The Chicken Sisters

The Chicken Sisters, written by K. J. Dell’Antonia, is a contemporary fiction novel that was published in 2020 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. In the novel, an omniscient third-person narrator switches between the perspectives of two sisters, Mae and Amanda, as they attempt to help their families’ rival fried chicken restaurants win a reality television competition, Food Wars. The novel explores how the medium of reality television manipulates personal narratives to expose and frame certain details about individual lives and relationships to entertain viewers. Dell’Antonia explores themes regarding familial dynamics and relationships and the ways these dynamics impact and conflict with personal ambition.

The author applies her background in journalism as well as her expertise in the daily lives of mothers and their relationships with their children to illustrate how the characters navigate their personal needs and familial responsibilities. The novel is a Reese’s Book Club Pick and a New York Times bestseller.

This guide refers to the 2020 paperback edition published by Putnam Books.

Plot Summary

The novel begins by introducing an advertisement for The Food Channel’s reality television competition show, Food Wars, which features two rival restaurants operated by family members or people who are otherwise connected to each other. Amanda, who helps run Chicken Frannie’s, decides to enter both her late husband’s family’s restaurant and her mother Barbara’s restaurant, Chicken Mimi’s. Both restaurants specialize in fried chicken and have been rivals since the late 1880s when two sisters split off to start their own businesses. Amanda marries into the Frannie’s family, the Pogociellos, despite their incessant attempts at buying out Mimi’s from Barbara. When Amanda gets the news that Food Wars wants to film a special on the restaurants, she convinces her mother to join the competition with the condition that Amanda’s sister, Mae, will come home from New York City to help Barbara.

After Mae arrives in Merinac, Kansas, the host of Food Wars, Sabrina, starts filming at Frannie’s, and Amanda reveals that her seemingly perfect and organized sister has a history of stripping, starting a string of revenge tactics between the sisters. Mae, who works as a social media influencer and is a former host of a reality show dedicated to decluttering, attempts to salvage her mother’s restaurant by giving it a makeover. She hopes that Food Wars will allow her to obtain her own reality show, since she just recently lost her job as cohost on the set of Sparkling. Mae destroys the sign at Mimi’s that Amanda painted in high school, and Amanda buys out the chicken supply with the hopes that Mimi’s will not be able to get chicken in time for their dinner service. Mae attempts to ruin Amanda’s chances at winning by claiming the food at Frannie’s is all frozen, and Amanda eventually reveals that Barbara has a hoarding problem and bakes the pies for her restaurant in her own messy kitchen. She has help from a local bakery as well, so Mae tries to persuade everyone that the pies are not baked inside Barbara’s house. While this is playing out, Mae attempts to navigate her marriage with Jay, and Amanda begins a romantic relationship with Barbara’s new fry cook, Andy. This is Amanda’s first relationship since losing her husband, Frank, in a car accident, and the relationship creates tension when Andy invites her into Mimi’s, which has been forbidden since her wedding with Frank.

As the tension continues to rise throughout the filming of Food Wars, Amanda focuses on her artwork, especially her comic revolving around a chicken named Carleen. Mae begins to realize how much her mother, who has recently discovered she has early-onset Parkinson’s disease, needs her to be closer to home. When Food Wars learns of Barbara’s hoarding problem, the production team sneaks into her house to capture the messy environment in which she keeps her dog, along with puppies. This creates commotion on the internet, but it brings together both families to help Barbara clean her house so that she can keep her pets. As the family begins working on the house, the crew films them, and Jay arrives to help Mae with her family.

While the show progresses, Frannie’s and Mimi’s enter a taste test with famous chefs, which reveals that both Mimi’s and Frannie’s presented the same fried chicken recipe. Mae and Andy accuse Amanda of stealing their recipe, because Frannie’s chicken has not always tasted this way. However, the town of Merinac believes Amanda to be innocent. Nancy, Amanda’s mother-in-law, reveals that she recently came across Frannie’s fried chicken recipe that was lost after the death of her husband and son, both named Frank. Along with the recipe, Nancy has a 19^th century note from Mimi offering Frannie a loan to start her own restaurant. Mimi helped Frannie establish her own restaurant due to differences Mimi had with Frannie’s husband, rather than with Frannie. With this news, Mae proposes that Frannie’s and Mimi’s join together as one restaurant and that they don’t allow Food Wars to come between them any longer.