By Jackie Varriano / The Seattle Times
Fried chicken is beloved the world over, with good reason. Chicken is a beautiful blank canvas that begs to be marinated in everything from soy and garlic to buttermilk and rosemary before being dredged in wheat or rice flour with cornstarch and dried spices. It is delicious fresh out of the fryer, that crisp crunch that’s perfect unadulterated — but also incredible when tossed with just about any sauce on the planet.
Two kinds of fried chicken I had in Edmonds during a recent week were wildly different from each other — one a honey butter garlic, the other a vinegary sweet chili — but both memorable.
I couldn’t finish my mini fried chicken extravaganza through Edmonds without a visit to a Seattle-area original, Ezell’s. Truthfully, it’s one PNW chain that I can totally get behind. (I’m sorry, but even a decade into living here I will choose Burgermaster over Dick’s every time. I have only recently eaten at a Taco Time for the first time and am still processing the molten lava weapon that is the chicken crispy burrito.) Maybe it’s because my nostalgia taste buds end with Kentucky Fried Chicken (that’s KFC for anyone under 30), or maybe it’s because Ezell’s truly is a reliable benchmark for quick-serve fried chicken?
Either way, I picked up a three-piece original ($10.69) with a roll, a mix of light and dark meat as a control. As previously witnessed, Ezell’s original breading has a lovely dry, almost papery quality to it. It’s crunchy and light without feeling overly oily or bitter. There’s a nice amount of salt and the meat within is moist. Historically I’ve been a tenders person, but I might switch to the bone-in here, as it’s a bit juicier and crispier.
As for a boneless fried chicken option, I fell hard for the katsu at Teriyaki Way. Located in a strip mall next to T.J. Maxx, Teriyaki Way is a place for much more than Seattle-style chicken teriyaki. The chicken katsu here is a gorgeous, golden cutlet with a delicate panko breading that sticks perfectly to the juicy white meat. You know how sometimes katsu breading will fall off in a sheaf, leaving a naked, overcooked breast behind? Not here. Every bite is crisp and juicy. I ordered the curry katsu ($16.99), which came with two katsu cutlets, a tub of yellow curry bobbing with carrots and potatoes, plus two scoops of rice. It’s a hefty meal.
Also good at Teriyaki Way is the General Tao’s Chicken ($15.99). It’s a strong take on the Chinese-American dish with craggy, irregular nuggets completely drenched in a glossy sauce that lays the vinegar, chili and sugar on thick. There are diced carrots and green peas strewn throughout, but they’re superfluous. The fried chicken is what the Chinese takeout staple is meant to be: punchy and over-the-top sweet, sour and spicy.
The final stop on my fried chicken tour of Edmonds was nearby Chicken Prince, formerly known as Stars in the Sky. The Korean fried chicken joint also offers private karaoke rooms for anyone looking to sing with their chicken. I ordered half a chicken, original style ($20), and boneless seasoned fried chicken tossed in honey butter garlic sauce ($21).
The breading on the original fried chicken was light, crisp and slightly sweet, giving way easily to a flavorful, brined chicken. The boneless honey butter garlic retained crunch even thoroughly sauced. That sauce was sticky and studded with a hefty amount of rough-chopped garlic, breaking up the sweetness nicely.
The chicken came with a good-sized portion of pickled radish, the tart crunch a nice palate cleanser between bites of fried chicken. I ordered a side of sweet and spicy dipping sauce ($1.50), a deep, glossy red sauce that had a little bite, really nice for dipping the original chicken into. However, I would eat that original chicken all by itself, as it had so much flavor even without any sauce.
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