Elvis Wouldn't Eat Chicken Unless It Was Served Without These Pesky Parts

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One test of what makes a true superstar is if we're still talking about that person decades after their death. Many of today's celebs may be mere flashes in the pan, but Elvis has been gone for nearly 50 years, and his star power hasn't dimmed a bit. Even his famous (or infamous) peanut butter-banana-bacon sandwich, which may be the greatest celebrity recipe of all time, is still inspiring menu items ranging from burgers to milkshakes to waffles. He was also quite fond of fried chicken, which comes as no surprise because of his Southern background. Still, the way he liked to eat it is a bit out of the ordinary — Southern fried chicken is typically bone-in, but Elvis preferred it with the bones removed.

This insider info comes from Mary Jenkins Langston, the chef behind Elvis' iconic peanut butter and banana sandwiches and author of an out-of-print memoir called "Elvis, Memories Beyond Graceland Gates." (Used copies are selling for upwards of $500 on Amazon.) According to Langston, Elvis really didn't care for chicken with bones in it, and he also preferred it cut into bite-sized pieces (via Salon). It sounds like he'd have been a fan of chicken nuggets if they'd been better known back then — although this item was invented by a food scientist in 1963, it wasn't until the '80s that it was popularized by McDonald's. He may have enjoyed popcorn chicken, too, but this dish debuted at Taiwanese night markets in 1979 (two years after his death) and didn't reach the U.S. until KFC started selling it in the '90s.

We're not sure where Elvis's aversion to bone-in chicken arose. Apparently, fried chicken was a staple when he was growing up, but did his mom remove the bones for him, or did he once choke on a bone, causing him to shun them in later years? According to Salon, Mary Jenkins Langston said that he didn't care for any type of food with bones in it, although he's known to have ordered rib deliveries from a Tennessee restaurant called Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous. (Perhaps the rib meat was literally fall-off-the-bone tender, so his staff could simply pick the bones out before he encountered them.) No bones about it, though, Elvis must have really loved fried chicken since it featured as an entree at his 1967 wedding to Priscilla. 

The menu on that occasion was an eclectic combo of down-home and uptown, including such dishes as oysters Rockefeller, Southern fried chicken, roast suckling pig, and lobster, along with champagne and a six-tiered cake. About a month after the wedding, the couple threw a second reception at Graceland, where it's likely some of Elvis's favorite boneless foods were served at the buffet.