The 35 Best Fried Chicken Places in America

Nashville hot chicken comes to Hollywood at this colorfully decorated little place, purveying fried chicken sliders and tenders. Six degrees of spice are offered, from “Country — no heat” to “X-hot — call 911” and “Angry — sign a waiver.”

This, the original location of this ten-unit Texas chain, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area city of Roanoke, gets high marks for its classic fried chicken (and also chicken-fried steak). An added attraction at Babe’s is the selection of homemade pies.

The small menu at this Portland favorite includes a “very very spicy” hot chicken plate, a fried chicken sandwich, and a fried chicken salad — any of which can be accompanied by Dan Dan Fries, described as a “large bowl of fries covered in Szechuan peanut sauce, chili oil, baby dill pickles, crushed peanuts, green onion, cilantro, and lime.”

The Bird describes itself as “the ultimate fried chicken sandwich shop,” serving “indulgent food that’s made with integrity and sold for just 8 bucks.” They use free-range fowl, coated with berbere (the traditional Ethiopian spice blend); the buns are fresh-baked locally every morning; and the sandwich includes crunchy house-made apple slaw. Hot wings are also served after 3 p.m. daily, and fried chicken may be added to the house salad.

Everybody’s heard of chicken and waffles, but chicken and doughnuts might sound a little strange. The combination apparently first appeared at Federal Donuts in Philadelphia in 2011, and now a number of places around the country combine the two under one roof. The two are served separately, however. This is not to be confused with the new doughnut chicken sandwich being tested by KFC. At Birdies, the free-range fried chicken sandwich — regular or spicy — comes with slaw, buttermilk ranch mayo, Tillamook cheddar, and pickles. The doughnuts, including flavors like lemon thyme pistachio and candied bacon maple, are for dessert.

With four locations in Charleston and vicinity (like this one in Charleston’s West Ashley neighborhood) and one in Chicago, Boxcar Betty’s is a fried chicken sandwich specialist. There are three variations — the Boxcar (pimiento cheese, peach slaw, house pickles, spicy mayo), the Chicken “Not So Waffle” (bacon jam, maple syrup, pimiento cheese, tomato), and the Buffalo (blue cheese sauce, tomato, bibb lettuce). Grilled chicken or a pimiento-stuffed portobello mushroom cap may be substituted for the fried chicken breast.

Bruxie started out in 2010, in California’s Orange County, as a stand selling fried chicken sandwiches served on crisp waffles instead of rolls. There are now six locations in California and two in Seoul, Korea — plus this well-loved outpost in Las Vegas. In addition to the signature item (available in four variations), there are two fried chicken sandwiches on buns and tenders-and-fries combinations that are offered with a choice of seven sauces — among them housemade ranch, chili honey, and “angry” cheese sauce.

Champy’s has grown from this original location near the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, opened in 2009, to an eight-unit chain (three in Tennessee, four in Alabama, one in Georgia). The specialty is straightforward Mississippi Delta-style fried chicken, served with baked beans and slaw. Hot tamales, a non-chicken Delta specialty seldom seen elsewhere in the South, are available as a starter.

Frequent competition cooking show participant — and one-time winner of Bravo’s “Top Chef All-Stars” — Richard Blais opened this fried chicken restaurant in San Diego’s Little Italy in 2015, and it has since expanded into six locations (five in Southern California, one in Las Vegas). The menu includes classic fried chicken with a choice of sauces, as well as seven chicken sandwiches, in four of which the chicken is fried.

This Nashville hot chicken place in the southeastern Los Angeles County city of Downey (famous in fast-food history as the home of the oldest operating McDonald’s in the world, opened in 1953) focuses on fried tenders and wings. Both are available in five spice levels, from “Country (no heat)” to “BURRRN, baby burn.” About the restaurant’s unusual name: “crimson” is a reference to the reddish color of the fried chicken; and a chicken, of course, is a coward.

Meaty Korean-style fried chicken wings are the main draw at this super-casual counter-service place. Regulars recommend the version coated in Seoul Sassy sauce (involving ginger, soy, and garlic). Side dishes include two varieties of kimchi.

This Korean-style fried chicken place sells oversize chicken wings, as well as drumsticks, thighs, and boneless breast strips. Ten different flavorings are offered, including soy garlic, Seoul Spicy (made with the Korean red chile paste called gochujang), and BBS Wing — which, warns the menu, “may leave a grown man crying.”

A strong L.A. entry on the hot chicken scene, with two locations up and running (the East Hollywood restaurant gets the nod here) and two more on the books. There are seven grades of seasoning available, from “no spice” to “reaper” (presumably a reference to the Carolina Reaper, very likely the world’s hottest chile).

Napoleon “Na” Vanderbilt and his wife, Maggie, started selling fried chicken out the back door of a tavern in Mason, Tennessee, northeast of Memphis, in 1953. They opened a restaurant in the community 20 years later. Na’s son Vernon “Gus” Bonner inherited the place and renamed it for himself, and in 2001, with his blessing, a longtime customer of Bonner’s launched this Memphis offshoot. Today, there are about 30 locations, from New Orleans to Austin to Chicago to L.A. Chicken plates include baked beans, slaw, and white bread.

Hattie B’s offers counter-service hot chicken at three locations in the town where it all began — Nashville — plus one each in Memphis; Atlanta; Las Vegas; and Birmingham, Alabama. Heat levels here range from “Southern (no heat)” to “Shut the cluck up!!! (burn notice).” The Midtown/Broadway location in Nashville gets the most praise.

Humanely raised Miller Amish Farms chicken from Indiana is brined, battered, fried in canola oil, and served boneless (except for the drumsticks) here. Eight sauces, including Wisconsin blue cheese and candied jalapeño mayo, are available, and besides the chicken pieces — served with honey butter and corn muffins — there are four variations on the chicken sandwich theme.

Like so many other proprietors of hot chicken places, the owners of this three-unit Columbus mini-chain fell in love with the preparation in Nashville and brought the idea home with them. Their location in the North Market food hall is a customer favorite. Chicken in various forms (as well as seitan “not chicken”) is available four ways, from “Cold (hot in temperature, cool in spice)” to “Holy (#&@*%?!).”

This operation is a combination hot sauce store and chicken-wings-to-go establishment. “No sit down, no dine-in and no waiter service,” warns the website. Also “There are no bathrooms, TV or wifi.” What there is, though, in addition to more than 30 variations on wings, are two superlative fried chicken sandwiches: one, on a toasted brioche bun, comes regular, bbq, or hot, with cabbage, pickles, and cheddar; the other is on a waffle, with cabbage, mayo, sriracha, and caramel sauce.

This small counter-service Nashville-style hot chicken joint in L.A.’s Chinatown, which started life as a food truck, fries various hormone- and -antibiotic-free chicken parts in peanut oil and offers them with six degrees of heat, from “Country (no heat)” to “Howlin’ (can’t touch this).”

Fried chicken with fries and slaw, fried chicken sandwiches on a French roll or “gourmet bun,” and a chopped chicken bowl are on the menu at this operation, opened in the fall of 2018, which shares quarters with Padrinos Pizza in the San Fernando Valley community of Sherman Oaks. A second location has just opened in West Hollywood.

This chain from South Korea, which has a number of locations around California and in other states, specializes in two things: Korean-style pizza (a thick-crust variety; some crusts are stuffed with sweet potato) and fried chicken — available in regular and extra-crispy versions, as well as “Sweet & Mild” and “Hot & Spicy.”

The Flushing (Queens) location of this Korean fried chicken place opened in 2006 (there’s now a second Queens location and one in Brooklyn). Wings, drumsticks, and boneless breasts are offered, with soy garlic or spicy soy garlic sauce. There are also Buffalo wings and scallion chicken, described as “deep-fried boneless breast with scallion, red onion, and sweet mustard sauce.” The eclectic side-dish selection includes kimchi fries, poutine, and Mexican-style grilled corn.

What the Dallas Observer called “the crispiest, juiciest Dallas fried chicken” comes from an eatery at one end of a laundromat. Both operations are owned by Tram and Son Dao, a Vietnamese couple who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1990s. The point here is good fried chicken, not heat — but all the various chicken parts are available spicy if desired.

Located in the southeastern L.A. County community of La Mirada, Oh Mama is a Korean deli with a short menu that includes kimbap (the Korean version of sushi, here made with cooked Spam, burdock root, or fish cake) and spicy rice cakes as well as fried chicken wings — hailed as some of the best in California.

“We’re a small mom & pop shop with a very big dream,” announces the Peck Peck website. The wings are an assortment of wingettes and drumettes, and there are also drumstick combos (which adds legs to the wings), chicken tenders, and two chicken salads. The chicken comes in three flavors: salt and pepper, soy garlic, and sweet and spicy.

Bringing Nashville hot chicken to Salt Lake City, Pretty Bird offers a stripped-down menu listing just a quarter bird combo plate or a fried chicken sandwich, either one served mild, medium, hot, or “hot ‘behind’.” One of the sides is homemade cider slaw.

Paying “homage to ‘Nashville style’ hot chicken and southern soul food” (according to its website) Rocky’s — there is a second location in Arden, just south of Asheville — serves various chicken combinations in eight degrees of heat, from plain traditional to extra hot. Wings and chicken and waffles are also on the menu, as are grilled and rotisserie chicken and chicken pot pie.

The soul-food combination of chicken and waffles is said to have been invented at Wells Supper Club in Harlem in the late 1930s; the story is that when musicians came in after their late-night gigs, some wanted dinner and some wanted breakfast, and this was the compromise. Harlem native Herb Hudson brought the concept to L.A. in 1975 (there are now eight Southern California locations). Not all the offerings involve waffles, by any means (the Oscar, for instance, is three chicken wings, grits, one egg, and a biscuit), but chicken and waffles is definitely what President Obama had when he visited Roscoe’s in 2011.

Fried chicken tenders (either as a plate or in taco form) and two sandwiches — fried chicken and fried chicken salad — are the fare served here. Spice levels stretch from no-heat Classic Fried to Gonzo + 1.

With two Dallas locations (the Cedar Springs outlet gets the nod here), Street’s cooks their French-fried chicken to order (it’ll take 20 minutes to 30 minutes, warns the menu). Also on offer: fried chicken sandwiches, crispy tenders, and chicken “lollipops” (smoked and fried drumsticks) — as well as chicken roasted with herbes de Provence or marinated peri peri style (a spicy Portuguese preparation).

Japanese-style fried chicken dinners — chicken rice, house-pickled ginger cabbage, and both sweet and spicy ponzu sauce are included — are the draw here. Unusual side dishes include crispy fried chicken skin, curry creamed corn, and soy-glazed yams, and there are both L.A.-area and Japanese craft beers to wash it all down with.

Chicken tenders and wings are the only choices here — though either may be ordered in one of seven flavors, including the lightly seasoned original, Nashville hot, and Asian sweet chili. A choice of five dips is also offered. (There is a second location in nearby Redondo Beach.)

This industrial-look Koreatown restaurant, hidden behind a pizza parlor, has vinyl records on the walls and a DJ booth and there’s always music — by no means necessarily jazz — blasting. Fried wings, drumsticks, boneless breasts, and combinations, with soy garlic or hot and spicy sauce (or half and half) are the feature.

This casual counter-service restaurant is all about the wings, available bone-in or boneless. The numerous variations include 13 different dry coatings (Caribbean jerk, garlic parmesan, even funnel cake batter with powdered sugar) and 22 wet sauces (spicy curry, Buffalo ranch, honey chile lime, sweet mustard…). Fries are available plain, topped with Philly cheesesteak, or tossed in any one of the wing sauces.

After opening pop-ups in Maryland and Virginia in 2018, Wooboi opened this permanent shop this February just outside D.C. Tenders, wings, and breast are on the menu, and there’s a chicken and waffles combo, too. Six heat levels are available; the hottest, Code Red and Code Blue, require diners to sign a chalkboard “waiver” — part of which reads “I do not have a medical condition that could jeopardize my health or well being during or after eating Wooboi hot chicken.”