09/20/2026
If you’re wondering about the magic of Broasted Chicken… read on! We are proud to serve this deliciousness that is Wisconsin born.
Broasted chicken traces directly back to Beloit, Wisconsin, where inventor L.A.M. Phelan created something genuinely new in 1953, a machine that combined a deep fryer with a pressure cooker into a single appliance. He called the process Broasting, blending the words broiled and roasted even though the food is technically neither, and patented the equipment itself under the name Broaster.
What makes broasted chicken different from ordinary fried chicken comes down entirely to that pressure element. Cooking the chicken under pressure while it fries shortens the cooking time dramatically, seals in moisture that would normally cook out, and produces a crust that's crisp on the outside while keeping the meat noticeably juicier inside. Phelan's seasoning blend, dusted onto the chicken before it goes into the fryer, has stayed largely unchanged since he perfected it, which is why broasted chicken carries that same distinct salty flavor no matter where in the state you order it.
Timing worked entirely in Phelan's favor. Right around the same time he was refining his invention, Wisconsin's roadhouses and dance halls were transforming into a new kind of dining destination, the supper club, built around a relaxed evening out with a set weekly menu and a bar that filled up before dinner ever started. Broasting fit that model perfectly, giving supper club owners a way to serve a signature, high quality chicken dish quickly and consistently without the labor of traditional deep frying.
Broaster Company still operates out of Beloit today, and the brand has guarded its name fiercely. Restaurants can only legally call their chicken Broasted if they're actually using Broaster's own pressure fryers, proprietary coatings, and marinades, which is part of why the term still means something specific in Wisconsin rather than functioning as a generic stand in for fried chicken. Longtime Wisconsin supper clubs like Parnell's Place in Oshkosh, Van Abel's of Hollandtown, and Gosse's at the Northwestern House in Sheboygan have built decades of loyalty around it, some of them serving Broaster chicken continuously since the 1970s and earning the company's own golden chicken award for operator excellence along the way.
More than seventy years after Phelan first hooked a pressure cooker to a deep fryer in Beloit, broasted chicken has spread to restaurants worldwide, but it's still treated in Wisconsin the way it always has been, less like a menu item and more like a supper club birthright, the dish you order without needing to ask what makes it different from regular fried chicken.
