The Old-School Chocolate Bar That's Named After Chicken

It may sound like a punchline, but it was real, and for decades, the "Chicken Dinner" candy bar ruled as one of the strangest successes in American sweets. While many vintage chocolate bars have made their mark on the industry, few can claim the impact and influence of this Sperry Candy Co. confection. Introduced by the Milwaukee-based candy manufacturer in 1923, the candy bar named "Chicken Dinner" depicted a giant, plated roasted chicken. Curiosity, chaos, and confusion ensued. Was it chicken-flavored chocolate? A candy bar stuffed with mashed potatoes? That was all part of the marketing to drum up excitement and get people clucking about this candy bar.

The actual candy bar didn't contain any chicken but rather a peanut roll center, layers of caramel and fudge-like cream, all coated in milk chocolate. But the '20s and '30s were the golden ages for candy making, and Sperry Candy Co. needed a bar that would stand out and compete with heavy hitters in a recently thriving market like Baby Ruth, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers, which happens to hold the title for the most famous chocolate bar in the US today. 

Bizarre as it seemed, the gimmick took flight. The Chicken Dinner candy bar soared in popularity over the years, snagging its own billboards, banners, and even a chicken truck to market its appeal.

The origin of the chicken gimmick is a little murky. Some sources cite the need to grab attention in a competitive candy market, but others claim it was to portray exclusivity in an era when chicken dinners were considered a luxury. "The Great American Candy Bar Book" compares it to families being fortunate to have a meal in an era when meat was expensive and food was scarce: "A whole roasted chicken on a candy bar wrapper symbolized something substantial in terms of food value." (Via Mental Floss.)

Sperry had a full-feathered marketing strategy for this candy, including billboards, store banners, and print ads. In 1926, the company rolled out trucks topped with giant metal chickens that delivered the candy to stores and clucked when they honked. 

Chicken Dinner remained popular until the early 1960s, when Pearson Candy Company acquired Sperry. While you can't buy it anymore, Milwaukee-based Kopp's Frozen Custard occasionally sells a "Chicken Dinner" custard as a nod to the nostalgic treat. The peanut butter custard features peanuts, peanut butter ribbons, marshmallows, and chocolate. If you're actually craving a chicken-flavored confection, Hammond's Candies makes a Chicken & Waffles bar that combines that with waffle-like wafer cookies and maple syrup.

We did manage to find someone who tried this crazy confection. "I [had] many of these Chicken Dinner candy bars in my youth," said Ruth Mezzoni on the Forgotten Wisconsin Facebook page. "They were 5 cents. I enjoyed them so much. I wish they would come back."