Chicken a la King

[GlorifiedRice]

Hi,

I made my son chicken ala king for dinner.

What is the history? Was it made for a KING?

[srhcb]

Like so many other famous dishes, Chicken ala King can trace it's origin to Delmonicos.

SB

[Carrot Top]

From "Rare Bits, Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes" (Ohio University Press 1998) author Patricia Bunning Stevens offers the information that although "Chicken a la King" is often associated with James Keene (Claridges, after his horse won the Grand Prix) or Foxhall E. Keene (Delmonico's, Wall Street broker) with the presumption that the name softened into "a la King" over time, that a better case can be made for a fellow named E. Clark King who owned The Brighton Beach Hotel when it was a fashionable resort for Manhattanites around the turn of the 20th century.

George Greenwald, the chef, put the dish together one night and offered it to E. Clark King and his wife for dinner who liked it very much. They then put it on the menu as "Chicken a la King" at the price of one dollar and twenty five cents.

So your presumption is correct, Glorified Rice. For we know that all vacationing Manhattanites are kings.

P.S. That's funny, SB. We were both answering the question at the same time.

Edited July 26, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[srhcb]

P.S. That's funny, SB. We were both answering the question at the same time. 

←

And, get this, I just finished eating chicken! Left-over roasted with whole wheat linguini from a local deli in a garlic butter sauce.

Hardly as regal as "Chicken Ala King", but in our more democratic tradition, perhaps, being a simple dish, it would be called something more mundane like "Chicken Ala County Commissioner"?

SB (answering a question nobody asked)

[Carrot Top]

What's astonishing is what a bad rep Chicken a la King has developed over the years.

It probably has as bad a rep or even worse than most County Commissioners.

[srhcb]

What's astonishing is what a bad rep Chicken a la King has developed over the years.

←

I think the demise of the Ala King's royal reputation began when Campbells published recipes featuring their condensed soup as the key ingredient.

My copy of Cooking With Soup, (11th printing, 1972, "3,500,000 copies in print"), has two Chicken Ala King recipes. One normal sized, (1.5 cups chicken, 1 can soup), and another in the "Cooking for a Crowd" chapter which calls for 1.5 quarts of chicken, 6 cans of soup, and a quarter cup of pimento!

SB (damn! I'm fresh outa pimento! )

[Carrot Top]

I think the demise of the Ala King's royal reputation began when Campbells published recipes featuring their condensed soup as the key ingredient.

←

Could be so. It was the staple meal of every "large-group" function for some number of years where the food was made by non-professionals. Chicken a la King on noodles, on rice, in puff-pastry tarts . . . and was a favorite for caterers too for wedding receptions that wanted "something safe".

A fine entrance into marriage - a "safe" dinner. It becomes quite dangerous after that dinner for all the ensuing time.

........................................

Did your son enjoy the Chicken a la King, Glorified Rice? I think my kids probably would.

[GlorifiedRice]

Yes, Tomorrow Im making him Creamed Dried Beef. Im gonna buy a loaf of white bread just for 2 pieces of toast and feed the ducks with the rest later on.