Get the Habit

April 27, 1968, Appleton Post-Crescent

Mainstay of Valley Fair and Fox Point for years.  I was always curious about the "broasted" chicken.  Apparently it is a trademarked process, available only to licensed restaurants.  As it turns out, broasting is a method of cooking chicken and other foods using a pressure fryer and condiments, a technique invented by a Mr. L.A.M. Phelan in the early 1950s and marketed by the Broaster Company of Beloit, Wisconsin, which Phelan founded.The method essentially combines pressure cooking with deep frying chicken that has been marinated and breaded.  This is obviously a northern thing.  The company still exists and from its web site, you can search for restaurants in your area that use the patented process.  I counted 45 locations in a 25 mile radius of Menasha that use this.  From my home in South Carolina, I found only one.