In the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, a similar firehouse chicken recipe — with the additions of lemon juice and garlic, and a very Virginian preference for peanut oil — is known and preserved as “Dave Shirkey’s chicken,” after the well-loved man who popularized it there.
But each community chicken shack in Delaware and Maryland seems to make chicken its way. Some use egg. Some leave it out. Some like spice, some don’t.
In part, this happened because the Delmarva Chicken Festival moved from town to town, Parvis said. Each crew received the recipe as guidance, but also had its own ideas.
“And it was always a different group of people that was doing the barbecue, and many of them had their own recipe,” Parvis said.
To this day, each decades-old chicken shack keeps its recipe a guarded secret.
“There’s nothing like this anywhere,” said Dawn Perry, dining with her husband and son at the Greenwood shack. “It’s definitely the sauce.”
