Long before Colonel Harland Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken made their way to Idaho (in 1956), Jack Scheets was already known throughout the state for his fried chicken—first from his days as the operator of the Dixieland night club near Ucon, and then as the operator of Jack’s Inn in Beachs Corner, just outside Idaho Falls.
In 1948, when Scheets—and his chicken—came to the Topper Club in Idaho Falls, the restaurant wasted no time trumpeting his arrival in a series of newspaper ads. “Chicken has come to town!” they blared. “Jack Scheets is serving his famous chicken dinners.”
Scheets, however wouldn’t be at the Topper Club for long. In 1949 he bought another supper club in Idaho Falls, the Tower Inn, at 1950 South Yellowstone Highway, remodeled it, and renamed it Jack’s Chicken Inn. A $1.50 chicken dinner was the star attraction, of course, but the menu also featured three steak dinners ($2.25 for a tenderloin or New York cut or $2.50 for a T-bone) and a shrimp and oyster dinner ($1.50).
From the beginning, Scheets made it his habit each year to throw a special Thanksgiving Day party at Jack’s Chicken Inn for underprivileged children in and around Idaho Falls. The kids could feast on turkey and all the trimmings at the restaurant and then take home but bags filled with fruit, nuts, candy, and other goodies. Even when Scheets fell seriously ill in 1952 and went to be treated at a hospital in Salt Lake City, he insisted that the special Thanksgiving Day party go on without him. He returned home soon after that but before the year was out died at age 63 in an Idaho Falls hospital.
Jack’s wife, Anna, and their three sons—Gayle, Vernon, and James had worked in the restaurant since day one, and they would keep it running smoothly in the years ahead. By 1957, thanks mostly to favorable write-ups in several national magazine, they were billing Jack’s Chicken Inn as “one of America’s finest eating places.” The restaurant became known, too, as a top entertainment venue. (Walter Kleypas, the original leader of the Texas Top Hands, a hugely popular Western swing band, later played for several years at Jack’s Chicken Inn.)
In the early 1960s management of the 400-seat restaurant fell in succession to the three sons: first to Jim, who oversaw its remodeling in 1963; then to Gayle, who took over in 1964; and finally, in 1965, to Vern, who’d left to manage two other Idaho Falls restaurants (the Flamingo and the Stardust) but returned to put Jack’s Chicken in up for sale. That year the restaurant was in the news briefly when the Hi-Notes, a musical trio from Idaho Falls, claimed to have broken “the world’s musical marathon record” there by playing and singing 43 hours without a break.
In 1966 Jack’s Chicken Inn disappeared when the Forde Johnson Oil Company, which operated 20 service stations in southeastern Idaho, bought the restaurant and its land, including its 450 feet of business frontage on South Yellowstone, to expand its operations in Idaho Falls.
Anna died at age 84 in 1981. James died at age 66 in 1988, Vernon at age 74 in 1992, and Gayle at age 77 in 1993.
Over the years Jack’s Chicken Inn has been credited as the birthplace of fry sauce, the mayonnaise-and-ketchup-based all-purpose condiment that’s popular as a dipping sauce for French fries, though Don Carlos Edwards, a Salt Lake City restaurateur, claimed to have invented it in 1949.
Fried Chicken
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Loading...Long before Colonel Harland Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken made their way to Idaho, Jack Scheets was already known throughout the state for his fried chicken, And when Scheets opened Jack's Chicken Inn in Idaho Falls in 1949, a $1.50 fried-chicken dinner was the star attraction. Here's the recipe that helped make the restaurant famous.
Ingredients
- 2 frying chickens, each about 3 pounds
- Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
- 1 quart whole milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika, plus extra for coating
- 4 onions, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 cups vegetable oil
Instructions
Carefully cut each chicken into 8 pieces: 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 breast pieces, and 2 wings (with wing tips removed, if desired).
In a large bowl, combine the milk, salt, black pepper, paprika, onions, garlic, poultry seasoning, rosemary, and parsley.
Rub the chicken pieces with lemon juice. Place in the milk-and-seasoning mixture and soak overnight.
Drain the chicken pieces and place on a sheet of wax paper. Combine the flour and paprika in a paper bag large enough to accommodate a few pieces of chicken at a time and shake to coat lightly. Repeat until all the pieces of chicken are coated.
Pour oil into a large, heavy-bottomed cast-iron skillet with high sides and a lid, to a depth of a few inches. (Use two skillets if needed to accommodate the chicken, or cook in two batches.) Heat oil over medium-high heat to 350 degrees.
Fry the chicken, uncovered, until golden. Cover and cook 45 minutes more until tender, or bake in 350-degree oven for 1 hour. Uncover and cook 10 minutes more to crisp.
Notes
The original recipe, as furnished by Jack's Chicken Inn, notes that "seasonings are optional." The last step of the instructions above, which includes a somewhat ambiguous baking-to-finish option, appears exactly as it did in the original.
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