With a grand prize of $100,000 and $18,000 in runner-up prizes at stake, 51 cooks from across the country, representing every state and the District of Columbia, will compete Friday, May 13, in the 46th National Chicken Cooking Contest (NCCC) in Hall C-2 of the Charlotte Convention Center, Charlotte, North Carolina. The NCCC is the nation’s oldest continuously-running consumer cooking competition.
Finalists from each state and the District of Columbia will prepare their chicken dishes simultaneously, using 51 mini-kitchens set up in the Convention Center. North Carolina First Lady Mary Easley will welcome the contestants at an Opening Ceremony scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The Cook-Off will begin at 10:00 a.m., with the public invited to attend free of charge.
Contestants have until 1:00 p.m. to prepare their dishes twice, once for judging and once for display and photographs. Judges for the Contest are food writers and editors from major national magazines and leading newspapers, with Paul Schultz, executive food editor of the New York Daily News, serving as chairman. The judges will select a first-place winner and four runners-up. For the first time in the fifty-six year history of the NCCC, the top place finisher will take home a $100,000 grand prize.
Contestants in the National Chicken Cooking Contest will use the GE 30 Electric Range by GE Appliances of Louisville, Kentucky. Knives will be supplied by Cutco Cutlery of Olean, New York.
The NCCC is sponsored by the National Chicken Council and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association. The North Carolina Poultry Federation serves as the local host.
The National Chicken Council is the Washington, D.C.-based trade association for the nation’s integrated chicken producer-processors. The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is a national organization that represents its members in all aspect of poultry and eggs on both a national and international level. Its mission includes research, education, communication and product promotion.
The 47th National Chicken Cooking Contest will be held in Birmingham, Alabama in the spring of 2007, and will also offer a $100,000 grand prize. Recipes to that Contest may be submitted starting January 1, 2006, until October 15, 2006. Information on entering the 47th NCCC will be available on the chicken industry Web site, www.eatchicken.com, starting January 1, 2006.
Recipes of all state finalists are available in a new edition of The Chicken Cookbook, available for the first time at the Contest. Also included in the 128-page paperback are winning recipes from previous Cook-Offs, and chicken recipes from throughout the state of North Carolina.
The cookbook may be ordered at a special price of $3.00 (check payable to Chicken Cookbook, or money order; no cash), sent with name and complete mailing address to:
Chicken Cookbook
Department NCC
Box 307
Coventry, CT 06238
