I grew up in the Village of Manchester, just outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. We take great honor in being the home of the FAMOUS (yes, really) Chicken Broil, a 600+ volunteer driven event that raises funds for community projects and organizations from band uniforms to Boy Scout equipment and just about anything in between. Chances are if you were a kid and grew up in Manchester, or have kids and currently live in Manchester, you have received some benefit from the cash raised by this mostly-male driven event which serves this amount of food in 4 hours:
- 19,000 lbs chicken
- 9,600 lbs charcoal
- 256 lbs butter plus 14,000 butter pats
- 48 22-oz containers of salt for chicken and dressing
- 1,100 lbs radishes
- 14,000 dinner rolls
- 40 gallons of vegetable oil for dressing
- 84 crates of cabbage
- 14,000 1-oz. potato chip bags
- 500 aprons and gloves
In honor of the 58th Manchester Chicken Broil serving over 12,000 meals this Thursday, I give you…. the secret recipe for the only vegetarian component of the meal, besides the roll. Which, let’s be honest, that’s not really part of the meal, it’s the afterthought/filler.
MANCHESTER CHICKEN BROIL FAMOUS COLE SLAW DRESSING
- 10 T sugar (or sugar substitute, I’ve used as little as 3 T sugar with great results)
- 1/2 C vinegar (white preferred, but I usually use rice vinegar)
- 1 C canola or veg oil
- 1 1/2 tsp Coleman’s dry mustard (no subs here)
- 1 T dried minced onions (I’ve used onion powder before, no probs)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 T celery seeds
Add ingredients to a glass canning jar, shake well until all sweetener dissolves and serve over shredded cabbage.
Veg Bon Vivant 
Can’t wait to try this!
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The radish and chips are also vegetarian. How dare you give up the secret city recipe that is kept under lock and key, shame on you!
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Secret??! First, it’s a village, not a city! 🙂
It is delish and should be eaten more than 1 x per year.
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I love the chicken broil. And Nic Cage is correct, the recipe is a VILLAGE secret. I go every year and they make sure everyone knows this.
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Chicken Chicken Chicken Broil Time! Getting me some village secret slaw!
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I’ll be filming in Manchester this year, can’t wait to get some of this secret slaw.
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Thank you for posting this. I LOVE this cole slaw and have forever. ❤
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Well, it is close…..this recipe may scratch the itch….but it isn’t the REAL recipe….you are missing a few ingredients. 🙂
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If I gave it all away…there would be local hell to pay. This is good…and very close.
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hahaha, so true!
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HERESY!!!!!
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It is in a church cookbook….Emmanuel Church…maroon cover.
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Can’t wait to see everyone out there tomorrow. I’m going to eat 40 servings of the slaw.
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Love this recipe. Sad I couldn’t get to the broil this year. I’ll see everyone there in 2018!
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I’ve heard good things about this. Can you send some out my way?
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Thank you for this; a friend & I attended the event this summer and, in spite of not being coleslaw aficionados, we really loved the Manchester Chicken Broil’s version! It is an amazing event and they definitely know what they are doing; any line for the food moves along at a brisk pace, and you can’t beat the price for dinner, fellowship, and part of the $ going to help Manchester do some good for the school and other nonprofits in town.
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Love me some manchester chicken broil.
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