1939 Creamy Smothered Chicken Recipe - Old Cookbook Show - Glen And Friends - Chicken Fricassee 

My thirteen-year-old son has just finished his first home economics and cooking course in junior high. We are going to make this together tonight. I want to show him that it doesn't take a bunch of crazy ingredients to make a delicious meal. And this is just a recipe to show him.

This is the way my mom prepared chicken, back in the 1950’s. Because she was a daring cook for the time, she added a pinch each of dried thyme and rosemary, and a tiny splash of Worcestershire sauce when the chicken was fried at the end. Oddly enough, although we ate potatoes at almost every meal, this particular chicken was always served with steamed rice. When the rice was all gone, we were allowed bread and gravy, which was the best part of the whole meal. The caramelized chicken skin bits plus all that butter made the best gravy.

This is the kind of thing my Grandma would do in the morning for something special, though I am pretty sure she would have put the butter under the chicken at the start. And She would have made more gravy from the extra grease because she knew we would eat it on toast the next day. Ah, I can hear my arteries clang just thinking about her toast and gravy. So good!

Chickens now have been bred to be quite fatty and tender, compared to the tougher, leaner birds back then. That probably explains the crazy amount of butter.

This is the best way to start Sundays

I always like Julie's comments at the end. She's a perfect counterpoint to Glen.

Remember that in 1939 chickens were not as fatty. So a half a cup of butter might not have been unreasonable. But obviously that's not the way it is today you would want to hold back. Or possibly use chicken breasts which are less fatty to begin with

When salt is the only seasoning, I think you have to add a tad more than a few grains sprinkled over the top of only one side of the chicken, to not end up with a pretty bland outcome. My grannies’ chicken and dumplings call for nothing at all but salt and pepper to season the broth and the chicken and the flat dumplings. (People had very little money or access to many different seasonings when she was learning to cook. Everything was basic) When I made it, it tasted awful, and I finally watched her make hers (which are amazing!) convinced she sneaked something more in. She doesn’t. She is just far more generous with the salt and pepper than I was, lol.

I could see adding some celery, onions, and some carrots to it quite easily, and some mashed potatoes for the gravy. As always Glen, you and Jules never fail to entertain us!

if you get a nice yogurt marinade with garam masala, tumeric and cumin on the chicken before hand, cook some onion with the chicken, and finish the gravy with warming spices and tomato paste, you've made a heck of a butter chicken.

Use the excess butter/chicken fat to make some mashed potatoes to serve the chicken over. Simple food at it's best!

I recently learned that Banana ketchup was invented during world war II to combat tomato shortages, immedately thought of this channel. Might be an interesting one to cover one day Glen :)

This reminds me of the chicken my mom made as we were growing up. The only difference is she did it completely in the oven, covered with double foil and a "cookie sheet". And she also used quite a bit of black pepper. She probably did it in the oven because she was feeding 7.

Oh yeah, frozen peas and carrots with the chicken and gravy over a bed of egg noodles. 😋

This was my Grandma's fancy meal. Old hens and and tough old roo's were treated to this method of cooking. All that fat ended up going into a beautiful gravy that we loved to pour over to rice or mashed potatoes. Sides were often foraged greens such as dandelions greens or mustard greens to add a nice bitter touch on the side. Additions like few new peas, or some foraged mushrooms, or a layer of thin sliced onions made this extra special.

I imagine the massive amount of butter is to make up for chicken of a different time. Our chickens now are, largely, sedentary (that is caged) birds where the chickens of 1939 very well may have been plucked, so to speak, from the back yard. They were literally tougher so the butter adds to what would likely be a smaller yield of chicken fat from the "Free Range" birds of the time.

Leave all the fat in, add 3-4 tablespoons of flour and 3-4 cups of milk. Now you've got enough gravy for the potatoes.

I would salt and pepper both sides of the chicken before putting in the pan. Also in lieu of the water you could use stock. This is the Sunday dinner my Mother would make. Brings back so may memories.

So this is basically the same pan fried chicken and gravy I grew up on, which my mother learned from her grandmother who apparently claimed she learned it from her grandmother. So we're looking at a a habit of cooking dating back to the 1800s.

Unusual. Glenn 'almost' follows the recipe. He blinked, at too much butter for the roux. We will NOT be slaves to cookbooks!!! Rock on Glen. Rock on Jules.

This was one of my favorite meals my grandmother made. She called it Smothered Chicken. She floured & fried the chicken first, so it was good and crispy. And then she made milk gravy using bacon grease. Salt and pepper were her only seasons. She made a large batch of the gravy to cover the chicken in the 9x13 baking dish. Then she slow cooked it for about an hour. She was born and raised in Missouri. Married and raised her kids in Dark Corners, Oklahoma.

We make this with pork chops. Same method but we add a sliced onion just before making the roux.

That looks phenomenal… think I’ll season my chicken with some additional poultry seasoning and cracked pepper… that’d round it out nice I’d bet

Good looking chicken. Recipes back in the day were so simple and delicious.👍 Love that pan too.

Wine, mushrooms, sage

That's the way my dad taught me how to cook chicken when I tried it my very first time, sans the gravy.

I bet if you were using game fowl, similar to stringy yard chicken from back in the day, all that butter and brazing would make sense for tenderness. What a great technique for some super lean meat like skin on, bone in chicken breast.

I always enjoy your videos. They are a great escape on Sunday mornings after working Fri/Sat night at the hospital. Very rough times made better by way of your hard work in helping us understand how people made it by during their hard times. You definitely get this nurses seal of approval!

My mother always smother-fried leftover chicken or pork chops in gravy. Was great for breakfast with grits and biscuits.

That fat goes great on popcorn. Movie theatre popcorn is butter flavored chicken fat.

I would add mushrooms and thyme and serve it over rice. Might have to try this with that chicken that's been staring at me from the freezer.

Smothered pork chops from my great grandmothers recipe book was identical except for the choice of meat. My mom used Old Bay in it, too, though.

Simple not messing food. We all have busy lives, and we need wholesome homemade 'fast food'. Thank you.

I think it could use some mushrooms and shallots

I was sitting in a coffee/cafe in Allegan when I saw your post today. Small world.

I like onions and bell peppers in my smother chicken. Sometimes if I have some, I will toss in a few carrots as well. I flour the chicken then brown it. Make a gravy with the pan drippings and let the chicken cook in the gravy until nice and tender.

I love it! Very simple recipe. 1939 was the end of the Great Depression, so I wasn't expecting a dinner from that time to have a lot of extra ingredients.

As a kid who grew up in the 50s, my Mother always made simple dishes with only a few ingredients. Her contention was, as I learned later, “let the ingredients speak for themselves.” How true and I’m glad to see this recipe as well as Cottage Hot Pot make the series. I grew up eating soup bens and fried potatoes, roast, potatoes and carrots, dried beef gravy and toast, haluski, and a bunch of others. Thanks for having awesome content like this. Peace.

After a long holiday with family... it's such a JOY to have Glen on a calm Sunday morning. Thank you Glen. Always a pleasure. :)

I think this is the way my mom cooked chicken a lot. I loved it.

This has become I and my wife's quick dinner when we get home late. I used a scotch ale the last time and tonight I'm making it with a stout from Walkerville Brewery. 10/10 every time. Thank you so much for doing this one.

The Spanish Rice recipe is how my mom made it, except updated to use Minute Rice & tomato sauce and prepared on the stove, not baked. That was in the 1960s. I still like it like that.

Grew up on smothered chicken, more Cajun style. Still one of my favorite meals. Make a roux, Instead of water or milk, just chicken stock. Throw in the holy trinity and some garlic. Serve over rice. Man it’s good.

Tried this one tonight. It was really good! Added some mushrooms and onions to the gravy and coated the chicken in egg yolk like it was done in your most recent smothered chicken video. Will make again. Thanks Glen!!

Did this tonight with a bunch of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. This is one of those recipes that's more technique than about flavours or ingredients. Fat is flavour, but during the Great Depression and with another war looming, it was also valuable for food. The butter amount may seem excessive now, but would not have been at a time when chickens were leaner and when the meal had to stretch out for a large family. Those leg quarters, for example, could be divided up to feed six people, and could even be shredded into the gravy prior to serving to feed even more.

Great basic recipe. Jumping off spot for what you had handy in terms of veg and spices. Making me hungry

Sometimes simple is best. We forget that most of the spices and over half of the ingredients we cook with have only been around for a couple hundred years and in the common man kitchen for less than fifty.

This is very timely. I purchase chicken quarters, forty pounds at a time ($.99US per pound). I will try this recipe during the week.

Would have started the chicken, skin side up and then browned it after the warm was gone. But it sounds really good. Could take it in so many different directions. Thanks for sharing. 💝

In Louisiana I grew up eating smothered chicken. Ours used water to start. We added oil afterward with flour, onions, garlic, and celery. Then more water and put the chicken and simmer until the gravy thickens. I now use broth.

This is very similar to my favorite comfort food that my family always just called “stewed chicken.” I actually just made it last week. The only difference is that we start with about 3/4 stick of butter and and a sliced onion, and then add enough paprika to make it look orange, then add salt and peppered dark meat chicken on top and let it go until it makes its own juice that somehow emulsifies with the butter (might be the collagen) and then we have it over pierogis

I really liked the Chop Suey recipe on the same page.

Definitely looks worth experimenting with and adding things. It also got my new kitty's attention. 4 months old, we've had her a week. When Glen was scooping out the fat from the first round, and then mixing the milk and flour to make the sauce, the kitten kept walking up to my monitor to watch. Had to pull her away so she wouldn't attack the screen.

I would make this recipe just the way the recipe is written. How easy!

I've been doing this for years but never had a name for it. My variation starts with sauteing sliced yellow onion in virgin olive oil then adding chicken thighs on top. Some salt and pepper, cover and cook until the chicken falls off the bone. While this is cooking I make some plain rice. When the rice is ready I drain a can of peas, add to the rice and take the juices and cooked onions and pour over the rice. The peas heat up in the rice almost immediately so by the time this gets to the table it's ready and definitely one of our favorite chicken dishes.

I'll be making this tonight, adding pepper and whole cloves of garlic with the skins on. And making more gravy to go over egg noodles. My family loved your beef stew with biscuit dumplings, thank you!

Smothered Chicken was my nickname in High School.

Made this recipe today. I did reduce the butter to 1/4 cup. I also added pepper and paprika. Great flavor.

I love that there’s a recipe for Johnny Marzetti on the upper right of the first page!

when you said you could add beer ... Yes! This is very similar to my Italian aunt-in-law's Polla alla Birra! It is basically, browning the chicken first in some olive oil, add a couple bottles of beer (enough to mostly cover the chicken), add a Bay leaf or two and some salt. Cover and let cook slowly until the beer has mostly evaporated and what is left is a beautiful thick sauce! Delicious!

Great video, I love how you do simple basic recipes and then encourage your audience to make them their own. Would love for you to do a video where you show us how you took one of the old cook book recipes and made it your own and modernized it, especially if you have a recipe from this series that has made it into your everyday meal rotation.

We actually do this same thing all the time with chicken, we just don't use any butter. The fat from the chicken is enough to do the job (providing there is some dark meat in the skillet, and you leave the skin on) It's good low fat way to cook chicken when no butter is used. We even use skim milk for the gravy, and it works fine, the chicken fat provides plenty of grease.

I paused the video so I could read as much of those two recipe pages as I could see around your fingers. I was struck by how simple all the recipes were, and how salt and maybe pepper were about the only seasonings in any of them. They definitely look like most of them would make tasty food, and for little money, and also in fairly little time. Clearly the depression was still in full force when this book was published, and it was also when much of America considered salt and pepper all you needed for seasonings.

Thankyou, I have finally found a name for this cooking method! I have been cooking what we call 'saucepan chicken' for a few years now. I reinvented it when I had my fryingpan full of other veggies but wanted to braise whole chicken breasts. I just use a couple of glugs of olive oil in a non-stick saucepan and no water. It works best if the breaststroke start tightly packed covering the base of the saucepan. I start the tightly covered pan on high heat and once it starts to sizzle turn down to the low. I turn the chicken once or twice during the approx 20min it takes for the liquid to release then cook away. I ignore the pot for most of this time while making braised veggies and mash. The critical time is once the liquid is almost entirely boiled away it becomes thick caramelised and sticky so using toungs I move the chicken around, rubbing all sides of the chicken on the base of the pan to coat in the now frying chicken caramel. After taking the chicken out to rest I then make a quick gravey with any remaining caramel adding seasoning. The chicken comes out very moist but with complex flavours from the caramelisation.

I love simple recipes like this that one can tweak and make their own. They also show how far we've evolved when it comes to cooking as well. It's pretty amazing when one thinks about it.

Smothered in butter and chicken fat, and completely delicious!!! Have you ever made a British recipe called Bread Sauce? Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

I could watch these old recipes all day! Love it! Thank you!

I would put some pepper

Love the sound of this. Will definitely give it a go.

When you were putting this together, my thought was to add pepper, paprika, and serve the chicken over either rice or egg noodles. Very simple, homey dish.

I grew up in the 80s with something almost identical to this. When you take the chicken out, throw in mushrooms and onions, once they are sauteed, make the gravy much like you did, plus a stock cube. Mom always served it with rice. It was absolutely one of my favorite meals!

Will cook on Friday. Thank you. Love your interaction. 🥰 to you both. 🙏

I made this tonight, but used boneless skinless breasts, because I had some in the freezer. It probably wasn’t as good as yours, because it lacked the chicken fat, but it was still delicious. I added poultry seasoning, like someone else suggested. Thanks for the recipe.

I love all the additions of spice 😍

A trip in the way back mochine for me but we never used milk, we used water instead and sautéed onions for the gravy. You can also coat chicken on both sides with the gravy and leave to simmer on the stove with the lid on. Pork chops are also tasty prepared this way (as well as smothered potatoes).

I think what I would've done is start skin side up. Let the chicken fat render off as much as possible, and then flip the chicken to crisp the skin in the rendered fat. This may also prevent the skin from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Thanks you two....looks good. I will be trying this. Take care

Yes. Orange juice does sound good with this chicken. Almost all of the great cooks passed with the passing of our grandmothers. Glen, Thanks for keeping these recipes alive.

Are "oven chips" what we call "french fries"? haha Love Glen and Jules!

I made this for dinner tonight. I added the mushrooms and some extra spices. Delicious! The pan was scraped clean. I shared this episode on my Facebook page.

I usually see your videos, I like the way you make food. Special I can learn more English when I hear you said in the video. It's really useful. Thank you so much

I want to try this, might use lemon juice, add pepper some onion and garlic.

Serious monk or friar vibes with the apron and matching hoodie

Our variation was remove from grease then use canned mushroom soup milk and green beans for the finishing move. Then served with mashed taters.

I actually have done this before but I use beer or white vermouth instead of water and I add onions, bell peppers and other veggies depending on the mood. Then I pair it with rice and a nice salad. It’s a great basic technique to many possibilities. 👌🏼😉

this is good old fashioned cooking...no fancy pants stuff like everyone thinks we need these days...LESS is MORE sometimes...it's a chicken dish where chicken is the star and is actually what you taste. sprinkle a little pepper in there and leave it alone...YUM-E!

Very good!

Going to make this today! Thanks!

I think this would be really good using red wine instead of water, adding mushrooms, and serving it over egg noodles.

I like this one and your tips on what to throw in are great .

Looks great!

Yummy! Please pass the noodles!

Looks delicious!

This reminds me of something my mom made we called "electric skillet chicken" cause it was made in some really old electric skillet. I think we had mushrooms in it but it looks almost identical to what I remember. That oil is probably liquid gold.

Not to name drop but the recipe from America's Test Kitchen is fantastic. It has a few more things but still quite simple.

This looks good 👍

I would use seasoned salt and pepper, and use some chicken stock to turn those drippings into more gravy for mashed potatoes!! Yum

Looks yummy

Hope to see more in the hanger! Great video as usual!

Another method would be to put some rice in the pan (and a bit more liquid) and then you have a lovely chicken and rice dish. My mom used to do a pork dish like called "Old Faithful". I think it was from Peg Bracken's "The I Hate to Cook Book". And the pork fat infused rice was glorious.