# Are you familiar with Chicken French? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803 "2017-06-12T20:38:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/21 "2017-06-13T02:34:29Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I mean, I can put together the parts of the name, but I’ve never seen it on a menu anywhere. And you won’t hear much out of the upstate NY region. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/22 "2017-06-13T02:37:01Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > \*\* > > (There was a Brown Derby restaurant just north of Independence, Ohio, and south of Cleveland on State Route 21, which in the late '60s-early ‘70s was my parents idea of high-class eatin’. I remember my usual choice being the Shashlik, or Russian Shish-kebab – skewered, marinated, grilled beef served atop a rice pilaf. Which isn’t Russian at all, but hey, 1968 Cleveland, who’d heard of kasha? > > The restaurant was across the street from the big Goodyear sign, which was a visual landmark on that road for years, and I think got torn down a while back) That Brown Derby was in Akron and other places in Northern Ohio. Most items were just average food. Not related to the upstate NY Brown Derby. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/23 "2017-06-13T02:40:36Z")
Never heard of it. Grew up in New England (MA, CT, RI) with a few forays down south. Lived most of my adult life in CA. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/24 "2017-06-13T02:42:02Z")
Let me say again that I’ve had Chicken Francaise, Chicken Piccata, and Chicken French. They’re three similar dishes but they’re not the same, even if there’s an overlap in some ingredients and some recipes. I’m imagining some New Yorker trying to explain what a bagel is and being told, “Oh, okay, I know what you’re talking about. But around here we call them donuts. I didn’t know New York had a local name for them.” ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/25 "2017-06-13T02:42:29Z")
So… this isn’t a thread about the language chickens in France use to communicate with each other. Okay. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/26 "2017-06-13T02:51:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Let me say again that I’ve had Chicken Francaise, Chicken Piccata, and Chicken French. They’re three similar dishes but they’re not the same, even if there’s an overlap in some ingredients and some recipes. > > I’m imagining some New Yorker trying to explain what a bagel is and being told, “Oh, okay, I know what you’re talking about. But around here we call them donuts. I didn’t know New York had a local name for them.” Well, it’s a lot closer than bagels and donuts. I’m really having a difficult time figuring out the difference between Francese and French. Piccata has capers. But many of the recipes I see for Francese are dipped in flour, then egg, them fried, just like you Chicken French. Sauce looks the same to me. Can you clarify the difference? With bagels and donuts, the only thing the same is the shape and that they’re made of flour. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/27 "2017-06-13T02:54:32Z")
No, but I’ve heard of Pig Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/28 "2017-06-13T03:25:27Z")
I’ve lived in places in the Midwest and Montana, and I’ve never heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/29 "2017-06-13T03:47:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > No, but I’ve heard of Pig Latin. My column on [Pig Latin](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2163/whats-the-origin-of-pig-latin) I apologize in advance. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/30 "2017-06-13T03:49:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Let me say again that I’ve had Chicken Francaise, Chicken Piccata, and Chicken French. They’re three similar dishes but they’re not the same, even if there’s an overlap in some ingredients and some recipes. > > I’m imagining some New Yorker trying to explain what a bagel is and being told, “Oh, okay, I know what you’re talking about. But around here we call them donuts. I didn’t know New York had a local name for them.” Well, start by saying what you perceive the ingredients/taste that are so distinct in Chicken French. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/31 "2017-06-13T11:20:34Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > **Samclem @17**. So it _is_ just Chicken Francese? Which is one of the cutlet variations you see at any Mom-and-Pop checked-tablecloth candle-in-wicker-Chianti-bottle Italian restaurant: Parmigiana, Milanese, Marsala, Piccata, Francese. > > I haven’t ordered a dish of chicken or veal Francese in years, but I remember it being a little…gloopier than the other cutlets. Somehow there was more presence of egg, making it a richer and heavier dish than Piccata, which was leavened by the lemon and vinegary capers. I was just going to post “He’s talking about Chicken Francese!” but you beat me to it 🙂 Veal Francese was a mainstay at my extended family’s restaurant back when I was a kid. It was gloppier than Veal Piccata with the egg coating and the sauce (mmmm, lemon, garlic, capers!), especially if the chef was being heavy handed with the latter. Chicken Francese wasn’t on the menu but you could request it. The last place I know of which had piccata (either chicken or veal) on the menu was our neighborhood red-sauce Italian restaurant/bar. It closed last summer. Neither seems to be a popular dish around my way nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/32 "2017-06-13T12:59:56Z")
Never heard of it (western PA), though I love chicken piccata. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/33 "2017-06-13T14:56:22Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > So… this isn’t a thread about the language chickens in France use to communicate with each other. Okay. Good call. I was inclined to think it was a coded language like Pig Latin. Guess not. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/34 "2017-06-13T15:26:33Z")
Okay, I just read through a few dozen recipes and I think I see what may have happened. The dish I’m used to as Chicken Francaise is different than the dish I’m used to as Chicken French. In Chicken Francaise, you dip the chicken into a dry flour mixture before frying it. In Chicken French, you dip the chicken into a dry flour mixture and then into beaten egg before frying it. So you have two noticeably different results. But checking a bunch of recipes, I see that’s not the typical way people make Chicken Francaise. Some people use flour only. But most people apparently dip the chicken into flour and egg. And they call both of these Chicken Francaise. Judging from my survey, recipes with egg are much more common than those without. So in most of the country, the majority of people are making Chicken Francaise with eggs and a few people are making Chicken Francaise without eggs. Here in the Rochester area, the majority of people are making Chicken French, a recipe with egg, and a few people are making Chicken Francaise, a recipe without egg. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/35 "2017-06-13T16:18:38Z")
“Well. There it is.” – Emperor Joseph II, _Amadeus_ (1984) ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/36 "2017-06-13T16:31:29Z")
Yes, but I’m originally from next door in Central NY. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803/37 "2017-06-14T17:59:44Z")
I’ve heard of The Black Irish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-chicken-french/788803.md?page=1)