PrintThe Great New York Fancy-Pants Fried Chicken Roundup
Think of New York's greatest foods, and your mind might leap to pizza, or bagels, or a huge pastrami sandwich. But fried chicken?
New York has never been a first-class fried chicken town, but these days, it's popping up on more high-end menus than pork belly. And though we've eaten our fair share, we hadn't done an exhaustive survey. Until now. With Momofuku and Locanda Verde birds still fresh and crisp in our minds, we set out to find the city's best fancy-pants fried chicken: newcomers, old standards, specials, and all.
What qualifies as fancy-pants? Any fried chicken at a chef-driven restaurant, costing more that $15.
In ranking it all, we looked at the following criteria—in each category, giving the plate between one (worst) and five (best) Serious Clucks:
- Skin and batter: Was it crisp and crunchy? Did the batter and the skin become one? Was the exterior light, or did the batter and the crust overwhelm everything else?
- White meat: Was it tender? Was it juicy? Did it have any discernible chicken flavor?
- Dark meat: Again, is it tender and juicy? It's easier to get the thigh and the drumstick moist and juicy because there's a lot more internal fat in those parts of the chicken—but is it cooked through to the bone? Often, even carefully cooked fried chicken is bloody at the thigh bone. This should not be.
- Spiciness: Was the chicken well-seasoned? Enough salt? Enough pepper? What other spices were discernible in the crust? Did the spice mixture work together as a whole?
- Sides: What was included on the plate? Worth eating?
- Price-Value Proposition: Was it a good deal considering the quality of the food, the care that went into cooking it, and the setting you ate it in?
Possible perfect score: 30 Serious Clucks.
Our top eleven birds, and the title of The Best Fancy-Pants Fried Chicken In New York, after the jump.
Blue Ribbon Brasserie
Skin and batter: 5 clucks. This is no daintily fried chicken—the crust crackles and crunches and seems to have a life of its own. It's a mouthful to get through, but in a good way. It's the kind of crust so good you keep gnawing on the bones when the chicken is gone, in hopes of getting one more morsel of fried goodness. This is a crust for the ages.
White meat: 5 clucks. Amazingly tender, for white meat, with a deep chicken flavor that I associate more with roasted chicken than fried.
Dark meat: 4.5 clucks. Fatty, tasty, cooked through, but without the real on-the-bone richness of the very best chicken.
Spiciness: 4 clucks. A little too well-spiced, particularly where the paprika is concerned. In some cases, you take a bite and think "Wow, that tastes like... paprika." Other than those spice-saturated spots, dead-on.
Sides: 4 clucks. Garlicy greens and super-creamy mashed potatoes.
Price to Value: 3 clucks. Blue Ribbon is a lovely SoHo restaurant, with attentive servers and flattering lighting and individual loaves of crusty French bread. Of course it'll charge more than Rack 'n Soul. But $25.99 for four pieces of chicken and (admittedly tasty) mashed potatoes and greens? Yikes. If it weren't so good, it'd be much harder to swallow.
Total: 25.5 clucks
Blue Ribbon Brasserie: 97 Sullivan Street (map); 212-274-0404
Blue Ribbon Sushi
Skin and batter: 5 clucks. Extremely light and crisp Asian-style Panko batter coated the chicken in a way that rendered the skin invisible.
White meat: 3.5 clucks. Reasonably moist but not at all juicy.
Dark meat: 4.5 clucks. Perfectly cooked and juicy enough.
Spiciness: 4 clucks. The spice rub seemed to be dominated by paprika. Just sweet enough jalapeno honey dipping sauce packed a real punch.
Sides: 2 clucks. No sides except for a bed of shredded lettuce. A nice little bowl of chicken fried rice would have hit the spot.
Price to Value: 3 clucks. $24.50 for a small high-quality half-bird is still pretty steep.
Total: 22 clucks
Blue Ribbon Sushi: 308 West 58th Street (map); 212-397-0404
Egg
[Photo: Adam Kuban]
Skin and batter: 4 clucks. Nice crunch with great big fried bubbles.
White meat: 3.5 clucks. They brine the bird, which definitely helps the moisture levels, but it's still not as juicy as it could be.
Dark meat: 5 clucks. Moist in a well-balanced way. As in, juicy but didn't leave your hands drippy.
Spiciness: 3.5 clucks. A good salt factor, like most of the food here. Though some of that taste could have been lingering in my mouth from the boiled peanuts amuse bouche.
Sides: 5 clucks. Buttery (as in, Popeyes-style good buttery) biscuits and a white bean salad.
Price to Value: 5 clucks. The half-chicken portion ($16) takes up practically the whole platter. A mighty fine deal.
Total: 26 clucks
Egg: 135 North 5th Street, Brooklyn (map); 718-302-5151
Buttermilk Channel
Skin and batter: 3.5 clucks. Is there such thing as too crispy? I felt like I was going to break my teeth gnawing into that thick, dark skin. But hey, at least it wasn't soggy?
White meat: 3.5 clucks. Not straight-up dry, but bordering on dry. If you used the balsamic-maple syrup dipping sauce (served on the side for the cheddar waffles) maybe that would help, but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do.
Dark meat: 4.5 clucks. Nicely moist, the way dark meat should be.
Spiciness: 4 clucks. Peppery enough to see the flecks but it still felt a tad underseasoned.
Sides: 4 clucks. A tasty cheddar waffle (it's hard to argue with cheese, flour, and butter) and cole slaw, which was somewhere in between creamy and vinegary.
Price to Value: 3.5 clucks. The half-chicken portion ($18) was a generous size, but for only decent fancypants fried chicken, seemed a little steep.
Total: 23 clucks
Buttermilk Channel: 524 Court St, Brooklyn (map); 718-852-8490
Walter Foods
Skin and batter: 3.5 clucks. Good balance; crust was light and crispy (not hard-crunchy) and didn't overwhelm the chicken, but it fell off a bit more easily than I would've liked.
White meat: 4 clucks. Satisfyingly tender and juicy.
Dark meat: 3.5 clucks. Cooked through and also juicy.
Spiciness: 3.5 clucks. Well-seasoned, but otherwise unremarkable.
Sides: 3.5 clucks. A generous mound of chunky mashed potatoes with scallions. A bit bland, but the scallions were a plus. I liked the spicy honey more, if that counts as a side.
Price to Value: 4 clucks. $16 for four large pieces of good fried chicken and mashed potatoes in a pleasant, laid-back setting isn't bad.
Total: 22 clucks
Walter Foods: 253 Grand Street, Brooklyn (map); 718-387-8783
Blue Smoke
Skin and batter: 4.5 clucks. I know Blue Smoke Executive Chef Kenny Callaghan was trying to emulate the lacquered sheath-like crust I led him to at Gus's World-Famous Fried Chicken in Mason, TN. He doesn't quite get there, but damn, this is a fine crispy and crunchy crust that sheathes the chicken beautifully.
White meat: 4 clucks. Moist, not at all dry, but I didn't see any juices running down my mouth when I took a bite of the breast.
Dark meat: 4.5 clucks. Juicy, well-cooked thigh and drumstick with no blood near the bones.
Spiciness: 5 clucks. Just the right spice mix as far as I'm concerned: salt and pepper applied judiciously but forcefully.
Sides: 4.5 clucks. Excellent mashed potatoes with gravy and a good, solid, but not quite flaky enough biscuit.
Price to Value: 4.5 clucks. $18.95 is a fair price for this plate of chicken, mashed potatoes, and biscuit.
Total: 27 clucks
Blue Smoke: 116 East 27th Street (map); 212-447-7733
Clinton Street Baking Co.
Skin and batter: 4 clucks. Flaky and crisp, the skin and batter holding together, but thin and somewhat scant in parts.
White meat: 5 clucks. So clearly five clucks that a few former five-clucks got knocked down a notch. Tremendously juicy and well-seasoned all the way through. "We brine our chicken in buttermilk before frying," chef and owner Neil Kleinberg told us. It shows.
Dark meat: 4 clucks. Equally tasty, but a bit too juicy—soaking through the crust.
Spiciness: 4 clucks. Salted and peppered, with hints of garlic and thyme, but none packed a particular flavor punch.
Sides: 5 clucks. A generous loaf of crusty jalapeño cornbread, plus coleslaw, and Clinton Street's incredible mini-biscuits.
Price to Value: 4.5 clucks. $17 isn't that cheap, but for four sizable pieces of chicken plus the plentiful sides, it's not a bad deal.
Total: 26.5 clucks
Clinton Street Baking Co.: 4 Clinton Street (map); 646-602-6263
Momofuku Noodle Bar
[Photo: Nick Solares]
Skin and batter: 5 clucks. The crust and batter on both the Korean-style fried chicken and the Southern-fried chicken was super-crunchy. No complaints on exterior textures at all.
White meat: 5 clucks. Tender, juicy, easy to scarf right down.
Dark meat: 5 clucks. Cooked through and fatty in just the right way.
Spiciness: 4 clucks. Southern-style chicken was certainly well-seasoned, but I found the Old Bay unnecessary.
Sides: 5 clucks. Vegetables, pancakes, a multitude of exciting sauces—obviously an unusual Asian-style array of side dishes.
Price to Value: 4 clucks. You have to spring for the package—and good luck getting in—but $50 gets four people the equivalent of a whole chicken and sides. Good deal!
Total: 28 clucks
Momofuku Noodle Bar: 171 First Avenue (map); 212-777-7773; by advance reservation only
Related: Momofuku Noodle Bar's Fried Chicken Dinner
Brooklyn Bowl
Skin and batter: 4 clucks. Light, ultra-crispy, and very dark.
White meat: 3.5 clucks. A little dry.
Dark meat: 4 clucks. Thigh cooked all the way through and juicy enough.
Spiciness: 3 clucks. Too much Old Bay. It dominated my taste buds.
Sides: 5 clucks. Solid mashed potatoes with gravy, unusual collards with bacon and honey, and white bread.
Price to Value: 3 clucks. $18 for a half chicken with the above-mentioned sides in a bowling alley seems a bit high.
Total: 22.5 clucks
Brooklyn Bowl: 61 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn (map); 718-963-3369
Related: Brooklyn Bowl: Can Bowling Alley Food Be Finger-Lickin' Good?
Locanda Verde
Skin and batter: 3.5 clucks. Certainly light, but man, did I miss me some crispy crunchiness.
White meat: 5 clucks. Moist, strong chicken-y flavor, which is unusual in white meat.
Dark meat: 4.5 clucks. Juicy, not stringy at all.
Spiciness: 4 clucks. Plenty salty through and through.
Sides: 5 clucks. Delicious thick-cut Char No. 4 bacon and beans to start, biscuits from heaven, simple piece of steamed sweet corn, tasty greens, and light cucumber and tomato salad... oh yeah, and an amazing piece of nectarine-plum pie for dessert.
Price to Value: 3 clucks. $38 gets you a lot of food (see above, it's easily enough for two), but then again $38 is a lot of money to pay for a fried chicken dinner. Plus, you also have to pay an additional $3 cover charge for the band.
Total: 25 clucks
Locanda Verde: 377 Greenwich Street (map); 212-925-3797; by advance reservation only
Related: Locanda Verde: Come for the Fried Chicken, But Stay for the Pie
And the Winner Is... The Redhead
Skin and batter: 5 clucks. Just the right about of crunch, not too thick or too thin, this is what serious fried chicken is all about.
White meat: 5 clucks. Tender and juicy, it's the best white meat can hope to be.
Dark meat: 5 clucks. Serious fried chicken lovers know dark meat is where it's at. Perfectly cooked, all the way to the bone.
Spiciness: 5 clucks. The most well-seasoned chicken we tasted, inside and out. This is one savory piece of chicken.
Sides: 3.5 clucks. Served with a spinach, strawberry, and almond salad, and corn bread. Fine accompaniments, worthy of the stomach space.
Price to Value: 5 clucks. Worth the price of admission. $17.
Total: 28.5 clucks
The Redhead: 349 East 13th Street (map); 212-533-6212
So the Levine-beloved, Bruni-approved Redhead walks away with our title of the Best Fancy-Pants Fried Chicken in New York. But there's plenty of good eating at all the places above. What do you think, serious eaters? What's your favorite fancy fried chicken?
Related
- Rack and Soul: The Best Fried Chicken and Ribs in New York?
- Piece of Chicken, a Dollar Restaurant in Hell's Kitchen
- I Take It All Back- Dirty Bird To Go Now Makes Great Fried Chicken
- Fried Chicken and Tofu at Forte Baden Baden
- The Best Fried Chicken in Fast Food: Not the Colonel, Not Popeyes
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31 Comments:
I get the worst cravings for fried chicken all the time - one of my favorite meals is the Blue Ribbon (the brasserie) fried chicken plate. Need to try Redhead... they have a good reputation for biscuits (+ factor).
Heads up *Juniors in Brooklyn does a really good plate of fried chicken. I think its 16.00.. so it might qualify.
muffintops at 10:08AM on 09/24/09
There was one other criteria I thought about throwing into the mix:
Is it better than Popeye's and if so by how much?
Ed Levine at 10:10AM on 09/24/09
i'm going to have fried chicken on the brain all day now.
gastronomeg at 10:15AM on 09/24/09
I love the idea of a Popeye's Threshold! And this list. Great job team!
dbdtron at 10:21AM on 09/24/09
Hey have you tried Dirty Bird on 14th? The fried chicken there is always hot off the fryer and delectibly juicy. Never got take out though, only ate in.
zackola at 10:31AM on 09/24/09
@Zackola: We're actually big fans of Dirty Bird. Writeup here:
http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/08/dirty-bird-to-go-takes-flight-with-great-best-fried-chicken-manhattan-chelsea-nyc.html
But it didn't quite fit our "fancy-pants" criteria; it's not a sit-down restaurant, for one.
Carey Jones at 10:39AM on 09/24/09
good work here.
but why would you have a criteria that it has to be above $15?? Popeyes is actually delicious and cheaper than these guys. and their biscuits and dirty cajun rice is soooo good.
i'm not interested in fancy fried chicken. i'm interested in good fried chicken...
Also, what about all the bonchon and korean fried chicken? IE: UFC?
ch58ch58 at 10:42AM on 09/24/09
I'm also curious about how these compare to Popeyes. I know it's not fancypants, but you could rate it to serve as a baseline. Plus, I don't know why you'd pay so much for fried chicken when Popeyes is soooooo good and soooooo cheap. The only stuff better is the Deviled Fried Chicken I make myself (but I haven't been down South, I bet they have even better stuff there).
emgroff at 11:13AM on 09/24/09
And what about Sylvia's? As an out-of-towner, it is the only place that bespeaks the bird when I think of such in relation to Metropolis...
BobbieAnne at 11:15AM on 09/24/09
@ch58ch58: This is a round-up of fancy-pants fried chicken. It's not that we at SENY don't love Popeyes or Korean fried chicken (see all our posts tagged fried chicken), it's that we noticed a trend among certain highfalutin' places in the city trying to get into the fried-bird game. We're interested in good fried chicken, too, but we're also interested in whatever mania sweeps through the various restaurants in the city, hence this post.
Adam Kuban at 11:16AM on 09/24/09
@ch58ch58 and emgroff:
We're rating only fancy-pants fried chicken here because we'd consider it a wholly different thing than non-fancy fried chicken, whether at Popeye's or elsewhere. At all of these places, you have serious chefs with the chance to source their preferred ingredients, refine their recipes, and serve in a restaurant setting, which can sustain higher prices and provides a better setting.
While it'd be fun to consider Popeye's as a baseline, sure, doing an actual comparison would be like comparing a $26 Minetta Tavern burger to a $1.80 In-N-Out burger. They're just different creatures.
Carey Jones at 11:20AM on 09/24/09
I think I'll stick to Popeyes and Church's (for the cheap eats lovers). For $15+ I can eat like a Queen for a week!! lol
Lvn4life at 11:21AM on 09/24/09
Thanks for using my picture! Seeing it, and reading all the reviews, is making me salivate. Fried chicken is one of my most favorite foods! om nom nom.
mintyfreshflavor at 11:22AM on 09/24/09
I'm LMAO thinking about someone (many someones) have taken advantage of you New Yorkers! The thought of paying even $15.00 for a fried chicken dinner just reiterates the old saying... a fool and his money are soon parted... You'd be foolish to pay that kind of money for something so simple and easy to make. And even if you can't make it in your tiny little NY kitchen, you can find it better and cheaper elsewhere. Those chefs must be laughing all the way to the bank on this one!
banananne at 11:33AM on 09/24/09
If I see a photo of beautiful fried chicken in a magazine or cookbook, I have to try the recipe. None have turned out to be "Ewww," most have turned out "Eh." Forty years after my first try, isn't it sad that a fast food chain makes better fried chicken than I do? But such is life. Love that chicken from Popeye's.
betteirene at 11:34AM on 09/24/09
church's uses lots of weird miscellaneous parts; jane tavern in west village should fit the bill for fancypants, what with its white linen, but its been on their menu for a long time so its not new. junior's fried chicken is big but unfortunately not good. i had a hunch that redhead would be the best and dying to try it sometime.
avisualperson at 11:49AM on 09/24/09
gee, it must have been horrible to have to do the research for this article!
carriebwc at 11:55AM on 09/24/09
@carriebwc: Excruciating.
Adam Kuban at 12:12PM on 09/24/09
Did you guys manage to catch where the chickens are from? Like Momofuku Noodle Bar's fried chicken is Bell & Evans chicken, right?
kathryn at 12:25PM on 09/24/09
thanks for the great roundup. i am surprised that redhead came up top. i was just there on friday and my chicken was just way too dry, especially the white bits. i did love the skin, and really liked the two sides also, but so disappointed on the chicken front. and was wondering why you didn't include roberta's unless they don't qualify as fancy pants. right now that is my all time favorite. they don't serve it all the time but when they do it is fantastic. http://cherrypatter.com/2009/07/robertas-this-is-our-familys-follow-friday/
cherrypatter at 12:46PM on 09/24/09
You can't forget Uncle Red's Addiction at the Chat N' Chew by Union Square!!
dozertx at 12:59PM on 09/24/09
Great roundup... I agree with my esteemed Popeye's alumni on the need for a Popeye's litmus test :D I'm also interested in how Pies and Thighs will measure up on your scale when it re-opens once and for all - though I suppose it wouldn't qualify as fancy pants on price point alone.
James Boo at 1:01PM on 09/24/09
Great survey and very informative, but I don't understand the value calculations. Momofuku gives you 1 bird for $50 and gets a high value score. Brooklyn Bowl gives you a half bird for $18 and gets a poor value score. Momofuku isn't a bowling alley, but it's not exactly Le Bernardin either. I won't bore you with other comparisons. Maybe you needed a separate "atmosphere" score.
gustoct at 2:15PM on 09/24/09
OMG! This article is total fried chicken nirvana for me! It is my favorite food and I am drooling!
There are some really good fried chicken recipes out there. I tend to like Southern style, chicken with great seasoning and crunch but I must admit I will eat ANY piece of fried chicken!
Fried chicken breasts are tricky because they can easily dry out if cooked too long, but my favorite pieces are wings, thighs and legs!
The prices for some of these dinners are outrageous! Fried chicken, even in an upscale setting, should be no more than $20 seriously!
jlewfoodie at 2:49PM on 09/24/09
The value thing is tricky, but I do think we were reasonably consistent. You get a whole chicken, vegetables, and pancakes at monofuku for $50, which is a very good deal. It feeds four people with leftovers At Brooklyn Bowl, the half-chicken and two not special sides for $18 probably feeds 1 1/2 people,is not nearly as good, deliciousness-wise. And you're in a bowling alley (albeit, a really cool bowling alley).
Ed Levine at 3:01PM on 09/24/09
Popeye's is usually great but some locations suck. I'd pay $15 for a fried chicken dinner if I knew it was going to be better than average, cause lousy fried chicken is totally inedible.
redfish at 4:37PM on 09/24/09
zenkichi's fried chicken is the best. not very traditional, but they put almonds in the batter and serve it with a lemon wedge. so delicious.
SEats at 5:40PM on 09/24/09
OMG...the pictures are as good as the reviews. Makes me want to try one of everything at each place. Now wha stretch pants to wear:-)
RestaurantZoom at 7:20PM on 09/24/09
Blue Ribbon and Brooklyn Bowl are really the same thing? Aren't they owned or run by the same group of people?
Im not being a hater, but the Redhead left me wanting something that wasn't there - it was a tad dry when we tried it out.
Fancy Pants I know - but really, delicious chicken - why did you leave out the Dirty Bird?
kimcheechicka at 11:36AM on 09/28/09
Surprised that Henry's End in Brooklyn Heights hasn't been mentioned - lots of fans over on Chowhound. Yeah, they're known more for their wild game and whatnot, but I find their FC to be top-notch, really good spicing (clove, cinnamon, mace, lots of other stuff) - probably tied for first as my fave fancy-pants FC in the city, along with Redhead.
sanhedrin at 2:17PM on 10/02/09
I was going to say exactly that.... Henry's End. I'm a great Redhead fan (and regular), but I'm not sure why H.End is never even reviewed for its fried chicken. Totally different but one of the best in town. C'mon Ed... at least try it.
Steve R at 1:56PM on 10/10/09