Does Atlanta have too many options for fried chicken?
Southern fried chicken is considered the standard in Atlanta, a style that sets a high bar for all fried chicken.
Each juicy, brined morsel with its well-seasoned crust also comes with a side of history — its origin traced to the 1800s, when enslaved people perfected the technique of frying chicken in fat with West African seasonings. Fried chicken is not only a symbol of comfort, but also of grit and entrepreneurial spirit. In the late 1800s, freed Black women sold it by train stations, enabling them to make a living.
Whether you’re a native Southerner, transplant or tourist, that first bite of Southern fried chicken somehow tastes like home. But over the years, different interpretations of fried chicken have shown up in Atlanta, enhancing the already colorful tapestry of the South.
Southern fried chicken holds ‘history and pain’
It would be blasphemous not to mention the interplay of Southern food and politics, especially in the home of the civil rights movement. Paschal’s Restaurant and Bar, one of Atlanta’s first nonsegregated restaurants, is as well-known for its Southern fried chicken as it is for being a home base for activists in the 60s. The fried chicken is a heavily guarded recipe that remains unchanged to this day, and it is aptly named after the restaurant’s opening year in 1947.
Like Paschal’s, Mary Mac’s Tea Room also integrated early in the civil rights movement. The “tea room” designation allowed women to run dining establishments while avoiding the patriarchal mores of 1942, when it was frowned on for women to own restaurants. Thanks in part to its fried chicken, Mary Mac’s became so famous the restaurant was officially named Atlanta’s Dining Room by the state of Georgia and the House of Representatives, according to Mary Mac’s website. Iconic institutions like these set high expectations, with much of their identities tied to a single dish.
“Before, it was more of a ‘you have to have it’ on the menu. But over time, it became more about trying different techniques and flavor profiles,” Maximillian Hines, executive chef of Breaker Breaker, said.
Hines was hesitant to put fried chicken on the menu at first for fear of being pigeonholed.
“I am still a Black chef, so there is a double-edged sword of expecting and comparing a great version because you are a Black chef. There is history and pain behind the story,” he explained.
Hines’ sous chef insisted on putting fried chicken on the menu after trying it during a staff meal, confident people would enjoy the chef’s version, called McBriddle (a play on McDonald’s McGriddle).
Sweet potato starch gives Southern breading a run for its money
In 2024, Angela Hansberger wrote a piece for the AJC about Java Saga’s jipai rivaling Southern fried chicken. The Taiwanese restaurant quickly gained attention, landing it on a Yelp list of the best fried chicken sandwiches in the country just a year later, snatching the accolade in an area where Southern fried chicken reigns supreme. Both versions of the dish use different methods to produce their crunchy, craggy textures, beloved in their own ways.
“The breading is 100% sweet potato starch, compared to the traditional flour breading, which makes our fried chicken gluten-free. Lastly, we season the chicken post-frying, instead of seasoning the breading like Southern fried chicken,” Alvin Sun, founder of Java Saga, explained.
And rather than the traditional Southern buttermilk brine, Java Saga marinates the massive, thin-pounded cutlets with 13 ingredients, including gluten-free soy sauce, garlic and five spice powder, the latter flown in directly from Taiwan.
Sweet potato starch is not only gluten-free, but also has a fine, powdery texture that produces a thin, shattering crispy shell that isn’t too heavy or oily. The process includes a dip in an egg wash before dredging in the starch, which adds moisture and creates the fried chicken’s signature craggy surface. Because it can’t hold spices the way all-purpose flour does, the chicken is dusted with seasoning after it’s fried.
Meet pollo a la brasa’s lesser known cousin, pollo frito
Las Brasas in Decatur is well-known for its pollo a la brasa, the 12-hour marinated, spit-roasted rotisserie chicken cooked over hardwood charcoal.
But the restaurant also offers an equally tasty, deep-fried version of their chickens, called pollo frito. Both dishes use the same beer and herb marinade, which flavors the meat all the way to the bone.
The fried chicken comes with an aji limo hot honey sauce, adding sweetness with a slight kick that complements the meat well.
Frying in tallow is hard work, but the payoff is big in flavor
Cozy Coop in Kennesaw is one of the few places that doesn’t fry their chicken in oil. Rather, they use tallow, a rendered animal fat. Tallow has a higher smoke point and doesn’t break down as fast as seed oils, so it stays fresher longer. Tallow also gives the chicken an extra-meaty flavor.
“Tallow is different because, first and foremost, the taste is better. When we first opened Cozy Kennesaw, I did a blind taste test with the staff and our early customers. Every single person voted for the tallow chicken, without ever knowing which was which,” Michael Madonna, founder of Cozy Coop said.
Most restaurants lean toward seed oils, not only for the lower cost, but also because frying in tallow requires more skill.
“Real, all-natural tallow becomes a solid at room temperature, so it needs to be melted down and pressed into the fryers,” Madonna said. Seed oils stay liquid at room temperature and can be poured directly into the fryers.
Cozy Coop also participates in an app called TooGoodToGo that allows customers to purchase surplus food to avoid waste, and at a heavy discount — sometimes as low as one-third of the original cost. That, along with other deals, like allowing kids to eat free on certain days, makes their fried chicken an affordable option for families on a budget.
Double-fried chicken with an added dimension of flavor
Double frying chicken is a common technique in many Korean restaurants. The first fry allows the juices to redistribute in the meat, preventing it from drying out. Once it rests, the second fry is shorter at a higher temperature, allowing the crust to become crispier without burning or overcooking the meat.
Dozens of Korean restaurants now offer fried chicken in metro Atlanta, but Choong Man Chicken adds an extra step that make their version special. Tikkudak is a technique that places the double-fried chicken on a charcoal grill for an added smoky flavor. The process takes only an additional 2-3 minutes and renders out excess oil, making it less greasy.
Customers can order tikkudak fried chicken with different sauce options, such as curry, garlic-soy or red-hot pepper sauce.
And when you just want a whole fried chicken to yourself
Doraville Chinese restaurant Dagu Rice Noodle might be known for its crossing bridge rice noodle soups, but the crispy whole chicken is a sleeper hit. The meat is flavorful and juicy, the crust slightly less bready than the Southern version, and the whole bird comes with a smoky and slightly sweet cumin dipping salt. Although big enough for two, plenty of American restaurants would consider it a portion for one. It comes with a knife and disposable gloves.