Mike the Headless Chicken Festival Brings Food and Fun to Fruita

By Barbara J. Avery

The truth is out.  The real reason the chicken crossed the road was to get to the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival in Fruita, Colorado.

 Mike the Headless Chicken wasn’t always headless.  He started life as plump little pullet and grew to be a winsome Wyandotte, strutting his feathers in the barnyard.  Miracle Mike, as he later came to be known, had a life changing experience on a fateful September day in 1945. He became one of the 40 to 50 chickens that Lloyd Olsen of Fruita was beheading and Clara Olsen was plucking for current cooking and future use.  Troy Waters, the great-grandson of ax wielding Lloyd in an interview for the book The Official Mike the Headless Chicken Book by Teri Thomas, stated that many of the chickens whose time had come tried to walk away, unsuccessfully, without their heads. But Mike, being the rooster he was, not only staggered around, but went on to live for eighteen more months.  He became a side show attraction from California to Virginia and garnered further fame as the cover chicken for an October, 1945 Life Magazine issue.

Fruita hasn’t forgotten its feathered claim-to-fame.  The eighth annual Mike the Headless Chicken Festival is taking place on Friday, May 19^th and Saturday, May 20, at the Fruita Civic Center’s grounds. This year’s event promises to be more “chickeny” than ever, featuring chickens for petting, Chick Olympics, and a Pet Egg Contest Featuring dressed-up hard-cooked eggs. Food vendors with Mike-themed fare, some made of chicken, will offer everything from Chick-on-a-Stick to Mike ice cream sundaes.  There will be eating contests in which mass quantities of hot wings and Peeps will be consumed; fortunately not together.

You can consume your chicken delights while you enjoy entertainment and a huge car show. Or, you can watch the Chick Flick, an award winning tongue-in-cheek documentary about the life and times of Mike.

“We’re really excited about this year’s festival,” said Leanne Ingwersen, Special Events coordinator for the City of Fruita. “We have a good variety of entertainment and food vendors.”

Here’s to Mike and chickens everywhere! Get your celebration started with two recipes from The Collective Chicken, the Official Mike the Headless Chicken Cookbook.

Pasta Salad with Grilled Chicken

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4, skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1, 8 ounce package rotini (corkscrew) pasta

1 red onion, chopped

8 ounces mozzarella cheese, cubed

1 head romaine lettuce, washed and torn into pieces

6 cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered

¼ teaspoon lemon pepper

¾ teaspoon Cajun seasoning

sliced black olives for garnish (optional)

 Cook pasta according to package directions.   Rinse under cold water and drain.

 Season both sides of the chicken breasts with the lemon pepper and Cajun seasoning.

 Grill or broil chicken for 12-15 minutes, turning once.  Breasts are done when the centers are no longer pink.  Let cool.  Cut into strips.