Mission: 7-Up Chicken

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For almost the last year, I’ve been on a mission to make 7-Up Chicken. When Tom and I were invited to an Amish wedding last April (can’t believe almost a year has passed!), 7-up Chicken was served at the reception luncheon. We loved it.

Correction~I liked it a lot. My husband Loved It.

He loved it so much that he talked about it all the time, and asked me to get the recipe.  The only ingredient that we knew for sure was in it was the chicken-and that the chicken had been soaked in 7-up the night before it was cooked.  

Getting the recipe sounded easy enough. I wrote the mother of the bride, thanked her for the invitation, etc., and asked, when she had time, if she could please send me the recipe. Then I waited. And waited. Two months went by. No response.

Hmm.

Not ready to give up, I asked my Amish friend Clara (who was the bride’s aunt) if she knew how I could get the recipe. She very kindly wrote me back and told me that the only recipe they had served about 100 people. That was surely too many people for me. So, no recipe.

Feeling a little silly-after all, I make Great Fried Chicken, if I do say so myself-I reported back to my husband that the recipe was a no-go. He looked horrified.  He said he’d be happy to do all the math to reduce the recipe…just get that recipe. Please.

 Grudgingly, and kind of feeling a little foolish, I wrote another letter and  asked again.

Then I started worrying that this ’7-Up Chicken’ was a special ‘family’ recipe, kind of like my mother’s chicken pie. Maybe the family didn’t want to give out the recipe, they were just too polite to tell me that.  So when Amy, Vannetta, and I were on the Amish book tour and stopped at Clara’s house for breakfast, I asked if that was the case.

Clara thought my latest question was very humorous. Turns out, no…it wasn’t a secret, it was just that her sister hadn’t had time to write it out. That made sense. These ladies are busy. 

And, well, there always comes a time when you know you’re being a pain. I had felt that time had come with my asking and asking about that recipe. So I told my husband just to remember that meal and let it rest in peace. After all, we’d certainly done that with excellent restaurant meals!

Then, right before Christmas I got a Christmas card from Freida…With The Recipe For 7-up Chicken. Yay!! Big cheers here. 7-Up Chicken, Here We Come!

Then, of course, ‘Life’ happened. My mother passed away and off we went to California. Next, I came home to revisions on a book and had another book due. Tired of the Christmas mess, I put all the Christmas cards we received in a box and set them in the basement. And pretty much forgot about my recipe quest.

Until last night. I was watching American Idol and got kind of bored. Then I started looking through cookbooks…and then I remembered that recipe.  Yikes! Off I went into our storage room, dug out the box, sorted through all the cards…and found Freida’s card.

Success!  I called up my traveling husband and told him to get ready-his favorite meal was going to be prepared on Saturday night.

But now that’s not to be. When I reread the recipe, I discovered that  two of the ingredients (Emma Yoders Coating Mix and runion) were bought from the Walnut Creek Cheese Shop. Now the meal is on hold again until:

 a) I get a chance to go to Keim’s Market in Adams County (in the Amish community an hour away) to see if they have these ingredients

 or

 b)I get back to Holmes County to the Walnut Creek Cheese Shop (four hours away) 

So, my husband is going to have to wait just a little longer, because by now I’m determined that there will be no substitutions!  I’m going to make this recipe exactly how it is written. We’ve waited this long, we can wait a little longer, for sure. <g>

I just hope when I finally do make the meal, it tastes just as good as we remember. 

Between you and me? I kind of doubt it will. We had 7-Up Chicken on a prettily decorated table under a white tent alongside an amazing amount of wonderful side dishes.  The meal was served by friends of the bride wearing lovely green dresses.

Outside, it was warm and sunny, we had just watched a beautiful exchange of wedding vows, and everyone was teasing me about putting the wedding-and all of the attendents- in my latest book.

Tom and I were happy, laughing, and enjoyed every bite of that meal. That afternoon had felt just about perfect. It’s going to hard to replicate, I think.

But I’m going to give it a try. My quest for Amish 7-Up chicken has actually been kind of fun. It’s been a fun challenge to try so hard to get something just right.  

Has anyone else been on a recipe quest before? What was the recipe for? And, by any chance, did it turn out as good as you remembered?

with blessings to you,

Shelley

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