South City Fried Chicken Archives

Top Ethnic 2019 Super Bowl Parties in LA

January 23, 2019 Comments Off

Super Bowl Margaritas (Photos Courtesy of Casita Del Campo)

(Gerry Furth-Sides) Festive Casita del Campo in Silverlake offers game viewing on a large projector screen with surround sound, right next to the bar. Enjoy delectably authentic Mexican cuisine, handcrafted margaritas and ice-cold beer as you cheer on your favorite team. Casita recently introduced Draft Beer selections by the glass or pitcher: Negra Modelo, Cerveceria Manos De Calaca, Stella Artois, Firestone Walker 805 and Lagunitas IPA. Casita Del Campo Margaritas feature the Classic, Strawberry, and Pomegranate. Food for the table includes the Casita’s Special prepared with six delicious crispy mini tortillas topped with chicken, beef, jack cheese, sour cream and fresh guacamole, the popular Queso Fundidos, Taquitos or Homemade Guacamole.

Casita Del Campo on Sunday, February 3^rd, 2019 from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm; 1920 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027; 323.662.4255; www.CasitaDelCampo.net

(photo courtesy of Casita del Campo)

Preux & Proper’s Super Bowl Sunday in DTLA provides four TV’s for game watching after Sunday Brunch. Wakey Wakey Bloody Mary prepared with bacon-infused vodka, Smog City Little Bo’ Pils, Blackstrap Worcestershire, hickory-smoked black salt, sharp cheddar, pepperoni, cherry tomato and house-pickled okra is the drink of the day. Or make it a real Southern Sunday Brunch soirée with Bottomless Mimosas ($15 per person) available until 4:00 pm.

Wakey Wakey Bloody Mary (photo by Ziv Sade)

Superstar Executive Chef Sammy Monsour’s sweet and savory Fried Chicken & Waffles brunch special made with Mary’s Free-Range Chicken breast, a buttermilk cornbread waffle, served with honey, pecans, and butter of course (lots of butter) starts the day. Preux & Proper wants the fun to continue “all day long”. Their game day Happy Hour goes from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm in the Barroom and the upstairs Proper Dining Hall. $1 Oysters, $1 Wings and Handcrafted Pitchers of Cocktails ($45 each) are inspired by the two competing Super Bowl 53 teams. The pitchers serve up to four guests. It is impossible to pick between them. Preux & Proper’s tantalizing Dungeness Crab Hushpuppies served with house bourbon barrel-aged green hot sauce, boil spice and charred poblano butter and Deep Dish Biscuit Dough Pizza like the Paulie’s Pomegranate-Habanero B.B.Q. Pork with smoked red onions and Tillamook cheddar are must-haves.

The inimitable team at Preux & Proper – your hosts for a perfect party. Owner-partners Josh and Chef Sammy top left and right.

Chef Sammy Monsour

Preux & Proper open for Super Bowl LIII on Sunday, February 3^rd, 2019 for Sunday Brunch from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm, Happy Hour from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm, and Sunday Supper from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm; 840 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015; 213.896.0090; www.PreuxandProper.com

Preux & Proper “New Orleans” Beignets at to sweeten the Saints fans’ day.

Preux & Proper’s regular menu will be offered. Here the Fried Game Hen that makes you forget fried chicken forever

Visit South City Fried Chicken at DTLA’s Corporation Food Hall and enjoy a Fried Chicken Sandwich, or two, while watching Super Bowl LIII and savoring a Handcrafted Cocktail, sipping a Glass of Wine, Ice Cold Beer or knocking back a stiff Shot at Corporation Food Hall’s new drinking destination, The Fountain. Fans can order a classic South City Fried Chicken Sandwich like the Nashville, made with Nashville Hot, house pickles and cookout slaw, or enjoy the Miami, made with jerk spice, lemongrass remoulade, mint, jalapeño, lime, and shaved gem lettuce. For those looking for more, try one of South City Fried Chicken’s new Fried Chicken Boxes. Choose the Chicken & Waffles Box with four cinnamon sugar spiced chicken tenders, two cornbread waffles, whipped butter and Vermont maple syrup or the Chicken & Biscuit Box served with four seasoned chicken tenders, a buttermilk biscuit, South City fries, avocado ranch & Carolina gold sauces. With each of these amazing options, even if your team loses, you will still be a winner at South City Fried Chicken with a full chicken dinner on Super Bowl Sunday!

Fresh from the kitchen at Preux & Proper!

South City Fried Chicken caters Super Bowl Day

Corporation Food Hall’s South City Fried Chicken prepares the perfect Super Bowl LIII spread for take-out home-viewing. South City Fried Chicken’s Super Bowl LIII Fried Chicken Box ($295.00 per order serving 14 to 16 guests) features favorite Southern fixings in a mix and match feast. Step 1: Pick Your Fried Chicken by deciding between 30 Boneless Breasts, 30 Whole Wings (Drumette, Wingette & Tip), 60 Tenders, or choose two and get a HALF & HALF at no extra cost. Step 2: Style options include the Carolina Picnic served with buttermilk biscuits, Carolina gold, and avocado ranch. The Nashville Hot includes sweet & tangy cookout slaw and zesty house dill pickles. And the Chicken & Waffles comes with cornbread waffles, whipped butter, and Vermont maple syrup. Step 3: Pick Two Sides such as Chicken Bacon Cobb Salad with avocado, heirloom tomato, hard-boiled Chino Valley eggs, house-made hickory-smoked chicken, bacon, queso fresco and avocado ranch; South City Fries; Tangy Cookout Slaw & House Pickles; Pop’s Slaw & House Pickles or Watermelon & Cucumber Salad with Thai basil, mint, lime, cilantro, extra-virgin olive oil and coconut-macadamia crumble.

Bo Smothers serveing up fried chicken

South City Fried Chicken adds a touch of southern hospitality by including House-Fermented Hot Sauce (choice of barrel-aged green hot or Cali-Fresno red), a Half Gallon of both South City Fried Chicken Unsweetened Iced Tea and Lemonade, cups, napkins and plastic cutlery with each order.

Photo courtesy of South City Fried Chicken

South City Fried Chicken will be open for Super Bowl LIII on Sunday, February 3^rd, 2019 from 12:00 Noon to 10:00 pm; 724 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014; 213.278.0008; www.SouthCityFriedChicken.com. For Catering orders visit www.SouthCityFriedChicken.com/catering or call South City Fried Chicken directly at 213.278.0008.

Five Irresistible Fried Chicken Happenings Here and There

September 25, 2018 Comments Off

(Photo courtesy of FCF)

(Gerry Furth-Sides) You would think that fried chicken was just invented the way is has become a “culinary darling, ” but who cares as long as it lasts. So it had to happen and New Orleans happily has done it first, a National Fried Chicken Festival (FCF) presented by Raising Cane’s that attracted a record crowd to Woldenberg Riverfront Park over a recent fall weekend. The third-annual free festival featured 35 chefs and restaurants from across the U.S. plus live entertainment, including free “chicken focused” activations such as the Raising Cane’s ‘Cane’s Square’, Kids’ Coop. FCF hosted the Raising Cane’s Chicken Finger Eating Contest, the Best Fried Chicken and Best Use of Fried Chicken in a Dish contests. oveted Best Fried Chicken Contest.

“You have to be there'” the sheer joy of any New Orleans event whether it is a stop at a drive-in or a major event. The music is always a part of it, just as food is part of any music celebration

Herbert “Herb” J. Hudson, founder of Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles, the Los Angeles-based soul food restaurant chain, was honored as 2018 Culinary Icon Award winner for the National Fried Chicken Festival presented by Raising Cane’s.

“We are truly overwhelmed, humbled and honored by the outpouring of community and visitor support, and our sponsors to produce this one-of-a-kind festival, said Cleveland Spears, III, President and CEO of the Spears Group and FCF Founder and Producer. “We believe has the potential to be one of the largest food festivals in the country.” More importantly, I am extremely grateful to have provided a platform for 35 independently-owned restaurants to showcase their offerings.

For more information, please visit friedchickenfestival.com. The Spears Group, an award-winning strategic communications firm, is the successful curator of experiential events across the city and region. Festivals for Good is the nonprofit producer of the National Fried Chicken Festival. The organization provided a five-million-dollar economic impact on the City of New Orleans in 2017, as well as free entertainment and programming for families across the region by hosting over 166,000 guests for the free two-day festival.

Now that your mouth is watering for fried chicken, currently so popular its as though it was just invented, here in LA, we judge the Fried Game Hen at Preux & Proper to be the best, (along with our own). As we wrote, “this Fried Whole Game Hen will make you forget about fried chicken forever.” The secret is the crunch of crushed pecans and the honeycomb on top. Add it to the buttermilk biscuits with serrano jelly taste for pure decadence. //localfoodeater.com/must-try-preux-proper-dtla-chef-sammy-monsour-cures-my-heart/

Fried Whole Game Hen at Preux & Proper

PREUX & PROPER 840 S. Spring St., DTLA, (213) 896-0090, preuxandproper.com,), Bar opens at 4PM and dining room at 6 PM.

More casual sister restaurant down the block in an inviting food hall, South City Fried Chicken, features the same technique and batter in a number of sandwiches bursting with crunchy seasoned chicken honoring different southern cities. //localfoodeater.com/south-city-fried-chicken-the-best-of-americana/

South City Fried Chicken, DTLA, 724 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90014, 213-278-0008. Hours: 12-9 daily.

Our newest find is Chef Katsuji Tanabe’s Ponzu Fried chicken at the NIXON CHOPS & WHISKEY in Whittier. From the LAND section of the menu: Ponzu Fried Chicken with Serranos, Habaneros, Lime and Cucumber hide under a mass of dill and mint. Again the pop of fermented veggies in the container alongside it transform the tastes and texture.

Located in the Uptown Whittier Restaurant District
13033 Philadelphia St., Whittier, CA. 90601, Phone: 562-698-3355

Ponzu Fried Chicken at the NIXON CHOPS & WHISKEY

Karayama, famous for its specially prepared kara-age Japanese-style fried chicken opened its first location US location in Little Tokyo in DTLA. The signature fried chicken “the kara-age of Legend” is known all over Japan. The served in a fast casual dining experience. The restaurant’s proprietary technique starts with Karayama kitchen’s signature marinade, using a low-temperature fermentation to impart a unique umami flavor profile. An extremely fine, proprietary potato starch first coats the chicken, which then rests for 4-6 hours before frying to make it tender, juicy, and crispy.

Karayama is located in Little Tokyo in DTLA. For details, please see: (//localfoodeater.com/karayamas-japanese-style-fried-chicken-in-dtla/)

An a la carte version of kara-age (photo courtesy of Karayama)

The crispness of the unique golden crust that sets Southern regional American Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken’s apart comes from owner Vincent Williams secret batter plus peanut oil and a classic technique involving heavy-gauge stainless-steel drums to produces intense. Its heat fries the birds seal in natural juices with a dry crunch. Scratch-made country classics such as buttermilk biscuits and hand-shucked corn on the cob are available, along with complimentary signature tiny tubs of warm honey and hot sauce. The crunch is still there after three years but the prices are up and the portions down. Still the friendly, friendly staff and the large open patio out front that is perfect for people-watching draws crowds. There are also regular group-on coupons to help the pocket book.

9537 Culver Blvd., Culver City, (310) 202-5453, //honeyskettle.com.

Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken Dinner

At the LA TIMES TASTE, we tasted Gus’s Fried Chicken, Memphis style. It was delicious but we were put off by the chopped off bones (instead of pulling it apart at the joint. The serving staff for the evening was so friendly, though, it far overshadowed this. For details and location please see (//gusfriedchicken.com/).

South City Fried Chicken: the Best of Americana

July 31, 2018 Comments Off

(Gerry Furth-Sides, photos courtesy South City Fried Chicken except noted). We love everything about the phenomenally talented and hospitable team at Preux & Proper, so we were eager to try sibling South City Fried Chicken, an easy walk of a block or so apart on Spring Street DTLA.

The FOOD HALL has a daunting name (think the chaotic, gentrified Central Market) but is actually an inviting, just-right size double storefront space with soaring, open ceilings and a variety of ethnic food performance kitchens.

Community-minded, a discount is offered to all first-responders who walk in the big, open wide door.

Fried chicken seems to be the current “darling” of food these days. It is also one of the five most popular foods in the world. So, along with just about everyone else, I love fried chicken. And it is the one thing I really know how to cook, learned from my passionate European cook mom. Legendary dancer Paula Kelly, in fact, claimed it was “the best-fried chicken I ever ate” when I served it in the Beverly Hills Hilton green room one year at the Jimmy Awards.

Chef Sammy Monsour in the kitchen

Fried chicken alone embodies a collection of great American culinary stories as told through regional specialties. It all started in the United States with the Scots, who had a tradition of deep frying chicken in fat as far back as the middle ages (The English baked or boiled their chicken.) Later Scottish immigrants who moved to the southern United States made fried chicken a common staple, especially since it traveled so well before refrigeration. African slaves who became cooks in southern households enriched the flavors with their own seasonings and spices.

Fried chicken in all its forms continues to be one of Americans’ top five favorite dishes, and served for summer holidays, Sunday dinner or.. anytime. Coleslaw and potato salad, with biscuits just out of the oven, are classic side dishes.

South City Fried Chicken Sandwich

Asians have their own version, called a Crispy fried chicken, a standard dish in the Cantonese cuisine of southern China and Hong Kong. The white meat of a chicken is fried so that the skin is extremely crunchy, but the white meat is relatively tender. Pepper salt, and prawn crackers, fried separately, are served with it. The dish is eaten at night and served at weddings.

Korean fried chicken or seasoned chicken is eaten as fast food, snack food or bar food served with pickled radishes, beer, and soju. Small chickens are fried whole then cut up. With larger American chickens, only wings and drumsticks are used. Fat is removed from the skin so that the coating fries up as crackly-thin and then seasoned. For details, please see Duff Goldman’s website, which also shares his way to fry chicken perfectly: //www.ergochef.com/blog/history-of-fried-chicken-spotlight-on-chef-duff-goldman/

Daisy – Cheery and ready to answer all questions about South City Fried chicken sandwiches

The Austro-Hungarian version my mom taught me starts by removing the skin, then replacing it with a flour, seasoned breadcrumb and egg wash coating before frying. Using Asian panko made of rice flour adds a new crunchy twist. We loved it at home, served with homemade French Fries and coleslaw. That is until my mom read an article listing the demerits of fried food. I must say that her seasoned, baked chicken and (horizontally), potatoes were a surprisingly fantastic substitute.

Here, the short but sweet South City Fried Chicken menu was created after owner/operator Joshua Kopel and Executive Chef-partner, Sammy spent a year on the road “getting in touch with their roots and cultivating the essence of Southern cuisine.”

Charismatic Chef Sammy, a third-generation chef who grew up in his father’s kitchen in Chapel Hill, NC. Monsour’s food reflects his classical training at the CIA, his Lebanese ancestry, and his Southern roots. The sandwiches reflect this goal.

Chef-partner, Sammy Monsour. (Gerry Furth-Sides photo)

“Southern Scratch Cooking” defines the South City Fried Chicken kitchen, and the Fried Chicken sandwiches, “from dill pickles to the collard green kimchi,” explains Chef-partner, Sammy Monsour. //www.southcityfriedchicken.com

The first part of the menu is made up of Chapel Hill; Greenville; Birmingham and New Orleans. The second half entitled, “Let’s Spice Things Up” is thoughtfully listed from “hot” to “hottest”! The Miami features jerk spice, the Austin layers Javi’s tia’s hot sauce into the chicken

The CHAPEL HILL, NC: pop’s slaw, house pickles, jenny’s pimento cheese, crispy tar heel country ham ($13.99)

The South City Fried Chicken CHAPEL HILL, NC Sandwich

The Greenville, SC: duke’s mayonnaise, house smoked chicken bacon, gruyere, shaved baby iceberg, heirloom tomato, bo-spice ($13.99) Bo is shown below and served us our sandwich. The special spice in his namesake sauce? Paprika.

The South City Fried Chicken GREENVILLE, SC:

Bo serves up the “Greenville” of house-smoked chicken bacon,

South City Fried Chicken sandwiches combine just about every side dish, seasoning, and spice known to this dish. Each one honors the tradition and ingredients representative of specific “city in the south”.

BIRMINGHAM, AL: Alabama white, hickory smoked onions, horseradish chimichurri, Tillamook cheddar ($12.99)

The Birmingham, AL sandwich

LOUISVILLE, KY: pepper jelly, bourbon barrel aged green hot, poblano butter ($11.99)

City Fried Chicken The Louisville

The NEW ORLEANS, LA creole remoulade, cajun spice, Thai basil, fried egg, collard green kimchi, Comprised of Cajun spice straight from Emeril Lagasse’s recipe book, so revered by Chef Sammy that at age 13 he spent hours standing in line to have his book signed and shake the iconic Chef’s hand.

The New Orleans Sandwich

The Miami, FL: jerk spice, lemongrass remoulade, mint, jalapeno, lime, shaved baby iceberg, heirloom tomato ($12.99)

The Austin, TX: Rojo bean hummus, burrata, Javi’s tia’s hot sauce, pickled radish, cilantro, blue corn tortilla crumble, heirloom tomato ($13.99)

The South City Fried Chicken AUSTIN, TX sandwich

The Nashville, TN: Nashville hothouse pickles, cookout slaw choose I hot/xxx / reaper ($11.99)

The Nashville, TN at South City Fried Chicken

And for dessert, a “DoleWhip soft serve — it looks small but it is just the right fish!

South City Fried Chicken, DTLA, 724 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90014, 213-278-0008. Hours: 12-9 daily.

For a description of other fried chicken types that mostly leave out the solid crunch appeal of the classic, please see: //www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/all-the-different-styles-of-fried-chicken-thrillist-nation

South City Fried Chicken

Top Ethnic 2019 Super Bowl Parties in LA

Five Irresistible Fried Chicken Happenings Here and There

South City Fried Chicken: the Best of Americana

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