Barberton chicken, also known as Serbian fried chicken, is a style of

fried chicken Fried chicken, also known as Southern fried chicken, is a dish consisting of chicken pieces that have been coated with seasoned flour or batter and pan-fried, deep fried, pressure fried, or air fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or ...

native to the city of Barberton in Summit County,

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. It is a distinctive

Serbian-American Serbian Americans ( sr, / ) or American Serbs (), are Americans of Serb ethnic ancestry. As of 2013, there were about 190,000 American citizens who identified as having Serb ancestry. However, the number may be significantly higher, as there w ...

style served in several mainly Serbian-owned restaurants in Barberton and nearby

Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada *Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...

and increasingly in other surrounding communities. The style of chicken has given the town national recognition, with some proclaiming Barberton to be the "Chicken Capital of the World"White House Chicken Story
Archived from the original archived on February 2, 2008 or the "Fried Chicken Capital of America." __TOC__

History

Barberton chicken began with Milchael and Smilka Topalsky, Serbian immigrants who arrived to

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at the turn of the 20th century. Like many during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, they became burdened with debt and were forced to sell their family farm. They opened a restaurant called Belgrade Gardens in 1933 in which they sold a distinctive style of fried chicken, along with a vinegar-based cole slaw, a rice and tomato sauce side dish seasoned with hot peppers (usually referred to as "hot sauce" or "hot rice", which can also be eaten as a dipping sauce or a side dish), and freshly cut french fries. Barberton lore holds that these were exact replicas of what the Topalskys had known back in Serbia as , , , and . Soon other restaurants emerged which copied the distinctive style. Helen DeVore, who had worked for Belgrade Gardens, opened up Hopocan Gardens in 1946. White House Chicken Dinners was founded in 1950 by the Pavkov family, who owned the restaurant until the late 1980s when they sold it to the DeVore family. The

Milich family opened Milich's Village Inn, in 1955. The Milich family announced in July 2014 that they would close down their restaurant on December 31. A month later, the location reopened under new ownership as Village Inn Chicken, still serving the signature fried poultry. Today, the four chicken houses serve over seven and a half tons of chicken per week. The chicken has become so popular that it is often shipped around the United States, usually to transplanted Ohioans. White House Chicken has recently expanded into several locations in northeastern Ohio, dropping the traditional sit-down style in favor of a

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

model.

Tenets

The basic tenets of Barberton chicken are simple, yet strictly adhered to by the competing restaurants. They are as follows: * "True" Barberton chicken is fresh, never frozen. * Neither the chicken nor the

breading Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickening ...

is seasoned with anything. * The birds are fried in

lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
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. * The cut of the bird is different from usual. Birds are cut into many pieces, including breasts, thighs, legs, wings, drummettes, and backs. This is probably rooted in the Great Depression, when creating the most pieces per chicken without yielding any waste was necessary. The backs actually yield little meat, and are sometimes marketed as "chicken ribs" for their passing resemblance to beef or pork ribs.

History

Tenets

See also

References

Further reading