.
In my estimation, the main defining characteristic of Maryland fried chicken is the pan scraping cream gravy. Fried chicken is served up in this manner throughout the South but various sources throughout the years offer this style as “Maryland fried chicken.”
My primary source for cooking this time was ‘50 Years in a Maryland Kitchen’. I also referenced the recipes that appear in ‘Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland.’
Albert H. McCarthy of Carvel Hall Hotel (erstwhile and now once again the Paca House) contributed the instructions:
“Cut young chicken into pieces and rub with salt, pepper and flour. Fry in hot fat to half cover the chicken until right brown. Serve with a cream gravy and waffles.”
BC Howard included a step which I feel is indispensable – brining the chicken. Her brine consisted solely of salt and water but I took a cue from my modern reference, a book called “Heritage” by Sean Brock.
I checked this book out from the library and it is beautiful but a lot of the cooking is fussy for my purposes. However, the author seems charming and gained my trust so I went with his brine which contains salt, sugar, and the secret ingredient of tea. He pan fried the chicken in many fats and topped it with the gravy (no mention of Maryland…)
The resulting chicken was very good but to my surprise it tasted like tea. (I’m not the brightest..)
In the future, to make sure that I enjoy the most Maryland flavor in my chicken I will probably stick with a salt & sugar brine only.
My next iteration of Maryland Fried Chicken will include the steaming step and a discussion of those who employed it throughout my recipe collection.
Maybe we can decide once and for all whether it is worth the sacrifice of crispiness – or perhaps whether there is room for both in life.
Recipe:
- 1 gallon water
- 38 tea bags (optional! or use less!)
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup sugar
- salt
- pepper, black
- flour
- fat (oil, lard, bacon fat, etc.)
- chicken
- more salt
- more flour
- butter
- cream
- parsley
Put the water in a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from the stove, add the tea bags, and let them steep for 8 minutes. Remove the tea bags, or strain the liquid if you used loose tea. Add the salt and sugar to the hot water and stir to dissolve them. Pour the brine into a heatproof container and cool it to room temperature, then refrigerate until completely cold.
Cut the chicken into 8 pieces. Rinse with cold water. Place in the brine, cover, and
refrigerate for 12 hours.
After the chicken has spent 12 hours in the brine, make an ice bath in a
large bowl with equal amounts of ice and water. Place the chicken in
the ice bath for 5 minutes. (the ice will rinse away any impurities.)
Remove the chicken and pat it dry.
Season the chicken with pepper and then cover with flour (lightly salted). Cook bacon in skillet and set aside. Add additional oils until frying temperature and add the chicken pieces, turning and stirring them about to keep them from burning. It takes half an hour. Move to a towel to drain. Pour off off all the fat and melt a tablespoon or so of butter with an equal amount of flour. Add cream, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir until thickened. Pour this over the chickens and serve with waffles.
note: due to the tea this chicken looks much darker than it would otherwise
Adapted from ‘Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland’, ‘Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen’, ‘Heritage.’
Washington City Paper: The Mystery of Maryland Fried Chicken
Mid-Atlantic Cooking Blog: Maryland Fried Chicken
