A miraculous bird!

I'm not sure I'm THAT impressed by the concept of chicken, but my booklet The Miraculous Broiler-Fryer Chicken sure is. That's probably because it was put out by the Poultry and Egg National Board. (The pamphlet is undated, but addresses don't include zip codes. That means it probably from before July 1, 1963.)

I'm not entirely sure that whoever owned this before me was all that impressed either. Of the two notes I found in this recipe collection, one was simply "NO." (I thought it was a scribble at first, but then I realized it was a reaction.)

The writer did not elaborate on what the problem with "PRETZEL-FRIED CHICKEN (Deep-fat)" was. Most people love fried chicken, and I'd think pretzels would give it a nice, salty crunch, but the recipe reviewer was clearly not a fan. The other note I found was somewhat more enthusiastic.

There is no follow-up to the "Try" note, though, so I don't know whether this person actually tried hot chicken salad or what they thought of it if they did. Based on the black-and-white photo of said salad, I would never have guessed these things are supposed to be topped with cheese and crushed potato chips. Looks more like chopped egg or maybe avocado.

A lot of the recipes are, as one might expect, pretty standard. Barbecued chicken, roast chicken, chicken pot pie, chicken cacciatore. There are a few somewhat more surprising preparations. You might suppose these are the mid-century version of chicken enchiladas if you didn't look too closely.

But then you'd notice all the greenery and orange slices around the carb-coated chicken tubes. These are actually Chicken Pancakes Imperial. 

I'm still not really sure why the oranges are there, as the pancakes are just wrapped around plain chicken moistened with a milk-based gravy, then topped with more of the gravy. It's giving me bizarre orange-and-cream vibes. 

But then again, orange chicken is pretty common now, and it was back then too.

And just look at the cute half-orange filled with (Cranberries? Grapes? Marbles?) for serving.

Less cute is this chicken mound on the opposing page.

Looks like chicken and wallpaper paste, but it's actually Chicken Cantonese.

I would have assumed this "Cantonese" recipe was Hawaiian Chicken, considering how much pineapple is in it, but this booklet associates coconuts and curry (rather than pineapple) with Hawaii.

Honestly, the thing that sounds best to me out of all this is the pretzel-fried chicken, but the original cookbook owner probably thinks I'm wrong about that.... There is no accounting for taste.