Why Chicken Was a Luxury in 1928 America: How Ordinary Families Really Ate

In 1928, a famous political ad boasted that America had put "a chicken in every pot." It sounds funny today, because back then, chicken wasn't cheap at all. For millions of families, it was a once-a-week treat, and one small bird had to feed a whole family of eight.

This documentary travels across 1928 America, from Iowa farms and New York poultry markets to Southern churchyards and immigrant kitchens, to uncover how families planned, cooked, divided and stretched a single Sunday chicken, and how a small mistake on a Delaware farm changed the way the whole country eats.

⏱ CHAPTERS
0:00 A Chicken in Every Pot
1:20 Why Chicken Cost So Much
3:10 Saturday Across America
4:40 Sunday Morning
6:20 One Bird, Eight Plates
8:20 Stretching the Bird
9:40 The Week After Sunday
10:00 The Chicken Revolution
11:10 Four Realities
12:40 Back to the Pot