I respectfully disagree. What you're calling 'American food' would perhaps be better classified more broadly as fast food, similar to the fast foods we have globally. After all, french fries, burgers and the like are available around the world, if that is what you mean by American food. And many fast foods are fried.

Maybe the question you want to ask is "Why is fried fast food so prevalent in America?" If so, fast food largely grew alongside car culture in the 1960s and going forward. Many see Southern California as the birthplace of fast food, and it is a good example to consider here. Los Angeles was extremely sprawling in the 60s, what with large stretches of freeway connecting it to the distant suburbs. People had to commute long distances to get to work. As such, commuters did not always have time to have a home-cooked meal. Fast food - particular McDonald's at this time - was seen as a solution in that people could meet their caloric needs, fast. To this point, fried foods are compact calories. Here, the demand for fast food grew because fast food is efficient. Maximizing profits was an important factor in its growth, too. McDonald's began by selling a wider range of foods, but they quickly realized that maximizing profit meant getting rid of these foods and selling only what was quick and easy to prepare by unskilled workers, food that would look and taste the same whether you ate it in Nashville or Los Angeles. By the time McDonald's had spread across the States, people had come to appreciate standardization. So to answer your question in short, fried fast food is so common in the States today because American society has quite arguably become all about efficiency. Fast food is inherently efficient to make and consume, and fried food is even more efficient because eating it means people can spend less time eating and more time working - compact calories keep people full for longer. Then again, the same is relatively common across the globe and not limited to the US by any means.

'American cuisine' if there is such a thing is less about nationalism (the way Italy has a cuisine consisting of Italian food and France has a cuisine made up of French fare) and more about cosmopolitanism. Over the centuries, American cuisine has changed to reflect the popular immigrant streams at the time. Then it depends on which region you look into because each area of the States is characterized by its own historical migration streams, for example Boston is known for its Irish immigrants and Miami for Latin immigrants. A lot of old school soul food is fried, whereas considerably less Tex Mex is. Overall, though, few foods that make up 'American cuisine' are fried.

• Gabaccia, Donna. We are what we eat: ethnic food and the making of Americans. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2000.

• Opie, Frederick Douglass. Hog and hominy: soul food from Africa to America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

• Pilcher, Jeffrey M. Food in world history. New York: Routledge, 2017.

• Ritzer, George. McDonaldization: the reader. Los Angeles, Calif.: Pine Forge Press, 2010.

• Watson, James L. Golden arches east: McDonald's in East Asia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006.