This South Carolina Restaurant Has The South’s Best Fried Chicken

If you are born and raised in the south, chances are you will say your Mom makes the best fried chicken you have ever put in your mouth. The experts have sampled fried chicken far and wide and say this South Carolina restaurant has the South's Best Fried Chicken.  That is a huge statement.  But I trust this source. This is according to an article in Southern Living magazine.

People travel far and wide to find the best perfectly fried brown bird and have their preferences.  White meat or dark or both?  Fried in extra batter or lightly battered?  All kinds of ways to enjoy the South's favorite entree.  I grew up on what the experts call "down-home classic fried chicken".

This is how many southern ladies choose to make their fried chicken at home.  Cut up a whole bird or buy the parts you like.  Soak the pieces in buttermilk or whole milk then roll those pieces in flour. Next you will want to salt and pepper the chicken and fry it up in vegetable oil.  I prefer peanut oil. Don't walk too far from the stove, keep an ear out for a certain "sound" the chicken makes when it is ready to turn.

What if you don't have all that time? This South Carolina spot is worth the drive. Find out which South Carolina restaurant has the best fried chicken as well as other top fried chicken spots in the country. Get details from Southern Living.

MARTHA LOU'S KITCHEN | Charleston, South Carolina

Lightly dredged in flour and dipped in milk batter, then submerged in peanut oil until bronzed, chicken fried to order is the one menu mainstay at the bubblegum-pink soul food shack run by Martha "Lou" Gadsden and her daughter, Debra, since 1983. They cut steam vents into leg and breast meat to reduce the frying time to 20 minutes. The don't-miss sides: peppery, meaty lima beans and sultry okra stew. 843/577-9583 (according to Southern Living)

Southern Living Says:

Ashley Christensen, the toast of Raleigh's dining scene, uses newfangled pressure fryers to timeless effect: Her mottled, crackly fried chicken induces sentimental sighs. A drizzle of honey (which comes standard, though you can ask for it on the side) is an ode to Ashley's father, a hobbyist beekeeper. Order buttermilk biscuits to complete the feast. ac-restaurants.com/beasleys

Southern Living Says: At this rustic-chic restaurant with pictures of smiling local farmers on the wall, Coby Lee Ming cooks food mostly grown and raised within 100 miles—including fowl from nearby ranches and flour milled in Kentucky to make her pepper-flecked fried chicken. She arranges an airline cut (breast with wing attached) over a fluffy hoecake or savory bread pudding in a pool of milk-and-cream gravy and with a slick of homemade hot sauce sweetened with beets or carrots. harvestlouisville.com 

Southern Living tells us:

A new kitchen staff (helmed by Louisiana native Joe Truex), revamped menu, and relocation to Atlanta's tony Buckhead community gave Watershed a slick makeover. But the fried chicken, made only on Wednesday nights and always sold out by 8 p.m., is the same brined, buttermilk-soaked, lard-and butter-simmered recipe that brought fame to the restaurant under Scott Peacock over a decade ago. watershedrestaurant.com

According to Southern Living

Hanging wooden trinkets and plastic plants decorate this cozy storefront that specializes in the other "KFC": Korean fried chicken. A half or whole bird is fried to intense crispness and then coated in one of three sauces: sweet, hot and spicy, or, our favorite, a sticky, fragrant soy-garlic glaze. 919/834-2244

Southern Living Tells Us All About it:

At Sunday brunch, Dean Fearing turns out his granny's "paper bag shook" cast-iron skillet-fried chicken. The chicken, brined in apple cider and coated with a gossamer crust, sidles up to whipped potatoes, long-simmered bacony green beans, and luscious smoked tomato gravy. Ask to sit in the Sendero, the restaurant's romantic, glass-walled room perfect for a languid meal. fearingsrestaurant.com