Harvey House Restaurants
Harvey House Restaurant’s famous Chicken Maciel
Fred Harvey’s chain of successful restaurants in the old west along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad lines revolutionized the way travelers dined. Whole pies were divided into 4 pieces! Harvey’s last words were “Don’t cut the ham too thin”. Fred was a stickler for quality and value for the customer. By 1900, Harvey had 65 restaurants, 12 hotels and employed over 5,000 people, half of which were women. What really led to success? The Harvey Girls…
In 1883, Fred started hiring the Harvey Girls, his iconic female waitresses. He fired all the male waiters at his Raton, New Mexico location (for brawling) and replaced them with “young women 18-30 years old, of good character, attractive and intelligent.” There were strict rules for the Harvey girls that prohibited make up, gum and jewelry. They had to promise not to marry for the duration of their contract (usually 6, 9 or 12 months). The benefits? Room & board were provided, although the girls lived in dormitories with strict curfews and rules about male visitors.
The Fred Harvey restaurants were efficient and reliable for train travelers. The conductor would wire by telegraph totals of passengers that would be eating in the lunch room or more expensive dining room ahead of time. A gong sounded when the train pulled in to alert the Harvey girls, waiting to welcome passengers in for a brief but delicious meal. Harvey hired European chefs and the food was of the highest quality. Harvey had access to fresh produce, meat and seafood right off the refrigerated railroad cars.
Joe Maciel with Westport Room staff
Joe Maciel in the Westport Room, Kansas City Union Station
The Fred Harvey Company was headquartered in my favorite place on earth, Kansas City Union Station. At Union Stations across the country, Harvey had restaurants, coffee shops, soda fountains, cocktail lounges, newsstands and giftshops-complete with Harvey Brand coffee and scotch. Harvey girls were hired in the Kansas City and Chicago Union Stations, then trained in Kansas Harvey House restaurants before being “sent out on the line”. As a Kansas City native myself, I was especially drawn to a dish invented at the Kansas City Union Station Harvey Restaurant, The Westport Room. Chicken Maciel was the premier dish of the Westport Room, so special that a gong was rung when one was ordered, a nod to the past when Harvey Girls would ring the gong to alert the staff that a train was entering the station. Chicken Maciel was named for the Westport Room’s maître d, Joe Maciel, who charmed the female customers with his signature greeting, “Good Evening Miss America.” This dish is spectacular! The Westport Room menu describes Chicken Maciel as “large pieces of chicken in a rich sherry wine sauce flavored with curry, served with buttered rice.” As with many fancy restaurants of this time (1936-1968), serving a dish table-side in a chaffing dish was the height of sophistication. Kansas City’s Union Station has a beautiful museum dedicated to the Harvey House restaurants and I was delighted to view the original china, Harvey Girl uniforms, and memorabilia. The Chicken Maciel recipe is on view at this museum and I based the recipe here on it. I do have some recommendations to improve it, but overall, it was a really delicious dish! I created a separate recipe for the “cream sauce” that it calls for but doesn’t include. Also, I cut the curry powder in half because it was a little overwhelming. I believe they meant to write “broil for 4 to 5 minutes” not 45 minutes. If you did broil this dish for 45 minutes, it would be burnt beyond recognition. I also chose not to mix the rice with the chicken and sauce.
My version of Chicken Maciel
The Harvey Exhibit at the Museum Minute, Union Station Kansas City, Missouri
The Harvey Exhibit at the Museum Minute, Union Station Kansas City, Missouri
Fred Harvey
Chicken Maciel
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breast (Uncooked, diced into 1 inch pieces)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup cream sherry
- 3 cups cooked white rice, mixed with 1-2 tablespoons of butter
- 3/4 cup grated Swiss cheese
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups half and half or milk
- salt and pepper
- pinch of nutmeg
Instructions
- To create the cream sauce, heat a sauce pan over medium heat. Mix the flour and butter, stir often until mixed and light golden.
- Add in the half and half, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- In another pan, cook the diced chicken in butter or oil over medium-high heat until golden and not quite cooked through, a few minutes. Remove chicken to another platter. Add butter, sherry wine and curry powder. Heat until slightly reduced. Add in the cream sauce, whisk together, turn heat down to low. Toss in the chicken and cook for another few minutes to finish cooking the chicken in the sauce.
- In a casserole dish, layer the bottom with cooked buttered rice. Add the chicken with cream sauce. Top with Swiss cheese.
- Broil the dish for 4 TO 5 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and golden.
For even more information on food in the Old West, check out my post with recipes here:https://www.savortoothtiger.com/recipes/wild-west