Fried Chicken Face Off: Searching for Seattle’s Best Breaded Birds

Fried chicken. Everybody loves it and lots of places serve it, but not every breaded bird is created equal, and finding great versions of the soul food staple in Seattle can be quite a challenge. Recently, I set out to survey some of Seattle’s most recommended and reputable places with the help of a few soul food aficionados, Evan Flory-Barnes and Eva Walker. While taste is ultimately an entirely subjective matter, we did our best to make the experiment somewhat scientific.

We chose nine spots ranging from upscale to hole-in-the-wall, from tried-and-true to practically brand new in search of the city’s most outstanding fried chicken. We worked within a few parameters: 1) We were looking for American-style southern-style fried chicken (if we ventured into other country’s variations, there might be no end!), and 2) It had to be served on the bone (no sandwiches, strips or nuggets). And we judged each by five categories: the fry, flavor, price, quality of bird, and overall vibe of the location, with each category scored on a scale of 1 to 10, and a top possible score of 150 points.