Chicago Chicken (1931, 1933, 1934)

[Jonathon Green]

FWIW the refs to 'Chicago chicken' in HDAS and CDS are not to the
recipe/dish of the same name as cited by Barry, although of course since
pork is one of the ingredients that there may be some link. The term in
slang is a 'satirical' euph. for salt pork, based on the city's meat-packing
industry; other porcine 'chickens' include 'Cincinnati chicken' (another
meat-packing city, known as 'Porkopolis' before Chicago took over),
'Arkansas chicken' and 'Georgia chicken', although the 'joke' in these
latter duo presumably refers to the consumption of pork rather than to its
processing.

Jonathon Green