MY CAR is, now, legally disgusting. Dried Buffalo sauce dots the dash, maple syrup runs down the knee bolster, and the steering wheel has shiny, frictionless handprints at 2 and 10 o’clock. Rancid napkins fill the foot wells; plastic clamshells belch burnt grease. The sad thing is, it should never have been this way. These are all signs that I’ve been eating a lot of bad fried chicken, which is rampant in this town. Twenty local shacks, joints, dives, and carts into this project, I feel somewhat qualified to make that claim—though I’m sure I have worlds more to learn.

Great fried chicken has a greaseless, crisp, seasoned skin that holds tight. It is cooked on the bone, and eats well—without sog—the next day. It is juicy, yet fried hard enough that unidentifiable bits of caramelized skin and bone have crunch. If the last half of the tip of the wing eats like a Frito, you’re in good hands. Bad fried chicken tastes of freezer, or oil, or nothing, and the skin tears away in a single, rubbery sheet upon first bite.

Here are my top five, and I didn’t bother with any place where I had to wait in line—if you catch me. I was looking for that undiscovered gem, that hole in the wall, that far-flung mystery bodega with a glowing glass hot-case full of Eureka that could be taken home, taken on a picnic, or just used as walkin’-around chicken. In a couple cases, I actually got close.

1. George’s Corner Tavern, 5501 N Interstate

This aesthetically unambitious and decidedly uncool locals’ watering hole has made a few other lists, and rightfully so. Fried fresh on the bone, their chicken takes half an hour—ignore any place that takes less. The seasoned, lightly battered skin holds tight to the large pieces, which crunch with a perfection that sinks its claws into your basal nervous system. Though it rarely lasted in its complete form until the next day, overnighted pieces were as good as cold fried chicken gets. Justifiably proud of their little masterpieces, they don’t even close the to-go box for travel, so the chicken doesn’t steam itself.

2. Reel M Inn, 2430 SE Division

Also thin-crusted, this dive’s chicken is more lightly seasoned than George’s, and the pieces are larger and juicier. My brother’s boyfriend, who grew up on a poultry farm in France, could barely lift his blissed-out face from the massive, tender breast, and only when he was sucking the marrow from the ribs could he spare the breath to say, “Zees ees very good shickon.” Fresh, crisp, and tender, Reel delivers pure chicken flavor in large, satisfying quantity. Again, expect that telltale wait.

3. Alberta Street Market, 915 NE Alberta

Call ahead to beg and plead them to cook the whole pieces and not just the wings, which are their standard offering. Addicting and heavily seasoned, Alberta Street Market’s chicken is fried hard and dark, so while it is not as juicy as some, it eats beautifully and the skin holds tight. Those twentysomethings by the door with their half-racks of PBR, disinterestedly leafing through the free papers? They’re waiting for the next hot batch to come out. Those after-church crowds filling the Sunday morning aisles with rowdy anticipation? They are buying buckets of the stuff. Too bad the whole pieces are such a rarity.

4. Cackalack’s Hot Chicken Shack, 4262 SE Belmont

Good, on-the-bone fried chicken can come from a cart. Cackalack’s chicken is big, juicy, and liberally treated with strong seasoning and spice. It’s a bit pricy, but this buttermilk-soaked meat is unique and satisfying, with a thick, battered skin that gets an optional, but recommended, application of hot sauce (the “hot,” their second-hottest option, is respectably fiery, yet doesn’t block the meat’s flavor). The skin can be a little loose, but it’s good enough to eat on its own.

5. Look, I’m Sorry About This, But…

You can’t take kids to the first two, the third is a corner store, and the fourth is a cart. Convenience, dependability, and consistency should be factored in here at some point, so I have to hang my head a bit and, with great reservation, recommend the best of the behemoths. The fried chicken at Safeway and Fred Meyer is gross, wet, unctuous stuff and should be avoided. KFC’s fried chicken is an infuriating wad of flab and slime, poorly flavored with 11 secret herbs and spices (did you know that one of the spices is bullshit?). That leaves Popeyes. It’s fairly greaseless when fresh, if a little heavy on the breading, and the millions they’ve spent on corporate R&D has to be worth something, right? It doesn’t last well, but if you have that kind of time, you don’t go to Popeyes. I’m thinking emergency picnic with a minivan full of screaming five-year-olds. (This happens.)

A larger version of this absurdly detailed fried chicken chart is viewable here.

16 replies on “Fried Chicken Roundup”

  1. I APPLAUD CHRIS’S ONGOING POLEMICS AGAINST WAITING IN LINE FOR FOOD. PORTLAND HAS MORE AMAZING FOOD PER CAPITA THAN ANY OTHER PLACE IN THE UNITED STATES. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO EVER WAIT IN LINE. MAKE RESERVATIONS IF YOU THINK IT’LL BE BUSY.

  2. I would like to take a moment here to advocate for more bars having broasted chicken specifically. It kicks all kinds of ass over yer normal fried. It’s more involved -if it takes an hour at George’s, I’m assuming they’re broasting it, actually- but the rewards are overwhelming. For some reason, it tends to be a rural/suburban thing, and someone needs to change that.

  3. Fryer Tuck’s in Hillsdale. Call ahead and pick it up to go if you do not want to wait. Better yet – have a drink at the Cider Mill pub!

  4. Please boycott George’s. For years they were pissed off about taxes going to light rail development downtown and their permanent marquee read “Hey Vera, Shove Your Train.” They became more compassionate once light rail expanded and included a stop just outside their door.

    Sorry if their chicken is great (I hadn’t tried it.) I gave them the benefit of the doubt and spent an hour there twice to see if there was any appeal for drinks, service, environment – sorry, it’s a shithole.

    For great fried chicken in the area: Fire on the Mountain (CAN come w/o sauce,) the Overlook or Uju (sp?) on Mississippi.

  6. GRAHAM, MANY PORTLAND RESTAURANTS DO NOT TAKE RESERVATIONS. I DON’T KNOW ABOUT FRIED CHICKEN PLACES BECAUSE I DON’T EAT FRIED CHICKEN (so why am i commenting on a fried chicken article? how about fuck you) BUT IT CAN BE A REAL PROBLEM FOR THE STANDING-IN-LINE-SUCKS SORT OF PERSON.

  8. @CMCCURDY: I AGREE WITH YOU. THE LACK OF RESERVATION TAKING IS AWFULLY ANNOYING. I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY SO MANY PLACES DON’T ACCEPT THEM.

  9. I realize that SW is tantamount to Wyoming, and I haven’t been to this place in many years myself for exactly that reason, but Fryer Tucks (cf. Mindy above) is (or certainly used to be) worth investigating.

  10. This is hardly an exhaustive sampling, leaving out places with excellent regular Fried Chicken Specials, places that are located out of the city center (Friar Tuck’s, Country Cat) and completely foregoing breakfast places (Pine State, Screendoor).
    If you don’t like lines, that’s fine, but you can hardly discount the quality of an establishment’s food simply because it’s popular.
    Reel’M Inn may have good chicken, but I’ll never know because I was put off by the extremely dubious cleanliness, and in fact many of the places you selected seem to serve some reverse bias by being complete shit holes.
    And who the fuck really needs a review of Popeye’s and KFC, home of the “Bucket of fried slop for fat-asses”?
    If this was titled “Places that have fried chicken for dinner, that I didn’t find pretentious, and that I was willing to drag my lazy ass too” I would have no problems. F+

  11. Also, I’m sorry but the Alberta Street Market should be included in the wings category. All they serve is full wings…

  12. Reel M Inn has been great for years. Friar Tucks as well. Also try Ringo’s in Old Town Beaverton. Popeye’s? Seriously dude?

  13. Hi Mindy. Yes, I’ve drank in Friar Tuck’s (or the Cider Mill, adjacent to the Hoot Owl market) before, found it to be sort of unforgiving if you’re not old and/or a veteran. But I did note that they Broast. Haven’t hit it yet.

  14. Uchu is awful. I gleefully await their inevitable demise so an actually good restaurant (hopefully one that serves non-terrible Japanese food) can occupy their visible and well-trafficked real estate.

  15. If you are going the Popeye’s route. Go out to the truckstop in Troutdale. I got a suitcase of the shit last time I ventured out the Gorge and it beat the NoPo prices and product dickless into the dirt.

  16. Broasting takes less time than normal frying. That’s why it was invented. It’s pressure-frying and is quicker. It shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to use a pressure-fryer. Regular deep frying will be more like 20 minutes.

    There are lots of places that use pressure-fryers, such as Chicken Little, Pink Feather, Fryer Tuck’s, etc. Broasting was big in the 30 years following WWII and a lot of the older taverns from the ’70s and ’80s that make me feel like I still live in rural Oregon have broasters.

    But broasting doesn’t guarantee good chicken. Reel M Inn is probably the most over-hyped of the broasters. The chicken is fine, but I wouldn’t put it in the top 25% of the broasting places. It’s average. And there’s generally a wait for chicken and they get pissy if you just want to order chicken to go. (So I call bullshit on you not having to wait in line, Chris. Try ordering chicken there after 8pm.)

    The best among the broasting places is Fryer Tuck, by a long ways, imo. The best fried chicken I’ve had in town is at Podnah’s on Wednesday nights. The chicken I get the most is Popeye’s because it’s open late, has a drive-thru, is cheap, and isn’t far behind any of the broasters. I’m also a big fan of the fried chicken wings at Country Cat, which unlike their normal fried chicken (which is also good) is on the bone.

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