The Very Specific Way Elvis Presley Liked To Eat Chicken

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If there's one thing to know about Elvis Presley, it's that the charming singer liked to eat. The cultural icon's appetite for food was no secret. At Graceland, his mansion in Tennessee, Presley hired cooks to roll out his favorite dishes around the clock. Eating was one of the few things that the King of Rock and Roll really derived joy out of, and when it came to his meals, he had a specific way he liked his food.

Presley liked fried chicken just as much as anybody else, so long as that chicken was boneless. In her 1989 book about the singer, "Elvis, Memories Beyond Graceland Gates," his former cook, Mary Jenkins, revealed that he didn't like any meat with bones in it. This applied to all other chicken preparations, including his beloved chicken bites wrapped in bacon strips and slathered in barbecue sauce, as well as breaded chicken-fried steak, which was another favorite. According to Jenkins, Presley also preferred the convenience of having his meat pre-cut into bite-sized pieces.

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It wasn't just chicken Presley was particular about. He loved all sorts of meats, like duck, bacon, and sausage, so long as they were boneless and he didn't have to tackle any of the cutting on his own. However, there was one type of food that Presley couldn't stand — fish. He was so put off by the smell of fish that he banned it from Graceland entirely.

Presley also liked his sandwiches. The legendary singer loved eating at restaurants and apparently even flew out to Denver from Memphis at night specifically to try a sandwich called the "Fool's Gold Loaf" at the Colorado Gold Mine Company restaurant. He loved it so much that he asked the restaurant for the recipe so that he could eat it back home. The Fool's Gold Loaf consisted of a loaf of French bread whose interior was scooped out and stuffed with bacon, bananas, peanut butter, and jelly. Presley made his own tweaks to it, slathering the peanut butter between two slices of bread, layering the bananas and bacon, skipping the jelly, and pan-frying the whole thing in a big knob of butter. 

When foods that Presley loved to eat were on the table, he was known to consume large portions quickly. Presley was also a repetitive eater and could eat a single dish for months on end if he liked it enough. The King did this with meatloaf and mashed potatoes — eating it for dinner for about six consecutive months.