I love fried chicken. But everybody who’s been to a fast food restaurant lately will know that the advertisements look much better than the actual product.
There’s McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC. I’m a regular customer at all three. They’ve had some great deals when you’re on a budget, or at least they used to. I remember getting a KFC menu for under €8, and it filled me up alright.
But for me, the king in the ring for fried chicken on the Iberian Peninsula is Popeyes. Last winter, I went down to Málaga to skate a few spots. I parked my van near a Popeyes for several nights. I’d get myself some chicken sandwiches, climb back into the van and make a hot mess.
A couple of years ago, there was a big hype around Chick-fil-A in the US. Even Kanye West had a line about them being closed on Sundays. I haven’t tried one yet, though, so when I wanted to make a chicken sandwich for Cheat Day, Popeyes was the benchmark to beat.
We use chicken breast that we cut fresh in-house for our tenders and sandwiches. The pieces go into our marinade for at least 15 hours. Then we bread each one by hand, dip it into batter and bread it again. We fry it until the outside has a nice crunch but doesn’t destroy the roof of your mouth. Inside, the chicken should still be juicy.
Each sandwich gets two pieces. Biting through both of them means more crunch, more chicken, and more flavor. We put them in a brioche bun with our house mayo and homemade pickles. R.I.P. Pickle Rick ;)
The chicken sandwich has been one of our two bestsellers since we opened, and people keep coming back for it. If you want to know what’s in first place, I wrote about that too: How Birria Tacos Came to Ericeira.
Why a sandwich and not a burger?
I used to call everything in a bun a burger. Then some smarty-pants friend gave me a whole lecture about ground meat and why this thing should be called a chicken sandwich. Apparently, I’d been ordering lunch wrong for years.
Turns out, it depends on where you are. But chicken sandwich stuck, and now I’m the one explaining it to people. Look what he’s done to me.