KFC was always our go to when growing up, but it’s gone way downhill to the point I’ll never return. Popeyes is my go to now as well as Dave’s Hot Chicken, both very close to the crib. I’ve tried Mary Browns a couple of times, it was good bird but too far from me to make it a regular stop.
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I tried Jollibee a couple of time in the 00s at the 4th and Howard location in S.F. , use to work near by. Wasn’t for me. I found it soggy and greasy. Things can obviously change for the better and must have. I figured it might be the franchise but I’ve never been back.
Pollo Campero has a bunch of locations in SoCal and few locations in the Bay Area, including Oakland and S.F. but never got around to trying it. Local reviews mention Central American diaspora as a driving force.
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Huey Magoo’s
come on now. You’re just making things up…
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You’re giving me me too much credit.
It was the lack of seasoning for me, it wasn’t terrible but it just didn’t stand out in the crowded world of fried chicken joints. Their “gravy” was decent though and they give you a huge vat of it 
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I LOVE fried chicken, much to my health’s and heart’s dismay. When not getting a proper version at a sit down restaurant, my favorite chains are the Korean places these days as well. I like BBQ’s variety but I find their flavors to be too much, and things too saucy. Very much a personal preference, but I like my fried chicken fairly simple but crunchy and with a good kick of spice. Bonchon is consistent and I like their soy garlic and spicy flavors. I’ve had better KorFC in sit down restaurants, but it’s consistent for a chain.
For American style, I like Popeye’s the best out of the ones near me. It’s a solid fried chicken option, and I’ll gladly choose them over other ubiquitous fast food chains. I tried Raising Cane’s chicken once and so disappointing - I don’t get the love. Bland chicken that everyone in the office said you need the sauce for it to be great. Tasted the sauce and did not like the sauce. Yuck. My dream is for a Crack Shack to expand east and come to my area.
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Regional chain (SoCal and LV), but Crack Shack is pretty good.
Especially their fried chicken oysters.
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Crack Shack is appropriately named. I had their fried chicken oysters and they were amazing. They also had his fantastic jicama and mango slaw (something like that) that was perfect for a warm day. If I were still in San Diego, I’d be hitting this all the time.
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SF locations are in the Mission and by Fisherman’s Wharf. I work near the latter, so I’ll have to give them a try one of these years.
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We are headed to San Diego on Tuesday and I am hoping that this will be one of the places we hit. Love the fried chicken oysters! Also a fan of the pollo asado fries, although I think there’s a couple versions on the menu now.
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Unfortunately this is an issue for me as well. That’s why I’m not so quick to try new FC places like Pollo Compero. I might like it. Also why I’m glad there’s not a Krispy Krunchy Chicken too close to me. Fried chicken is considered ultra-processed food, even if you can make it at home and crazy additives don’t have to be involved, and it’s a nearly universal cuisine.
On a general note, I don’t get the whole fried chicken fingers/strips thing. Even the hot chicken fillets are kind of odd to me. Yes they have spice but without skin or fat, it’s lacking to me.
If you try it please report. I might try it but the closest one is a few miles away and out of my way. Trying a new place near work is always so easy, especially after a crappy day. Even if it turns out only okay, a nice diversion.
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I’m wondering if keeping it on the bone makes it any less processed. 
Regardless; I do not suffer boneless chicken.
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Chicken oysters? Meaning the iliotrochantericus caudalis ? Or real oysters?
How is fried chicken considered an ultra processed food if you make fried chicken at home, with buttermilk, flour and sunflower oil/ peanut oil/ grapeseed oil?
I don’t follow.
I can see how a fried chicken sandwich at KFC or boneless wings at Applebee’s are ultra-processed
. I don’t seem how deep-frying or pan-frying, oven-frying chicken at home is ultra-processed.
I only visited Café Panisse, above Chez Panisse once. I ordered the fried chicken. It was awesome. Kind of funny to think my posh Alice Waters Café Panisse fried chicken might be considered ultra-processed 
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I have the same questions and all the ingredients are in regular people’s kitchens. But I’ve read several things, online and from the book “Ultra-processed People”.
Probably as you mention, they’re referring to chain or commercially sold fried chicken because most people do not cook FC at home. I might cook a few pieces every couple of years but never a real batch like my grandmother who would cook 3 or 4 chickens, in pieces, because it was such a hassle and mess. She’d cover her kitchen in butcher paper because of the flying grease, before the days of high efficiency exhaust fans. Cooked in a couple of large cast iron chicken fryer skillets.
It is a hassle and I think that’s a big reason FC has had a resurgence since the Great Recession.
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We were cooking fried chicken at home, one chicken cut into 8 pieces, until about 10 years ago. I make oven fried chicken and fried breaded chicken cutlets fairly regularly.
Fried chicken is the only fast food take-out dinner we get regularly other than fish and chips, which would be about the same nutrition-wise.
I’ve been ordering the fast food fried chicken without the potatoes most of the time.
While fried chicken isn’t going to be healthy, I think fried chicken from some smaller or local chains has to be fairly low on the ultra processed danger scale, and that some old school fried chicken joints would add less stuff to make their chicken ultra-processed, compared to some of the blinged up chicken specials other Fast Food chains are serving.
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Is that the name of the muscle towards the back and to the sides of the chicken? It’s that little dollop of meat tucked in there that is really tender. I don’t know how many chicken carcasses they have to break down to get enough for orders all day, but you can get an order of those fried little morsels of meat. They are fabulous!
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Yes. I forget the common French name for this little morsel, but the loose translation is “Only idiots leave this behind.”
