Laschet's Fried Chicken, Who Knew?

Trixie-Pea, that's who.

Ellen and I met Trixie-Pea, Pigmon and ChiNOLA for a spur of the moment dinner at Laschet's this evening. After a round or two of Aventinus Wheat Dopplebock, at ChiNOLA's suggestion, couple of orders of Hackepeter, herring in cream sauce and surprisingly good onion rings we were on to the main courses.

Earlier in the day ChiNOLA had told me Austin Leslie who, without a doubt, makes the best fried chicken in the world, just moved from Jacques-Imo's Cafe to Pampy's Creole Kitchen, so I was in the mood for fried chicken. (Austin Leslie, and his original Chez Helen, always put me in mind of fried chicken)

When I mentioned I was thinking of ordering fried chicken Trixie-Pea stated, unequivocally, German restaurants make good fried chicken, the crust is always nice and crisp. Crisp was all I needed to hear, one order of fried chicken please.

Laschet's fried chicken was very good, T-P was right, crisp crust, tender, juicy wing and thigh, my favorite parts of the chicken. The breast was, while not dry, not moist either, but chicken breast is notoriously difficult to keep juicy, and the leg looked good, but I passed that to T-P, which she shared with Pigmon.

The rest of our dinners were the usual Laschet's very darn good, though Ellen was not wild about her Leberkase, which is billed as veal loaf, but tastes more on the order of processed ham loaf. Though it is served with a fried egg on top, which adds bonus points from my perspective.

We finished with complimentary Pear Schnapps. A very nice meal, good company and damn good, though not in Austin Leslie's league, fried chicken.

Enjoy,
Gary

Laschet's Inn
2119 W. Irving Park Rd.
773-478-7915

Hi,

If only you had recalled my post on their leberkase, you might have reconsidered your choice. It certainly struck us as a processed meat-type preparation.

There is a German-Austrian preparation of pan fried chicken cooked with butter, which is quite similar to Chicken Vesuvio sans garlic.

Regards,

If only you had recalled my post on their leberkase, you might have reconsidered your choice. It certainly struck us as a processed meat-type preparation.

Well, in point of fact, that's precisely what it is supposed to be. Leberkäse (a.k.a. Fleischkäse) is, in essence, a style of pâté. Though there are -- not surprisingly -- a fair number of variants, a basic sort of version is based on a combination of finely ground pork and finely ground veal (or beef), along with similarly finely or less finely ground "grüner Speck" and some basic flavourings (typically onion, marjoram, white pepper). Other versions include a good dose of pork liver along with pork and other seasonings I've seen (and/or tasted) in Leber- oder Fleischkäse are nutmeg, caraway and even garlic. The ingredients are ground up, formed into a loaf and baked (with steam) in a terrine or loaf pan. It can, of course, be eaten cold but is preferably fried up and it is often topped off with a Spiegelei, as done at Laschet's, and served alongside potato salad or Bratkartoffeln.

This is one of the basic and staple German dishes, in the old days made at home with the old Fleischwolf but nowadays probably mostly purchased from a butcher shop or delikatessen. I'd be surprised if there are many out there who have German relatives that have maintained culinary traditions or many who have spent much time in Germany who haven't also had their share of this dish (or at least something fairly similar). Though more strongly associated with the south and especially Bavaria, Leber- oder Fleischkäse, in one form or another, is eaten throughout Germany –– my maximally non-South German relatives made it now and again.

Made well with high quality ingredients, Leber- oder Fleischkäse is delicious; made less well, it starts to resemble it's American, industrially produced cousin: Spam.

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There is a German-Austrian preparation of pan fried chicken cooked with butter, which is quite similar to Chicken Vesuvio sans garlic.

Chicken fried in butter, sans garlic, doesn't sound especially like 'Chicken Vesuvio' to me, especially as the dish has been defined by champions of the theory of its invention in Chicago. But further discussion of that topic is clearly pointless.

In my experience with German cooking, I've never come across any traditional recipe that could legitimately be said to resemble pollo arrosto con le patate or the Chicago take thereon, which of course does not mean such a recipe does not exist; I would therefore be eager to see a recipe for or description of this dish, preferably or hopefully with some note on its regional origins or popularity. I also haven't come across such a dish in the Austrian repertoire, though of course Austrian cuisine has been influenced to a noteworthy degree by the cuisines of Italy no less than by Hungary.

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Fried chicken in the German-speaking lands is thought of as an Austrian and especially Viennese dish and, in so far as the dish involves virtually the same manner of breading as is used in the famous Viennese take on the veal cutlet, Wiener Schnitzel, this association seems to make good sense. Similarly treated chicken is also popular in parts of northern Italy and Hungary, a distribution which bespeaks spread within the cultural zone of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but doesn't necessarily give evidence for a particular point of origin.

In Austria, Backhendl is primarily or at least was traditionally a dish reserved for special occasions, such as Christmas and Easter or the local kermis (i.e., the feast day of the patron saint of a given church). By the way, according to one of my Austrian cookbooks (Österreich in the DTV Reichtum... series), the chicken livers should also be breaded and fried up. For serving, only lemon wedges are recommended (no gravy or such), as is the case with the analogous veal dish from Vienna.

Antonius

G Wiv wrote:Trixie-Pea, that's who.

Ellen and I met Trixie-Pea, Pigmon and ChiNOLA for a spur of the moment dinner at Laschet's this evening. After a round or two of Aventinus Wheat Dopplebock, at ChiNOLA's suggestion, couple of orders of Hackepeter, herring in cream sauce and surprisingly good onion rings we were on to the main courses.

Yet another enjoyable meal with LTHers. I agree that the onion rings were surprisingly good. Guess the fry cook was really on last night. I posted earlier here about the Aventinus Dopplebock, which was very good, but I still need to try their Eisbock. Something about freezing kegs & skimming off the high alcohol liquid that doesn't freeze is intriguing to me. Maybe that says something about my drinking habits......

G Wiv wrote:Laschet's fried chicken was very good, T-P was right, crisp crust, tender, juicy wing and thigh, my favorite parts of the chicken. The breast was, while not dry, not moist either, but chicken breast is notoriously difficult to keep juicy, and the leg looked good, but I passed that to T-P, which she shared with Pigmon.

I had a piece of Gary's breast & must admit I was surprised at how good it was (the chicken, that is. While I'm sure Gary's breast would be quite tasty if prepared properly, given his steady diet of grade A BBQ, fried chicken & other assorted luscious treats, I'm not quite ready to descend into cannibalism just yet). I'd have to say that the fried chicken is one of the better menu options at Laschet's.

Antonius wrote:Fried chicken in the German-speaking lands is thought of as an Austrian and especially Viennese dish and, in so far as the dish involves virtually the same manner of breading as is used in the famous Viennese take on the veal cutlet, Wiener Schnitzel, this association seems to make good sense.

And good eatin'...

I almost always opt for fried items at German or Austrian restaurants, be it fried chicken, various Schnitzels, even fish...not because of my love for fried food, but because these restaurants just seem to do it better than most. I'm not sure what the exact technique is that gets everything so crispy and at the same time juicy and light--but there seems to be an uncanny consistency across the board.

I do love a good fried chicken, and my favorite fried chicken is the Southern buttermilk pan-fried variety. The German restaurant fried chicken is a completely different animal--sometimes brined (although I didn't think Laschet's version was), and then breaded (I think whatever they use to bread is the key to its crispiness), and deep fat fried. A stand out version, I think, is done by the Brat Stop up in Kenosha. They use a pressure frier which keeps the chicken (even the white meat) extra juicy. You have to wear goggles to keep the chicken juices from scorching your eyeballs.

trixie-pea

That pressure fryer must be the infamous "broaster" of broasted chicken fame.

Grieben/Grammeln

Over the past three months or so, Laschet's has become a favourite spot for me, most often for purely liquid nourishment but also for the occasional meal. Some time back –– I would guess in late March –- I made one of my regular late-night, post-hockey visits to the place and, lo and behold, had the great fortune of running into GWiv there. While we were chatting over drinks (mine, a nice bottle of Kölsch), Janine, the bartender that evening, suddenly appeared before us with a small bowl of oddly shaped little brown thingies: like mana from heaven, there appeared a bowl of Grieben (in Austria and Bavaria, generally called Grammeln), that is, pork cracklings. Now, these are not available every day at Laschet's –– they're a by-product of the preparation of roast pork –– and I don't believe they are necessarily offered as a bar snack, but clearly GWiv and I had managed to behave ourselves well enough to earn this little, marvelously delicious gift.

Well, on only one subsequent visit (and there have been many) have I since had the similar good fortune to get a snack of Grieben at Laschet's, this second time while visiting there in the late afternoon with fellow LTHer Choey. Behold:



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On another recent occasion, I had dinner there and ordered a Jägerschnitzel, which was really delicious and came with a very generous share of mushrooms in the sauce:



Now I'm also looking forward to trying the fried chicken.

Guten Appetit und Prost!
Antonius

I was suitably impressed by the grieben (ciccioli south of the Dolomites), backed up by a few Maibocks, and I must return to try their fried chicken, STAT.