Swedish dinners? Flygande Jakob

(With apologies to Bridgestone for piggy-backing on his Swedish dinners series.)

Oddly enough (*wink*), in Bridgestone's wonderful series on Swedish cooking, somehow he manages never to touch upon the topic of the Flygande Jakob, or "Flying Jacob," which Wikipedia tells me is a classic Swedish party dish, and a few Swedish friends confirm that it is, indeed a real dish and not just an instance of Wikipedia vandalism.

For those who have never heard of it--and if you're not Swedish or have Swedish friends, I'm not sure why you would have-the Flying Jacob is basically a chicken casserole with bacon, cream, peanuts, bananas, and chili sauce. So far as my Internet research has led me to believe, it is the brainchild of someone named Jacobsson who was involved in the air freight industry. This web page has a good run-down of the dish, as well as a reprint of the original recipe, which is the one I followed:

Ingredients: 1 Rotisseried chicken (actually, that was chicken I roasted myself, now that I think about it), Italian salad spice to taste, 4 bananas, 250 mL double cream (I used Mexican table cream), half as much (125 mL) Heinz Chili sauce, handful peanuts, 10 slices bacon.


First, you shred your chicken and cover the bottom of a baking dish with it. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and your salad spice over it:


Then, cut your bananas into quarters, and stack atop the chicken:


Mix chili sauce and cream together and spread it over your chicken-banana layers:



Bake in oven for 20 minutes at about 425.

Meanwhile, fry up some bacon until crispy, while your dog looks on, hopefully:



Drain bacon. Top casserole with bacon and peanuts:



Serve with rice:


I am told this is a fairly common kids dish at parties, as well as the type of easy dish college students might cook up. I am not intimate enough with Swedish culture to confirm or deny, so if somebody like Bridgestone could chime in and give us a clear cultural context for it, it'd be appreciated.

At any rate, this is actually quite a tasty and not-at-all weird dish. I can see why kids love it. The banana flavor is the only odd part, in my opinion, and its gentle sweetness marries well with the bacon and cream. There's a lot of nice flavors working together here: smoky, salty bacon, tang and spice from the chili sauce (though not really any heat), more saltiness and texture from the peanuts, richness and full mouthfeel from the cream, sweetness and a bit of a tropical/mysterious character from the banana, all on a meaty, chicken base.

If you're looking to throw a curveball at the next pot luck with something people may actually eat, I would give the Flying Jacob a try. My wife loved it and it was all gobbled up within two days.

What the? I will definitely have to ask some Swedish friends about this. It is a very intriging dish. I never encountered it when I lived there, but I encountered some very funny variations on "Mexican," "African," and "Italian" cuisines. The most famous being the spaghetti with ketchup that so baffles exchange students (also the nearly universal experience of mistaking filmjolk, the sour thin yogurt, for regular milk). One thing I do still make is an "African" chicken my Swedish roommate taught me in Uppsala, which involves cumin, salt, pepper, and paprika sauteed chicken that is then boiled in coconut milk and served with a rice seasoned with lemon and peanuts.

Oh, I meant to include this little youtube clip in the original post: (Wait, I only just realized this version is missing the bananas. Here's a clip featuring a Flying Jacob with bananas, though not quite as obnoxious/theatrical as the clip below)

mgmcewen wrote:One thing I do still make is an "African" chicken my Swedish roommate taught me in Uppsala, which involves cumin, salt, pepper, and paprika sauteed chicken that is then boiled in coconut milk and served with a rice seasoned with lemon and peanuts.

I hope you will not deprive us of the recipe. It may not be African, but it sounds good and clearly you enjoy it.

I remember reading a paella recipe where saffron was substituted by a suitably colored soda pop mixed into the meat, seafood and rice mixture. My memory tickle suggests it was Mellow Yellow or Mountain Dew as the soda pops of choice for this substitution for saffron.

Regards,

My memory tickle suggests it was Mellow Yellow or Mountain Dew as the soda pops of choice for this substitution for saffron.

Wow. I have heard of a lot of things substituting for saffron, but Mellow Yellow/Mountain Dew is a new one for me.

Incidentally, for variations on the Flying Jacob, I've read that you can substitute another fruit for the banana, like mango or apple or even a cup of dried fruit. Personally, were I making this again, I think some type of curry powder would go well, instead of the Italian salad seasoning, because you're already kind of 90% of the way there to some Westernized creamy take on curry. I only chose to stick with the absolute original recipe to establish my baseline.

Binko-

I was anxiously awaiting the answer to "what is Flying Jacob?" when you mentioned it in another thread. Thanks for sharing your adventures!

Binko wrote:...
Drain bacon. Top casserole with bacon and peanuts...Serve with rice.

I love the step-by-step pictures!
After the casserole is topped with bacon and peanuts, it's served straight up, or is it baked further?
Some recipes (http://scandinavianfood.about.com/od/po ... -Jacob.htm) indicate a baking step after assembly.

Cheers, Jen

I don't think it matters much, but I followed the "original" recipe, which had me baking the chicken, banana, and chili-cream sauce together, and just using the bacon and peanuts as a topping at the end. I really don't see any point to cooking the bacon and peanuts further, and I suspect the bacon might get a little soggy if you let it mingle with the cream sauce too much upon baking. So I'd stick with using them at the end.

Oh, and I see the recipe you linked to has a whipping step, too. That was not present in the original. I did do one thing differently, though: I did not remove all the skin from my chicken. I left a good bit on because, well, I love the taste of crispy roast chicken skin. I personally thought it was a nice addition.

Binko wrote:I don't think it matters much, but I followed the "original" recipe, which had me baking the chicken, banana, and chili-cream sauce together, and just using the bacon and peanuts as a topping at the end. I really don't see any point to cooking the bacon and peanuts further, and I suspect the bacon might get a little soggy if you let it mingle with the cream sauce too much upon baking. So I'd stick with using them at the end.

Oh, and I see the recipe you linked to has a whipping step, too. That was not present in the original. I did do one thing differently, though: I did not remove all the skin from my chicken. I left a good bit on because, well, I love the taste of crispy roast chicken skin. I personally thought it was a nice addition.

Have never encountered this on many visits to Sweden. And am hoping I never do on return visits either.

spinynorman99 wrote:Have never encountered this on many visits to Sweden. And am hoping I never do on return visits either.

Party pooper.

There's only one Swedish "delicacy" I really don't need to encounter again, and that's surströmming.

I like the non-freakish herring dishes and the fish in general, but I also shy away from the ubiquitous shrimp sandwiches that are freaking everywhere (7-11* and McDonald's included). My Swedish brother in law is the only family member who eats them (his kids won't go near it).


*As an aside for anyone taking an interest in this topic, Swedish 7-11s happen to be a few steps upscale from the roller-dog abominations we're accustomed to. They're actually fairly nice.

Hi,

I believe Flying Jacob could easily join the post holiday repertoire of what do with Thanksgiving turkey leftovers. This is stated intentionally to help future searches!

Who needs a Hot Brown when you can have a Flying Jacob, it sounds like something out of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Regards,

My apologies for taking so long to reply to this magnificent thread, Binko! I must have been busy doing dishes after our batch of Fat Tuesday semlor...

After your fantastic tribute to this dish and the discussion it has started, I'm ashamed to admit that after my 17 years of living in Sweden, I still have not made Flygande Jakob. Heck, I still haven't even tasted it...

Your post was a real eye-opener for me, though. Until your searching and documentation, I'd only seen Flygande Jakob served as a sort-of stew. It shows up a few times every year at the company restaurant where it is always stew-like and served ladled over rice. I must say that your version (which I can confirm with a number of other Swedish, online sources) is more authentic and looks much, much tastier.

It's hard to imagine that anything made with the care and attention to detail that you put into this dish and post would not taste fantastic, Binko. Great work!

So it is real! We have definite confirmation.

Yeah, I saw a few other takes on the dish online, including versions that cook it together with the rice. But the simple casserole version seemed to be the closest to the original (and I managed to find that recipe above that is supposedly the first published version of it from the 70s. It does look like something that would have been created in the 70s, doesn't it?)

I must have been busy doing dishes after our batch of Fat Tuesday semlor...

I just saw the thread. Oh my, do those look incredible.

I believe Flying Jacob could easily join the post holiday repertoire of what do with Thanksgiving turkey leftovers.

Actually, that's a great idea. I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work just as well with leftover turkey. Maybe better, even.

My Swedish friends say that it is a dish most of them have not had in a long time and they remember it as a children's party food.