Best Fried Chicken in America, Harold's Need Not Apply

By Karl Klockars in Food on Aug 9, 2010 9:00PM

Hot dogs? Almost daily. Pizza? All the time. Italian beefs? It never stops. The arguments over Chicago's fried chicken scene, however, are few and far between.* Travel and Leisure Magazine has seen fit to fire the first shot with their new list of the best fried chicken joints in America, and it's hard to argue with a list that includes Roscoe's in LA and Hollyhock Hill in Hoosier country.

When it comes to Chicago, we can start asking questions. T&L has crowned Lakeview's Crisp as the king of the Chicago chicken scene, and immediately sides were being drawn in the Chicagoist offices. Anthony's original review loved it and others here agree, hailing the Seoul Sassy style in particular to the heavens. The traditionalists among us wonder if the widespread Harold's locations offered too much inconsistency even though they arguably represent the best foot forward of the city's chicken community, small though it may be. How about Take Me Out's little hotties? Chinese Yum Yums? Nightwood's more gourmet take on the chicken & waffles plate? Or the originator of the Korean chicken wing craver, Great Seas?

And while the city continues to push the food truck movement forward, is it too nitpicky to ask southern author Taylor Bruce if he really thinks we're the "land of...street-seller hot dogs" when the best street dog you can (currently) get is a pre-steamed dog in a city park? Not for nothing, but things like that make us wonder if our fair city was even graced with a chicken-chowing presence at all.

*This post from 2007 is really more of a discussion rather than an argument.