Where did Southern Fried Chicken come from?

This is answer was written by a woman named Gwendolyn as a response to another article The Real Roots of Southern Cuisine from deepsouthmag.com. I thought it would serve the same purpose here...Jamillah

Comments regarding the African contribution to southern cuisine are greatly lacking in substance, truth, and in a basic understanding that the enslaved Africans found themselves in a situation in which they were deprived of sufficient food, sufficient time to prepare it and sufficient equipment with which to prepare it period. The Chef’s answers were basically unformed ones, based on wrong assumptions and incomplete information. As one who has lived in West Africa for more than eight years, and who has observed Africans growing, preparing foods and cooking certain dishes; let me assure you that the saute, braise, simmer, steam, roast and bake are widely known and practiced cooking techniques which are there; however, it is very difficult to do exciting things to foods when you are limited to only one or two food items, a pot, some water and very little time!

I’m not taking anything away from the Indians or the Scandinavians, but it was the Africans who brought deep fat frying fried chicken, as well as one pot stews to this country. Fritters (batter-dipped and fried vegetables) are an African delicacy. Deep-fat frying has been attributed to Africa by many other sources. The frying of foods is found all over West Africa, as all throughout the continent. This is because African cooks have a number of different oils that in abundance at their disposal such as: Palm oil, Coconut oil, Sesame and Olive oil, all of which are indigenous to Africa; however none of these oils are indigenous to North America. in use now in this country.

Africans have many ways to preserve foods: drying, smoking, salting, packing in oil. fermentation, or packing with herbs and spices. As for the comment that Africans never ate any beef until they came here, that is a complete and total untruth. Herds of cattle (Beef), goats, sheep, hogs, chickens, ducks and other farm animals are raised for their meat. Beef though expensive is particularly popular. In fact, cattle were introduced to Europe from Africa; when the British and the Dutch went to South Africa, they found Africans herding, butchering, and eating beef! The same is true for Europeans who went to West Africa they found pastoral people with herds of cattle and other pastoral animals.

If you want to know more about what African slaves knew about food, you should travel to Africa where you would learn a lot.

Remember, in this country the slaves were given very few food choices by their masters — mostly those unwanted portion of foods, so the Chef made statements that were based on incorrect assumptions; the least he could have done, would have been to find out what food preparation/preservation methods existed in Africa, that may or may not have been practiced in common with Indians or Europeans. He cannot correctly state for a fact as to what African slaves knew and contributed to southern cooking, by citing what they did with their limited ingredients when they cooked for themselves, or by wrongly assuming and attributing African cooking methods to other ethnic groups. When slaves had access to their preferred ingredients, appropriate equipment, and sufficient oil, seasonings, and more than one pot or skillet, they contributed richly to southern cuisine! Think about it, the mere fact that southern kitchens that boasted of having the best in dining, were run by Black cooks, and not, say, native American or Scandinavian cooks strongly suggests that African cooks were perceived to be the best to be had in the South, and a white mistress who herself didn’t know how to cook, could not possibly teach this expertise!

I would say that the predominant roots of southern fried chicken was Scotch-Irish, with the "West African" part added later, almost as an afterthought.

The basic idea for "southern" fried chicken is "breaded" chicken, deep-fried in flour and/or corn meal. That part is Scots Irish.

One "related" example is "shortening bread" of Riley. That is bread made of flour, corn meal, eggs and "shortening."

A similar type of fried chicken is made in Tennessee.

And even "Colonel Saunders" himself, born in Indiana of Irish and English roots, made his name in "Appalachian" Kentucky, that is to say in the southern "highlands."

After the Civil War, fried chicken became particularly popular in the African-American community, because it was the cheapest dish, and because the fat that it generated could be used for other purposes. They took the above fried chicken ideas and added at least one more thing.

The (west) African contribution to "southern" fried chicken "battered" in the above way was the peppers. These had been indigenous to West Africa, and either migrated from there, or caused African slaves to finder similar peppers in the United States. Note the use of peppers in this West African recipe for fried rice, which often accompanies the chicken.