Engagement Chicken – A Magical Food that Causes Marriage

Glamour magazine made it popular in January 2004, I didn’t see the article, but I read about it in a letter to the editor as it was credited with a string of marriages. Named “Engagement Chicken,” it was a simple to prepare entree that is supposedly so delectable that whomever it’s prepared for falls so deeply in love that they propose in record time. I believe in a lot of things; ghosts and demonic possession, hexes and voodoo, psychic abilities and even UFOs, but a magical chicken that causes marriage? Yeah, right.

I admit I was mildly curious, but my amusement overrode even that the more I thought about it. I realized that it would be a good story line for a book and decided to research this supposedly Heavenly dinner. To date, the Google search engine acknowledges the chicken 191,000 times. Apparently it wasn’t the big secret that I assumed it would be, if men knew about it they would mistrust any food even containing chicken and many would refuse to eat it. Testimonials seem to point towards the chickens home cooked appeal as the main reason for it’s success. It’s something that a wife would cook and therefore makes men think of marriage. Everything that I cook is homemade; yet I was still single. This explanation did not satisfy me. The way to a mans heart really is his stomach, yet my finger remained bare. Maybe all I had needed to know was how to cook lemon-pepper chicken. I forgot about my idea for the book, now all I wanted to do was prove that this chicken was simply a product of mass hysteria. Although my boyfriend and I had lived together for almost a year, we had no plans to wed. He had been married and divorced four times and I had no intention of becoming his fifth mistake. There is no better way to research something than with a science experiment, so with that in mind I set off to the store wondering what exactly kosher salt was and if they sold it in the grocery store. The chicken was easy to prepare and when I took it out of the oven, it was the absolute best thing that I had ever eaten let alone made. I would have married me.

At first I set the table with the good dishes and fancy silver, skipping the candles and soft music-it was good, but not worth any extra trouble. Besides it was only a chicken. When my boyfriend failed to come inside in a timely manner I ate by myself, returning my one small romantic touch back into the hutch. Hours later he had microwave reheated chicken and sides in front of the television. I didn’t receive a proposal, but I was complimented for several days afterward. I gave him two months, most people were married within that time frame. I had disproved the engagement chicken.

That’s what I thought at the time. About six months later he did ask me to marry him. He had cheated on me and I saw this as his pathetic way to put a band aid on the pain he caused me. Once again, I refused to give credit to the chicken.

Because the chicken had proved to be so delicious, I usually made it once a month for dinner, not only was it tasty, but leftovers worked well in Alfredo and rice dishes. Wanting to impress my new boyfriend with my cooking abilities, I made the chicken, skipping all romantic overtures. The “Engagement” part in the recipe was the last thing on my mind. The chicken was that; a simple chicken. Not the answer for millions of women listening to the tick of their biological clocks, not something that I should have made for my high school sweetheart, or for some rich man if I were a gold digger. It was only a chicken, I can’t say that I wasn’t warned.

As much as I hate to admit it, I think the chicken actually worked. Five months later we were married, it was either the most irresponsible and impulsive thing that I have ever done or it was the chicken.It had reeled in a man whose first marriage had ended so badly that he had sworn never to marry again. Trapped by poultry, who’d of thought?

Unfortunately, I must admit that Engagement Chicken looks like a fact. Over a hundred thousand people can’t be wrong. I thought that my skepticism was like a shield, but I was married in less than six months. I wonder if the marriages last and I worry, I do not recommend making Engagement Chicken for anybody or any reason. Ever. Some things just aren’t meant to be. A magic chicken may seem like the perfect solution, but it doesn’t help to overcome simple incompatibility or any one of the million hurtles that newly weds face. The chicken does work, it’s a simple, easy to follow recipe; but don’t say that you weren’t warned. I scoffed at the notion, but somehow it worked.