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America’s ‘Fried Chicken War’
- ksenzee 7y agoChicken Mary's is the only place I've ever been offered fried chicken with a side of spaghetti. It's good, too.
- spike021 7y agoJollibee's also has fried chicken with spaghetti! It's a Filipino thing and it's super good. Not sure where they have locations other than California, though.
- NikolaeVarius 7y agoThey have a NYC branch. I argue that they use entirely too much sugar in their spaghetti. Not that I have some moral outrage about sugar in the stuff, but it was actively very sweet.
- spike021 7y agoAh, interesting but makes sense. I _think_ the sweetness level is on purpose but could be wrong. I do remember that from when I've had it though.
- kyllo 7y agoYes, Filipino spaghetti is definitely intended to be sweet--it uses banana ketchup in the sauce. Bananas were used as a substitute for tomatoes due to the Philippines' relative abundance of the former. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_ketchup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_ketchup
- stephenhuey 7y agoBanana ketchup usage for Filipino spaghetti came about during a tomato sauce shortage in the Second World War: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/filipino-cuisine-asian-fusion-180954947/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/filipino-cuisine...
- chirau 7y agoThere's one close to Port Authority. I tried it once. It was ok, but not so great. Honestly speaking, when I lived in Midtown West, there was a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place called China Gourmet on 8th and 53rd I think and their plain fried half chicken was amazing. It also was so hot that you could even spice it up at home with some pepper and a squeeze of lemon if you wanted to.
- chasd00 7y agointeresting. in the south we have "chicken'n waffles", it's waffles and syrup served with fried chicken. weird, I know, but it is a very tasty combination.
- davidgh 7y agoChicken and waffles is probably my favorite thing to introduce to someone. They can’t believe it’s a thing before they try it, and after they wonder where it’s been all their life.
- icelancer 7y agoIt's pretty big in Seattle, too. As another commenter said, the sugar in the pasta sauce is gross though, and entirely an Asian thing.
- wyclif 7y agoJollibee is expanding in the US anyplace that has a large Filipino population, especially NYC and northern NJ (you already mentioned CA). In the Philippines, spaghetti is more sweet than savory, and often has sliced up hot dogs in the sauce—it is what it is, but I've always preferred the savory Italian-American style with lots of tomatoes, sausage, mushrooms, and peppers in the sauce. Culturally, Filipino spaghetti is more associated with kid's birthday parties (there are a lot of these) than grown up food, but adults love it because of nostalgia.
- blaser-waffle 7y agoNorthern Virginia I believe. Definitely some locations in Canada too.
- ekovarski 7y agoThe fried chicken is alright, comparable to others but I can't say I was fond of the spaghetti. It clashed with my mind as I wasn't expecting something so sweet... I think even regular ketchup has less sweetness but it was super popular as I am pretty sure almost /every/ table in the place had an order of it.
- koenigdavidmj 7y agoAnother Kansas chicken place worth mentioning is the Brookville Hotel. It’s two lies for the price of one—no longer in Brookville (now in Abilene) and no longer a hotel (but they have some old rooms preserved as a museum). But it serves half a fried chicken per person, plus all the fixings (creamed corn, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and more), at a sit-down white tablecloth establishment, for under 20 per plate.
- downerending 7y agoIf you're ever in Kansas City and want to try serious good, cheap fried chicken, Go Chicken Go was pretty good last I was there. It has all the ambiance of a Greyhound bus station bathroom, but the chicken was really good.
- wincy 7y agoAlso if you’re in Kansas City and want to get food at a sit down place, Stroud’s pan friend chicken is the local spot. It’s become a little more “middle class” than its humble roots were, so it’s a little pricier, but it’s delicious. My uncle says it tastes exactly like my grandma used to make (which I unfortunately never got to try). Their cinnamon rolls are deliciously ooey gooey too. If you’re in KC or surrounding suburbs on business there’s almost definitely one nearby.
- curiousllama 7y agoYou want to talk value... Harolds fried chicken in the south side of Chicago has half a fried chicken, a bed of fries, two slices of wonderbread and a shot of coleslaw all smothered in mild sauce for less than 5 dollars. I'm sure some pedant is about to come out with "oh really, the cole slaw is smothered in mild sauce?" Yes. Nothing in that bag avoids the sweet tang of mild sauce shoved through bulletproof glass. It's the greatest food in the world.
- germinalphrase 7y agoHarolds is really good, but if you’re in Minneapolis go high dollar and get the Tennessee Hot from Revival.
- williesleg 7y agoWho cares and why is this hacker news? Really getting sick of this shit here. Gonna bail soon.
- adaisadais 7y agoI moved to SF last year from SC and it has been a royal pain to find a good fried chicken joint. Friends, if you find yourselves in the southeast do your best to get into a Bojangles. Any suggestions for a good chicken joint in the Bay Area?
- askafriend 7y agoGet the fried chicken sandwich from RT Rotisserie (they do deliver) - it's the fast-casual arm of the acclaimed Rich Table restaurant. All of the food at RT Rotisserie is incredible (their menu isn't large), but the fried chicken sandwich is especially notable (along with the lamb pita sandwich).
- sevencolors 7y agoYeah sando and the buttermilk rotisserie chicken is legit
- ibassf 7y agoThe Front Porch is aight, it’s not the south though. Oakland has some downscale places that are more authentic. And then there’s great Korean fried chicken but that’s a whole different game.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- chirau 7y agoBojangles is the truth. These days whenever I find myself back in Durham once a year, I always stop by CookOut for their tray and Bojangles for chicken and the biscuits and the gravy. Legend has it they put crack in that chicken that's why it's so good.
- Yhippa 7y agoBiscuitville. Why won't they expand?
- 7y ago
- danans 7y ago> To keep her family from starving, Annie began selling ham and veal sandwiches for a few pennies to miners passing the front of her house. It seems like an editor at the BBC missed something here. This should have probably read "To keep her family from destitution" - if they had ham and veal to sell, they presumably had it to eat themselves.
- Mtinie 7y agoIt’s not the clearest phrasing, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. By selling the sandwiches Annie could buy raw materials to make more sandwiches. A portion of the supply order was allocated to feed the family, the rest became the next batch of sandwiches to sell. If she had not been able to generate a sustainable income she would not have been able to keep her family fed.
- miscPerson 7y agoIt could be a sustainability thing: If you butcher an animal, you have X lbs of meat now. Maybe you don’t need all of that immediately just to survive. If you only need Y < X to feed yourself, you can sell the excess and buy a new animal plus food to fatten it up. This converts a onetime benefit (killing an animal you have now) into a sustainable way to provide for yourself.
- danans 7y agoThat explanation makes sense, but the author's phrasing still seems clumsy to me.
- megablast 7y agoI don’t think she had a big supply of ham and veal. She used the profit to feed the family. Is that not obvious?
- fergie 7y agoIts a peculiarity of the traditional British media that they need to constantly portray rural business owners (particularly farmers) as fighting extreme poverty. Not entirely sure why this should be so, just that it is.
- danans 7y agoI don't know if it is any good by discerning fried-chicken standards, but I would be amiss not to put in a plug for the American fried-chicken destination of my youth: Frankenmuth, MI (AKA Michigan's little Bavaria): https://www.frankenmuth.org/dining/world-famous-chicken/ https://www.frankenmuth.org/dining/world-famous-chicken/
- bluedino 7y agoThe blandest chicken you can get. It's such a soulless midwestern plain Jane place to eat (Zehnder's)
- danans 7y agoI believe you, and I would probably agree if had it again today, but nostalgia has its own flavor, ya know? These days I guess they'd at least give you Tabasco or Sriracha on the side?
- mc_blue 7y agoYep - my family makes a trip to Frankenmuth in November/December each year. We walk around the shops downtown, get stuffed with fried chicken and those delicious noodles at Zehnders, and then wrap up with a walk around Bronner's.
- stronglikedan 7y agoFor those in the SE US, I recommend trying Publix fried chicken, if you haven't already. I get a whole fried chicken for less than $10, and it's better than anything I've had in a restaurant. The trick is to call an hour ahead, and have them make it fresh for you. That's half a fried chicken, plus another half as fixin's!
- chasd00 7y agogrocery store fried chicken can be amazing. A local store in my old neighborhood ( SW Dallas ) would cook a fresh batch on Saturday afternoons. so good and very affordable.
- csommers 7y agoSafeway has some of the best chicken tenders.
- daseiner1 7y agodamn, i didn’t even know the call ahead was an option - grew up in central Florida. On the left coast, Vons fried chicken is phenomenal imo
- stronglikedan 7y agoBesides the fresh preparation, the next best thing about call-ahead is that you can ask them to do all dark meat, which I prefer.
- em10fan 7y agoI had it in Atlanta and it was great.
- throwaway_jobs 7y agoConfirmed and seconded. Publix fried chicken has even made some top 10 lists for chicken/fried chicken reserved for restaurants.
- dmonagha 7y ago
- 29athrowaway 7y agoThe only way to make fried chicken fast preserving its inner moisture is using a pressure fryer. That's the innovation that enabled KFC to become a fast food chain.
- selimthegrim 7y agoAnd here I thought it was buttermilk...
- sevencolors 7y agoIt is if you have the time. Doesn't scale well I'd imagine :)
- chrisseaton 7y agoDoesn't that take hours?
- selimthegrim 7y agoI wasn't talking about KFC. I thought fast just referred to the actual cooking process.
- blaser-waffle 7y agoI thought it was the 11 secret herbs and spices
- selimthegrim 7y agoYou probably think you're getting fresh chicken when you pull through the KFC drive thru window right before it closes too....
- phibz 7y agoBabe's in North Texas, several locations near Dallas, has got to be the best fried chicken I've ever had. Easily.
- larrydag 7y agoShould have read more. Beat me to it. I agree
- peterclary 7y agoCoincidentally I was just last night reading about another "Fried Chicken War", which was a rivalry between two hotels in the Catskill Mountains arising from a guest/manager dispute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_Mountain_House#The_Fried_Chicken_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_Mountain_House#The_Fr...
- II-V-I 7y agoI'd love to choose a side. Sadly, I'm living in Copenhagen after living in the U.S. for many years and there's no fried chicken war and barely any fried chicken. I recently found one joint where you can get a decent fried chicken sandwich, though that's about as far as it goes. It's such a shame because the chicken you can buy here is, to my taste, of much higher quality compared to that in the U.S. The tenderness is incredible, and it's so moist it's almost impossible to overcook. I'm not really sure why it hasn't caught on here. Perhaps it's simply a matter of preference/taste.
- mikkelam 7y agoI'd love to know which place serves fried chicken sanwiches in Copenhagen, could you share that?
- II-V-I 7y agoOf course. Jagger [1] is the one I'm speaking of. [1]: https://jaggerfastfood.com/menu https://jaggerfastfood.com/menu
- listentojohan 7y agoThe fried chicken sandwich/burger at Snack & Blues is top notch though - any other recommendations?
- II-V-I 7y agoHaven't tried that one. Thank you for the tip! I recommend the one from Jagger. Best one I've found.
- selimthegrim 7y agoThey always say you've moved to New Orleans when you stop at Popeye's on the way home after getting $250 worth of groceries
- wincy 7y agoOh man now I want to get Popeyes for lunch. I swear they put some sort of drug in their red beans and rice, I just can’t get enough of that with some spicy chicken! Definitely try Popeyes if you get the chance, we’ve got them all the way up here in Kansas City, so I’m not sure how wide their range is.
- selimthegrim 7y agoOne time I was driving back from Boulder to New Orleans. I think this was somewhere on US-84 in Texas or I-25 in Colorado (I think the latter). My fan had conked out (my AC had quit on the leg in). After a few hundred miles of driving with the window down I saw Popeyes on the blue sign at the next exit and pulled off at the exit. The moment I turned left to cross the overpass and laid eyes on the Popeyes sign on the other side of the Interstate my fan croaked back to life. I call it Al Copeland's miracle.
- westwooded 7y agoLove that they use lard vs. the unhealthy vegetable seed oils that all places use nowadays. Just like how McDonald's used to use beef tallow. Best fried chicken has to be Korean fried chicken at this point. Double frying it gives the inside the tenderness temperature while the outside is perfectly crispy.
- bluntfang 7y agoI've been curious about McDonald's fries since I think they are tasty. There are many articles around that still say they use beef products in their french fries. According to their website they do not use beef, but a "beef flavoring" that contains milk products and not beef product. https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/small-french-fries.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/small-french-frie...
- Ironlikebike 7y agoYes this is true. It's a beef flavoring. My father spent the majority of his career in food-processing engineering working in a factory that made McDonald's french fries and confirmed this was the case. They're also par-cooked (pre-fried) before being flash frozen, and they don't use a batter or seasoning. Interesting tidbit, all of their competitors had their fries made in the same facility. I believe most of them even used the same type of potatoes.
- wincy 7y agoI’ve started using lard as my secret ingredient. Everyone loves my cooking, except one acquaintance who turned out to be vegetarian. I make sure to let people know what my “secret ingredient” is before they eat now.
- vorpalhex 7y agoWe recently deviated from our normal wings place to get some korean fried chicken and it was heavenly. Excellent texture, great seasonings and very creative fusion-style sides.
- ValentineC 7y ago
- larrydag 7y agoFor those in Dallas, TX I suggest Babe's Chicken or Bubba's (same owner).
- homarp 7y agoif you're in Bangkok try the chicken from https://www.instagram.com/phonjaroen/ https://www.instagram.com/phonjaroen/ behind the Thai boxing stadium.
- bpyne 7y agoThe best I've eaten was from a stand at a Dominican Republic heritage festival in Providence, RI sometime between 1989-1991. A little, old, Dominican woman cooked the chicken. It was loaded with flavor including some spice. Recently I picked up friend chicken from a small restaurant in Providence, RI called North. It was their take on chicken karaage. It was crispy but tender and was spiced with something mildly hot. It's my new favorite. I prefer sticking with the small places. They're not afraid to spice to local tastes rather than spice for the median person in the US.
- throwaway123x2 7y agoWhat do people think of KFC's fried chicken in the US?
- Larrikin 7y agoPersonally, it's trash chicken that's usually poorly fried that comes with awful sides, with the best spice blend of any chicken I have ever had that wasn't coated in a sauce. The corporate suits have found a way to basically destroy the product by doing everything as cheaply as possible yet there is still a glimmer of what must have been an amazing product. It taste better in other countries but not because they do a better job replicating the original, but because it just taste like a completely different chicken place with the same logo. It's like getting Fanta in a different country.
- wincy 7y agoOh neat, thanks for the heads up, the next time I travel out of the country I’ll have to make a point of trying KFCs to taste the difference. I think KFC provides a baseline for other chicken restaurants though, like a “your chicken must be at least this good to have a chicken restaurant”. You have to get your MVP (Minimum Viable Poultry).
- Simon_says 7y agoIt was one of the delights of my childhood many decades ago. I've tried it twice in the last decade, and both times, I literally (not figuratively) threw up both times because of how disgusting it made me feel. I'll never have it again. I presumed that they must changed the recipe in some misguided attempt to cut costs, but I never really looked into it.
- wincy 7y agoKFC is pretty good. Lately though if I want chicken I end up getting Popeyes (more Cajun), China’s-Fil-A (juicier, tastes marinated, the flavor seems to permeate better on their chicken strips), or Cain’s Chicken (you can buy 25 chicken strips for $27 and feed an army, not quite as good as Chuck-Fil-A. If I’m feeling nostalgic I’ll get KFC sometimes, it’s not bad just the sides taste very fake. Like I can get mashed potatoes from a bag at Costco that taste better than their mashed potatoes. Although the last time I tried to get KFC they were “out of chicken”. That was bizarre.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 7y agoI've been searching long and hard for the best fried chicken for all my life. I'll need to give Chicken Mary's and Chicken Annie's a try the next chance I get. So far, the best has by far been Willie Mae's Scotch House - and the country's food critics seem to agree. [1] [1] https://thehighestcritic.com/munchies/the-fried-chicken-bucket-list-best-fried-chicken-restaurants-america-ranked/ https://thehighestcritic.com/munchies/the-fried-chicken-buck...
- pvaldes 7y agohttps://ifunny.co/picture/how-to-find-kentucky-on-a-map-hat-head-kentucky-bOMrAKuc6 https://ifunny.co/picture/how-to-find-kentucky-on-a-map-hat-...