Winner, winner, fried chicken dinner: Hot spots in Waterloo region for this favourite dish
'It’s approachable in every culture,' chef Thompson Tran says
There is something magical about a good piece of fried chicken.
The snap of the crispy crust that gives way to savoury or spicy juiciness inside makes the dish a perfect comfort food. Despite its popularity as a fast-food staple, there are unique variations of fried chicken at a wide range of area restaurants.
Here are six examples you may want to test out.
Chikan shak from Lancaster Smokehouse
The James Beard Foundation has called the hot chicken at Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville, Tennessee, "totemic:" its hottest version is downright painful.
Lancaster Smokehouse's Nashville-style hot "chikan shak" chicken dinner ($20; sandwich $11) is the local version of the icon. Mark Pagett, their chef and kitchen manager, says the Scoville-intense dish strives for Nashville authenticity.
"It's our fried chicken brushed with a blend of oil and spices, including cayenne, brown sugar, smoked paprika, garlic powder and other ingredients. We have a medium version and a hot version which is super hot but still flavourful," Pagett says.
The meal version comes with two sides, cornbread, pickles — and the white bread it's served on doesn't cool your mouth; it soaks up the spicy oil and "adds to the experience," Pagett says.
Yangyum cup at Yangyum Secret Korean Recipe
Opened in May, 2018, and located in Waterloo Central Supermarket near University of Waterloo, this small food stall's name is a variation of the Korean "yangnyeom," a Korean fried chicken dish.
"The chicken in the Yangyum cup ($7) is marinated for several hours then breaded in a Korean style. I'm not sure there's an English word for it," says co-owner Jeremy Barnes.
Barnes's business partner and co-owner Adela Hwang, who does the cooking, moved from Seoul in 2015 and brought with her the basis of the Korean recipes. The chicken thighs are from Charles Quality Meats in St. Agatha cut into bite-sized pieces, seasoned, fried twice and tossed in either the more popular red gochujang fermented chili-paste sauce (often called yangnyeom sauce) or a milder black soy-based sauce. Both sauces are made in-house.
The Yangyum cup is a paper coffee cup overflowing with chicken bites. The wooden skewer utensil makes it a perfect on-the-go item for a stroll on a sunny spring lunch break.
Hot-honey fried chicken wings at Wooden Boat Food Company
Fried chicken, for Thompson Tran, chef and owner of Wooden Boat Food Company in Kitchener, is nostalgia.
"It's approachable in every culture and every culture has its own rendition of fried chicken," Tran says.
His Steckle Farm hot-honey fried chicken wings ($13.95) are gluten free and fried in a dedicated fryer. The pasture-raised chicken from New Hamburg's Five Chicks and a Farmer H is slow-roasted in the oven, dusted in a tapioca-corn starch blend and fried with a very thin crust that gives way to a succulent and moist interior.
The wings are then seasoned with Steckle Farm's ghost-pepper honey and garnished with lime-zest sugar, a dusting of chili flakes and served on jasmine rice with nuoc cham fish sauce, fried shallots, scallions and their signature Mekong countryside cabbage slaw with lime dressing.
"The secret weapon, though, is our charred jalapeño and cilantro dipping sauce," Tran says.
Fried chicken special at Public Kitchen and Bar
The fried chicken at Public marinades for a day before it gets its first fry for the big Tuesday night fried chicken feast. It's a deviation from Public's usual tapas-style service.
Public sous chef Jed Agbayani says simplicity is the key to customers' love of fried chicken.
"It's so simple and juicy and crispy and flavourful," Agbayani says. "Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are brined for at least 24 hours with salt, sugar and some spices."
The chicken, breaded with flour, is blanched and ready for a second fry when ordered to ensure crispness. "It comes with a ranch-style sauce or whatever we think of at service," Agbayani adds.
The Public fried-chicken special is offered only on Tuesdays, starting at 5 p.m. until they run out. Four pieces of chicken are $12, and take-away is offered.
Fusion Asian taco at Bao Sandwich Bar
A Japanese-style panko-fried chicken breast is slathered with a garlicky mayo, tonkatsu sauce (akin to Worcestershire) and seasoned amply with flakes of togarashi, a small Japanese chile pepper. Added to the dish are sliced scallions.
"It's street food," says Andre Mass of Bao Sandwich Bar. "It's kind of a fusion Asian taco is what I would call it."
The individual ingredients themselves are interesting enough, and their exotic names tonkatsu and togarashi, but when nestled inside a soft bao steamed bun with a slight portion of seasoned crispy chicken poking out something extraordinary happens.
There's a wonderful contrast that makes the katsu bao simply an inhalable edible: the cool, soft and moist bao bun resists only slightly against the hot crispy chicken to create a lovely texture combination. The spices are moderated by the mayo and there's a fresh and crisp herbaceous quality from the scallions.
Chicken Cheddar jalapeño slider at Lucky Belly Food Co., Guelph
The chicken cheddar jalapeño slider is distinguished by a corn relish with a kick (small is $11; large, $15), according to Lucky Belly co-owner and chef Dino Roumel. It's a blend of chopped jalapeños and avocado, red onion and corn that has some sweet to it, too.
"It's a kind of unique dish," Roumel says. "We take a boneless breast and spice it up with a seasoned flour blend of oregano, basil, different kinds of pepper and garlic. We make a chipotle mayo and add grated cheddar."
Next, there's three pieces of crisp bacon added as well as some pineapple and a red cabbage and carrot slaw for texture and combined sweetness and heat. "It's actually becoming one of our more popular sandwiches," Roumel says.
