It’s a thing.
At my favorite lunch spot a new menu item caught my attention. “Blackened Airline Chicken” stood proudly alongside the Tian of Curried Chicken, Smoked Salmon Sandwich and the Tropical Mango Salad.
I promptly engaged my lunch partner in airline chicken bashing. What marketing genius thought that “airline chicken” could be appetizing or aspirational?
In hundreds of airline flights… I do not recall a SINGLE memorable chicken entrée. The imagery I associate with airline poultry is a pale blob of meat in a crinkly aluminum tray.
But… I ordered the blackened airline chicken to exercise my latest mantra “do something everyday that scares you”. It was delicious… moist chicken cooked on a wood grill with yellow and red peppers on a bed of rice. Yum.
This delicious new dish won’t get its due because of its name. Why not call it… “Harvest Chicken” or “Pepper Tree Chicken”?
My campaign to change the menu had begun. On my next visit I asked our server who on earth had named the “Blackened Airline Chicken”. I considered writing the manager with alternate suggestions.
I visited NYC recently and told my nieces the story of the “blackened airline chicken” and invited them to brainstorm alternative names. (A side note… this discussion happened at an Easter Brunch at a vegan restaurant).
What sparked the chicken story was this item (listed on the menu as “vegan bacon”):
Yes. I tried it. It was a thin, watery fruit roll with a bean-y taste and a gelatinous aftertaste.
Two weeks after we returned from the East Coast I received this text from my niece:
Airline Chicken. It’s a thing. Gordon Ramsay says so…
I stand corrected. But I contend that “Harvest Chicken” will sell better!
P.S. Don’t order the vegan bacon!
This essay originally published on April 17, 2018.
Remember Beer Can Chicken, where you stuck a can of beer in a chicken and cooked the whole thing? Not sure how an airline would fit inside a chicken….but if Gordon Ramsey puts it on his menu, I’ll give it a shot!
That motivated me to go try – eventhough I will settle long term on the Tian Curried Chicken. For the same reason people that detest Howard Stern listened longer than the average Strrn listener, I am going airline.