Who Invented Southern Fried Chicken?

People have been frying chicken for time immemorial. It's impossible to know who was the first to do it, since different civilizations around the world may have independently invented the recipe. After all, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to think of frying a meat you already consume. But though this dish is found in many countries around the world, the modern global idea of fried chicken is largely based on the recipe from the American South. So who invented this version, and how did it become ubiquitous around the planet? We may not have a clear answer, but there are interesting theories, and the most probable of which is very surprising.

Evidence points to Southern fried chicken originating from none other than Scottish immigrants. Unlike the English, who like to bake or boil meat, Scots are fans of frying everything from haggis to fish and yes, chicken. There are 18th-century recipes from that region for what is essentially fried chicken (though the name  is different). The theory is that Scottish immigrants who came to the American South from the 17th to 19th centuries brought the tradition with them. Some of these immigrants were slave owners, and they may have taught the Black people that they enslaved and exploited how to make the dish. Eventually, enslaved people appropriated (and probably improved) the dish, bringing their own spices and cooking techniques to the table until fried chicken became a staple of Southern cuisine.

At this time, fried chicken was labor intensive and difficult to make, so it was a dish served on special occasions. This is probably why the first fried chicken recipe published in the U.S. comes from Mary Randolph, who came from a family of plantation owners and enslavers. She published the recipe in 1824's "The Virginia Housewife Or, Methodical Cook," which is considered America's first cookbook. Randolph's recipe was likely the one that the people she enslaved made for her famous dinners.

While Randolph unfairly got credit for a recipe that continues to be the basis of Southern fried chicken, she didn't get the last laugh. After the Civil War, the dish provided Black women with a way to make money in a world that denied them other economic opportunities. The most prominent example of this happened in Gordonsville, Virginia, which became known as "The Fried Chicken Capital of the World" in the early 20th century because of the waiter carriers who would sell fried chicken and other foods to travelers at the train station. Much like San Antonio's Chili Queens, who brought chili con carne to Texas, these women put the city on the map and took the dish to other levels.

At the same time, fried chicken also became a way to attack Black people with cartoonish stereotypes. They were chastised for using the same recipe that Randolph was praised for — though she had stolen it from them in the first place.

Though the waiter carriers made fried chicken at home, they were able to bring it from the family table and into train stations. Still, it wasn't until the 1950s that fried chicken broke into the world of fast food thanks to Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken. As globalization spread fast food chains around the world, KFC became what people think of when they imagined American fried chicken. Almost no one — least of all Europeans — would imagine that the United States got the dish from Scotland. But cultural exchange works both ways, and immigration has once again changed the fried chicken landscape in the country. You can now enjoy delicious versions like the unbelievably crispy Korean fried chicken, spicy Guatemalan fried chicken, or kaarage, the Japanese method for making superior fried chicken.

Today, you can find fried chicken everywhere — some of the best can even be found in gas stations — and there are a myriad of fast food fried chicken places. (Ironically, we think KFC is one the lowest quality fast food chicken chains.) There's nothing wrong with fast food fried chicken, but we should question the idea that it's only fit for casual restaurants. After all, no one would deem Italian pizza lowbrow just because Papa John's exists. While we wait for the world to wake up to this fact, we'll continue enjoying Southern fried chicken at family restaurants where it's always cooked to perfection.