The Search for the Perfect Fried Chicken

W hen I was a kid, fried chicken, like white bread, was something we didn’t eat at our house. The few times I actually got to taste the stuff I thought it was the food of the gods; I could hardly believe that some people were lucky enough to eat it every night. I resolved that when I grew up that is exactly what I’d do.

Then I grew up and discovered that fried chicken is very, very bad for you and that you’d have to be sort of a fool to eat it every night. I consoled myself by becoming a restaurant critic and eating foie gras and truffles instead. Still, in my heart I yearned for fried chicken. I’d watch those ads on TV about extra crisp and super crunch and how many breasts you find on a bird and while my friends shook their heads in disbelief, I believed every word. To me each drumstick looked delicious.

I finally decided it was time to do something about this obsession; I determined to discover the best fried chicken in Los Angeles. It didn’t take long to find that you don’t go looking for fried chicken in the palaces of haute cuisine, so I went to all the people who keep swearing that they do it right.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Gold went in search of soul-fried chicken while Linda Burum tried to find the best ethnic birds.

So if eating fried chicken every night is something you’d like to do, we can probably accommodate you.