CHICAGO — When it comes to fried chicken, Chicagoans have many options these days. But let's be real: Harold's is our standby.
Food blog Serious Eats did an in-depth feature on the city's favorite "bad chicken," describing the way it's made, its history in Chicago's neighborhoods and its unique franchise system (we explored some of the drama that comes with this system here):
"If you're on the streets of Chicago and see a trail of bones along the curb, follow them. These are your breadcrumbs. Because you don't need a smartphone app to eat well in this city. You need only look for the gnarled wingtips that point toward the storefront illustrated with a chicken fleeing for its life, pursued by a hatchet-wielding chef. This is the red carpet to Harold's, the best bad fried chicken on Earth."
Bad fried chicken, according to Serious Eats, is still good:
"... the kind that's too greasy for its own good or blitzkrieged by salt or sheathed in a coating of skin that slips right off the meat on first bite. But bad fried chicken is still better food than most good everything else, and replete with its own baroque pleasures, distinct from and at times even superior to the so-called good stuff."
What do you think of the Serious Eats assessment of Harold's? Read the whole story here. And for the record, Popeye's is on their "better" fried chicken list.
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