Chicken y Chicken

photo: Drew Coyle

Two round-ups recently of all of NYC's fab fried chicken spots. Time Out NY vs. NY Mag. Which is your fave??

Fried Chicken Friday!

Starting next week (1/22) - Charles Gabriel (whose fried chicken is hailed by many restaurant critics as the best in the city) will be moonlighting every friday from 5PM - 11PM at Aretsky's Patroon.

Read more here and here.

To Soak Or To Dip? Buttermilk is the Question

I'm just getting around to reading Time Out's Best of NY issue from last week. On the fried chicken front, TONY picked Georgia's Eastside BBQ (where they soak the chicken in buttermilk), and Buttermilk Channel (where they dip it).

So, dear readers, being that I don't cook, I wonder and ask: what's the difference, and which is better?

In the meantime, here are those TONY picks:

Fried chicken at Georgia’s Eastside
BBQ Aggressively salted, buttermilk-soaked, crusty, crunchy, juicy and hot—that’s how we like our fried chicken, and that’s how Georgia’s chef Shawn Collins makes it every time. 192 Orchard St between E Houston and Stanton Sts (212-253-6280, georgiaseastsidebbq.com). $14.

Buttermilk fried chicken with cheddar waffles at Buttermilk Channel
Riffing on the Southern classic, a cheddar-laced waffle is topped with half a buttermilk-dipped, snappy-skinned bird, made even tastier with a drizzle of balsamic–maple syrup reduction. 524 Court St at Huntington St, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (718-852-8490, buttermilkchannelnyc.com). $18.

EAT: Charles' Pan-Fried Chicken opens tonight! (10/15)

From New York Magazine: You can’t talk about fried chicken in this town without talking about Charles Gabriel, Harlem’s critically acclaimed frymaster who began his career twenty years ago selling chicken out of a truck. Until recently, Gabriel ran a three-shop operation on Frederick Douglass Boulevard called Charles’ Southern-Style Kitchen and moonlighted at Rack & Soul. But eight months ago, a car plowed through one of his storefronts, taking out the beloved steam-table buffet and dashing the dining dreams of soul-food aficionados everywhere. On October 15, he finally reopens his flagship, this time as Charles’ Pan-Fried Chicken, calling attention to the increasingly rare method he employs to fry his legs, wings, breasts, and thighs, turning them frequently in his custom-made manhole-size skillets. How does it feel to return to his old block? “Beautiful,” he says. 2841 Frederick Douglass