If you find yourself craving mangoes this year, or if Asian flavors start informing your every move in the kitchen, don't be surprised. Those are just two of the trends spotted at the 45th National Chicken Cooking Contest held recently in Baltimore.
If the contest recipes are any indicator of what America will be cooking at home, you'll also be using more convenience foods to whip up easy dishes for family dinners and, of course, devouring tons of chicken.
It's not just the contest that places chicken at the center of the plate. According to Harry Balzer of NPD Group, a research firm that tracks American eating habits, we consume more chicken than any other protein. Beef ranks a close second, with pork and seafood lagging far behind.
"As for lamb and variety meats," quips Balzer, "I can give you the phone numbers of the three people who are eating them."
He adds that while studies show that we are cooking less, three-quarters of all meals are still made at home.
So the question is this: In this time-crunched, crazy world of ours, where many people profess not to know a skillet from a spatula, how exactly are we cooking that chicken?
The National Chicken Cooking Contest, the oldest continually running recipe contest in the United States, seems as good a place as any to look for insight. Founded in 1949, the contest sponsored by the National Chicken Council and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is now a biennial affair that corrals 51 contestants from all the states and the District of Columbia.
Whether or not the dishes entered in the contest can be considered bellwethers of American home cooking is something to ponder. Many of the contestants are recipe-contest junkies who routinely enter - and sometimes win - cooking competitions.
Still, said Elton Maddox, NCC chairman, trends do start here. He points to Norma Young of Arkansas, 1971 winner for her Dipper's Nuggets Chicken. "This was the first introduction of chicken nuggets on the national scene," he said. "It was a few years later that certain chains came on with their own version of nuggets."
Last year's winner, he said, Bob Gadsby of Montana, jump-started a move toward assembling rather than cooking dishes. His Tuscan Chicken Cakes With Tomato-Basil Relish used a store-bought rotisserie chicken, chopped and shredded.
