I Tried The Best Fried Chicken In America

fried chicken has become a religion in America at this point every US city has their own beloved local spot but some places are legendary and stand out above the rest but today I want to find the best i asked you to name America's top fried chicken cities in the absolute best spots in each one thousands of votes later we have our contenders we're hitting five cities trying our top three picks in each to finally crown the fried chicken champion starting in Nashville our number one most voted for city so we're at Hattie Bees on Broadway this was the number one most voted for in Nashville it makes sense i've been to Hattie Bees before but I'm going to be honest it's been a few years that said it's a change it's grown a lot so is it still good since the last time I came here wherever available we'll try to taste the same pieces everywhere thigh breast leg cheers immediately brought me back the first time I came here that's why this place is such an institution it's seasoned pretty nicely i remember there being a little bit more to the flavor of it but it's still really delicious the breading itself crisp i'm kind of surprised Hatty Bees with the amount of locations usually quality tends to go down the chicken's cooked well the skin I will say for some reason it's a little under rendered so therefore kind of chewy i don't hate it tastes great rating wise flavor I'm going to give it like a 7.5 out of 10 i think it's lacking a little bit like overall it tastes good and then texture I give it a solid 8.5 but the question is with the popularization of hot chicken this is not the only place has had bees fallen behind moving on listen up america's fried chicken scene isn't made up because it's America it's because America is a melting pot of multiple cultures all across the globe that have come here to make the greatest fried chicken ever so don't expect to just see American style fried chicken because we are at SS Guy where we've got Thai fried chicken you might think "Well Josh the number one fried chicken place in Nashville must be hot right nashville hot." No it's actually this place it's been rated number one in all fried chicken spots on Yelp so let's see how it stacks up can you hear that the crunch is phenomenal the seasoning dare I say perfect i mean the salt levels are like exactly where I want them the skin isn't chewy it's crisp but tender it melts as you chew there's whole fried shallots on here you get little bits and pieces of like sweet shallot caramelized goodness let's just get to the rating texture i'm going to give this honestly considering the fact that everything is cooked perfectly everything is tender the skin is tender it's not under rendered the crunch is present and it's not like dry in any part i'm going to give a nine flavor I'm going to be really harsh here the breading itself it's very salty and there's a little sweetness to it but I'm not picking up a ton of other layering of flavors like garlic lemongrass or whatever you would put in this that's the flavor is great it's very chicken forward it's seasoned nicely the salt levels being so good makes a big difference and I can tell that there are other things in here like the shallot comes through a little bit but if you don't get a bite of that shallot you miss a big part of the component of flavor so I'm still going to give the flavor an 8.5 i mean we're getting close to perfect scores this early on it's going to take a real big dog to take this out moving on we're at the original spot of the OG inventor of Nashville hot chicken Princes now the fact that we got this was a bit of a miracle literally moments after they finished our chicken they had a huge grease fire had to completely shut down the restaurant so we were supposed to get the bone in chicken thigh and the bone in chicken breast those were lost in the fire but they still had wings for us to fry fresh and honestly I think those are just as good if not the best option cuz they're the fattiest and they're easiest to make delicious again the crunch really well done the cook a little too much i'm chewing a lot and even for the wing being that overcooked that's hard to do I will say but this place way spicier than the previous two by far they do natural hot chicken the hottest that said the flavor is a little underwhelming it's missing salt it's like maybe 70% where I want it to be the wings which are fattier kind of overcooked so texture I think a 6.8 flavor it's very much just cayenne there's not a lot of depth to it it's missing salt probably also a six i think they're OG and I think this is a must try spot it's just not doing it for me nashville done and dusted and Thai Fried Chicken at SS Sky surprisingly leads with a 17.5 but that could change very soon new Orleans is up next with two absolute classic spots and one you'd never expect first up Willie Maze now we were supposed to go to the Scotch House which unfortunately is recovering from a fire but they do have a location Willie Maze Nola supposedly stated by Anthony Bourdain to be the greatest fried chicken restaurant in the world is it true i don't know it's also been recognized by James Beard with the American Classic Award so it's at least going to be good but the question is does it live up to the standard that it did when Anthony Bourdain tasted it i've got the same order we've had everywhere else a leg a thigh a breast first we'll start with the thigh yeah that's that's crispy this is totally different than any fried chicken we've had it's clearly battered rather than dredged in dry flour you can tell by this sort of almost like tempura exterior super crisp wispy crunch i have mixed feelings cuz it's seasoned really nicely the salt levels are really nice the seasoning isn't really like crazy but I kind of like that again they're focusing on the chickeny flavor there's a little bit of spiciness in there that I do like though texture-wise the crunch is really wonderful it's a little bit different of a crunch than I normally want let's try the breast is it dry it's perfectly cooked that is juicy we're having a little bit of a problem where the breading is just so oily it's really ruining the experience cuz the crispiness is beautiful the chicken is cooked nicely it's seasoned nicely but it is so oily i can barely get past it like I don't want another bite flavor-wise I think it's deserving of a nine texture crunch is there it's cooked nicely but it's so oily that it's bringing down the rest of the whole experience i think it's like a 7.9 that said moving on we are at a historical marker not just for chicken for America dookie Chase i'm going to go for the thigh first cuz my favorite piece classic flour dredge it's not a batter i mean it's crisp the seasoning is really nice but there's a little bit of heat from the black pepperc corn but some kicking pants from cayenne not too much just enough to make it nice but the flavor of the chicken is prominent it's not overwhelmed by the spice next up the breast this is incredibly dry and comparatively underseasoned the chicken thigh it's almost like they were breaded completely separately like the chicken thigh is salty it's got umami and somehow the breast is like completely missing in salt it's like these were two different people made this texture the crunch is decent it's not crazy it's clearly like quite dry only good one was the thigh i'm going to give it a 6.9 out of 10 flavor-wise I think I'm also going to give it a 6.8 i would say it's worth hitting for a historical POV but you're not getting anything above average you're getting an average plate of fried chicken now here's the thing our next spot is unexpected and it all starts at a place that also sells bongs a gas station i don't understand how or why this happened the third most voted for place in all of New Orleans keys this place is iconic they're known to have supposedly the best fried chicken in New Orleans and you know what i'm actually a big fan of places like this because it always feels like a secret thing and honestly it's one of the better looking chickens we've got holy this is phenomenal what the it's seasoned perfectly dude i'll go for the thigh real quick just to make sure it's consistent dude the crisp on the chicken is excellent the skin is a little flaccid in some parts but generally speaking overall it's like relatively very crispy salt level is maxed out the seasoning the spices are nice it's not overwhelming cuz I still get that deep chickeny flavor i don't like when I get a fried chicken that has so many spices on it all you taste are the spices i want to taste the spices working with the chicken marrying the chicken loving the chicken this is the true test if this breast is moist we could no joke have a winner on our hands guys it's moist as it's cooked perfectly honestly the upfront flavor I'm getting is just tons of chickeny umami but then you have all this other fragrance from like garlic black pepper a little bit of paprika but again it's not overly seasoned i taste the true flavor of the chicken and that is the most remarkable thing to me here i think the flavor is a nine the only thing that would make this higher than a nine would be higher quality chicken texture the parts that were crunchy were absolutely perfect the parts that were not were still had the fat rendered out of the skin i think I'm going to give the texture an 8.5 if this gas station was near me I would go to it all the time and a gas station is now tied for the lead for best fried chicken in America this is insane but with three cities to go this proves anything can happen next up Chicago with a good friend Christopher Mr beef the man himself at what some might call the best fried chicken in Chicago honey butter fried chicken we applied the namesake honey butter to our chicken and dug in it was very average to me i grew up with some of the best fried chicken in the world made by my mom herself and I'm not using that as a bias i'm just saying I know where the bar is if I'm being honest I'm just not feeling this place like it's good for a middle of the ground chicken you're going to eat this and you'll be able to finish it you're not going to go frankly the honey butter also didn't really help at all there's just a lack of crunch and seasoning overall the salt levels are almost there they're like 80% of what I want them to be seasoning i'm tasting some paprika some garlic but it's just not prominent for me personally my man Josh is an honest dude and that's why I love him i actually thought it was not too bad he's got a higher bar see Chicago fried chicken is different than South Fried Chicken if I had this it wouldn't disappoint that's for sure all things considered flavor I'm going to give a 6.5 slightly above average texture I think it's deserving of also a 6.5 both slightly above average what's fine is fine but ultimately we're looking for the best in America i'm going to take this seriously so I'm rating this a little harshly moving on up next is a legendary showdown number three Uncle Remis takes on Chicago's number one vote getter Heralds both of which are known for a special sauce now we're not necessarily just going to be judging this by the sauce of course this is all about the chicken but the sauces do come into play here just like they do with Nashville hot but not in a way that it can get a leg up cuz at the end of the day only great chicken can win here so let's kick off with Uncle Remis this is a variation of mouth sauce though her has their own mouth sauce which is pretty much like the staple mouth sauce theirs taste totally different you're only going to get this sauce at Uncle Remis this is outstanding i believe my wife for this this is Honestly I was iffy going into this because of the sauce when I see sauce covering fried chicken my first thought is that's going to be soggy whatever was going on that was once nice about that is gone but this it's a non-issue like at all this is the real Chicago Westside food this is almost like the American version of Korean fried chicken cuz Korean fried chicken is the only chicken I've ever known to have a shitload of sauce on it and still be crispy but the breading's nice the crunch is beautiful the chicken's cooked perfectly it's juicy it's not dry and stringy the skin is rendered out it's really sweet it's a little too sweet for me but it's balanced by the saltiness of the chicken i wish there was a little bit more going on with the sauce but all in all pretty good texture i'm going to give 88 eight flavor i think I'm going to give an eight it's worth being nervous on theing stoplight to go and get it's worth it heralds you're up against something cuz I got clean bones good luck finally the number one vote getter in Chicago Harolds can it beat its mild sauce rival Uncle Remis can you taste the difference in the sauce it's similar but this one's way less sweet it's more acidic which I like a lot what I will say looking back is that Uncle Remis' like your sugar diabetes almost in a bottle but listen they're both huge staples in this city that said the saucier is better i think you're absolutely right about that it's got really good acidity to balance out the sweetness it's not just like here's a bunch of sugar you You get that acidity you get that depth it cuts the richness of the chicken so so so well flavor-wise I wish there was like a tiny bit more salt 5 to 10% more i like the seasoning of Uncle Remis just a little bit more flavor okay so let me explain myself the sauce is better but the seasoning is not for me so I would say 75 texture i wish there was a bit more crispiness but at the same time it's cooked really nicely the last one was more chewy and this was like more like cooked through and like tender so I'm also going to give the texture an eight still crisp succulent tender both great chicken spots moving on so Uncle Remis steals the Chicago chicken crown but still stands behind our current leaders SS guy and New Orleans gas station we now move on to our next city Los Angeles where we're kicking things off at our number three most voted for spot Honey's Kettle i've heard this place is great i've never been this is not a breading this is another battered one let's start with the thigh it's so oily dude let's try the breast the breast is super dry you saw dripping there was actually not juice it was oil just to be clear but you know the flavor isn't bad like the flavor it's really honestly very chicken forward which I really like salt levels are just about where I want them to be i would say they're 99% of the way there maybe 100 but there's not much like seasoning going on it's just kind of like salty chicken which I don't hate so flavor-wise I'm pretty happy with it texturally like it's okay chicken's a little slimy honestly this is the same problem as Willie Mays when you batter it it's in there for so long that batter really soaks up oil quite a lot texture is good but it's being drawn way down by that oiliness and by that sliminess so all things considered I'm going to give the flavor deserves an eight it tastes pretty good texture seven the crunch is phenomenal but that oiliness I don't want to know any more of this and by the way by my standard still quite high but not a winner moving on we are at possibly one of the most famous American fried chicken spots in the world rosco's Chicken and Waffles i think everyone somehow has heard this name and we're at the original location Los Angeles Long Beach a lot of people on Reddit have said this has fallen off and honestly looking at this waffle I am concerned dude i'm going to try everything individually and then if the chicken is good I will try it with combinations it's pretty good seasoning is really nice for comparison let's try this leg no breading on the drumstick at all from a breading standpoint it's like a 2 out of 10 for the drumstick but the thigh is almost perfectly breaded it's a little bit kind of wonky but like it's crispy it's crunchy the salt level is perfect if I were to just rate salt I might give it a 10 out of 10 seasoning's nice i The flavor of the chicken really shines they're not overwhelming it with seasoning the classic like garlic powder paprika there's nothing too special in there that's really making it stand out flavor-wise other than it's just like pure salty good chicken i'll try it with everything on it at this point take a piece of chicken out put a little syrup on there you put a little hot sauce on it and make kind of a sandwich honestly it made it worse completely took away from the chicken all I taste just is maple syrup and hot sauce on a cinnamon waffle and the chicken's not crunchy anymore now it's chewy this is by far one of the worst waffles I've ever had but the chicken's pretty damn good but we aren't rating it for the waffles now are we time to rate the chicken so texture it's extremely inconsistent i'm going to give the texture like a a 7 out of 10 flavor really quite nice honestly I am left desiring more and I don't want to finish it so I think I'm going to give it a 7.9 just almost an eight still good i would come back just for the chicken i would not come back for the waffles unfortunately moving on we're at Howland Rays the number one voted for spot for fried chicken in all of Los Angeles i know the chef here he's a friend of mine he's absolutely incredible said he worked under Gordon Ramsay and this guy is a beast he's basically the one that brought real legit Nashville hot chicken to Los Angeles i still have to be honest we have two of their chicken their country which is just plain fried chicken what they're known for is their hot we'll try both whatever we prefer is what we'll vote on cheers this is insane that skin is like melts in your mouth it's super chickeny seasoned perfectly with salt okay hot chicken oh my god dude i smell the heat on this god damn that is spicy as But it's so good though you have that immediate crispy crust that skin is properly fully rendered it's just crispy delicious melts into nothingness it's juicy it's salted really nicely it's a little spicier than I want it to be personally for me this thing was spicy vicram didn't believe me and try to bite wow oh man see what I mean yeah you're going to poop your pants now i'm going to have the hot chicken be the one that enters this competition i like it a little bit more than the country just cuz it has that extra bit of excitement the underside of the crust does get a little soggy sitting on that bread i'm really looking for intense crunch i think 8.4 is fair if you level that out flavor my mouth is atomic bombed right now but right out the gate though in comparison to Hattie Bees the flavor of this massive margin better number one salt levels i don't want any more i don't want any less it is exactly where I want it to be the flavor of the spices the cayenne the paprika that peppery that rich just anxious deep red chili flavor is so present in this it's like perfuming your whole mouth and your nasal passage that said I'm going to give it a solid nine i might even give it higher than a nine if it was so spicy moving on howen Rays just misses the three-way tie for first place we now have four cities wrapped and we still have a tie for the lead as we arrive to our very final city Atlanta for some classic southern fried chicken right well yes and no actually now you come to Atlanta and you're probably thinking like southern style fried chicken buttermilk OG right but this is getting a ton of buzz on Reddit so we're here for Peruvian chicken basto it looks great i mean I'm not going to lie i think this might be the crispiest chicken we've had so far and it's got acidity to it too how juicy the meat is is going to determine how I feel about the overall texture so first we'll go for the easiest one which is the leg and thigh the thigh is juicy it's cooked nicely i will say like this is clearly fried longer to make it crispier maybe even double fried but look at this the meat gets a little bit crispy too which I don't hate but it is adding some chewiness that I don't know if I love this is going to be the real test chicken breast it's a little dry oh man and you know what the second you get into the meat that seasoning goes this is missing a lot of salt on the insides if this was seasoned properly this could be a genuine contender the outside of this chicken almost a perfect score flavor crunch texture and like it's salty i think it's cuz they straight up put tahin on the outside which is genius it goes super good with this chicken but then as soon as you get into the meat like all that salt and flavor is gone there's just no flavor in the meat at all the breast is a little dry the thigh and the leg are great overall flavor I'm still going to give a 7 out of 10 cuz it's just it is delicious it is really good i would finish this texture the crunch is like a 10 out of 10 i you not this is like as about as perfectly crispy as I've ever had chicken in my life but as soon as you get in there that meat's a little overcooked across the board that's the hard thing about fried chicken is you want to achieve the crisp without losing the moisture on the inside and they lost a little bit of the moisture so I'll give it a seven and a half out of 10 cuz it's so beautifully crunchy moving on next up one of the most known fried chicken spots in America Gus's it was a high vote getter for almost every city this originated in Memphis but it didn't get any votes in Memphis matter of fact it was number two on our highest voted for Atlanta and I've actually never had it somehow I've managed to avoid it everyone's told me "You got to go to Gus's." Question is is it really as good as everybody says it is i will say it looks a little clapped like it's not a very flaky fried chicken but I guess that's because it's a batter you're going to get a different look it's juicy as it's cooked nicely the skin's rendered so you don't have that chewy skin the crunchiness is there it's seasoned really well it's a little spicy it's got umami it's salted nicely this is one of the first chickens I'm like tasting the spice in it and by spice I mean spicy i mean like the paprika the garlic the black pepper notes texture is great but how did they do on the chicken breast for a chain not bad i will say it is kind of dry there is a juiciness to it too it's not all dry yeah I've definitely had far drier that said crunch it's definitely crunchy it's definitely crispy it's losing a little bit on the dryness factor i think the texture is deserving of an eight it's pretty good flavor it's up there salt levels are perfect it doesn't need any more or less salt seasoning is nice i love the spice level honestly I think flavor I'm going to give an 8 seven not bad Gus not bad it doesn't put you in a first place hold but if you have a Gus near you can maybe go check it out that said not a winner moving on with one spot remaining we still have a tie for first place between two unlikely contenders new school tie fried chicken in Nashville and chicken from a literal gas station in New Orleans either we're going to end up seeing a gas station take the greatest fried chicken crown in America or we're going to have a big upset today we were in the parking lot of probably the most iconic fried chicken spot in America mlk has been here it is the number one voted for in Atlanta as well busy be I got to say it does look pretty good i'm going to start with the thigh phenomenal i will say as you chew it's missing a little flavor but then boom then the flavor starts to kick in a little bit you get a little bit of that MSG the umami the richness of the spices and honestly it's not super pepper forward it's a little bit more like garlic some of the fried chickens we've had have been like more paprika more peppery more cayenne this is more like black pepperc corn garlic flavor-wise top tier texture- wise I wish it was a bit more crunch i'm not mad let me try the breast is the breast moist crazy moist when you go to a fried chicken spot the first thing you'll commonly notice is it's easy to make the legs and thighs succulent and delicious and not dry but the breast has no fat so it goes dry real fast this is moist it's literally perfectly cooked i got to say I'm kind of shocked with how long this place has been here it's crazy that they've maintained the standard most places could not do that it all comes down to this 15 chicken spots across five cities and the best of the best voted by you the audience will this spot take the crown flavor-wise honestly I think it's a nine texture Bizzy Bee needs an 8.6 or higher on texture to win it everything is cooked perfectly if the crunch were better I would give it a nine because the crunch is kind of missing a little i'm going to give the texture an 8.8 and that's a 17.8 which means Atlanta's Bizzy B is the best fried chicken in America i wish I had come here sooner i would even argue eating this right away my first thought is this is exactly what embodies a perfect American fried chicken it's breaded nicely it's crispy it's crunchy it's anxious umami rich but it's not overpowering and it's this unassuming building you would never realize you could drive right by this and have no idea you're driving past the greatest fried chicken in America hey wow that's the end of the video please subscribe we got some crazy stuff coming uh some of the craziest stuff I've ever done in my life love you so much all right