The 15 Best Chicken-Fried Dishes In The US

With Texas being the epicenter of chicken-fried culture in the U.S., it's no surprise that many of the finest interpretations of this unabashed comfort food can be found throughout the Lone Star State. One such example is the superlative steak cooked up at Houston's Wild Oats, a restaurant that bills itself as "a fresh take on traditional Texas." Chef Nick Fine traverses Texas to learn all about traditions, techniques, and culinary pastimes, which means chicken-fried steak is a menu mainstay.

The menu describes Fine's chicken-fried steak as "fancy meat" with mashed potatoes, green beans, and jalapeño bacon gravy — a modest description for a hearty entrée consisting of top-tier Wagyu steak that's coated in breading infused with dehydrated buffalo-style potato chips for added heat and crunch. Each crispy filet is then heaped with jalapeño-bacon gravy that's made with bacon grease, before getting topped with a smattering of toothsome green beans, green onions, and crispy bacon morsels.

Award-winning Savannah chef Mashama Bailey is well-versed in the art of elevated Southern comfort food. Recently, Bailey spread her wings to Texas and opened a pair of restaurants in Austin. Diner Bar, located at the Thompson Austin, is Bailey's all-day full-service spot where the focus is on seasonal contemporary Southern fare layered with local Texan inspiration. And that's precisely where her chicken-fried quail comes into play.

Alongside other Texas-tinged items like a bone-in wagyu ribeye and buttery beef tartare swimming in bottarga mayonnaise, her dinner menu sports a unique riff as an entrée option: chicken-fried quail. Eschewing a thick slice of steak for the decidedly daintier bird, the crispy poultry sports a delicate crunch that pairs nicely atop a bed of creamy white grits and coffee demi-glace for a bit of fragrant bitterness — another stark departure from the typically indulgent cream gravy.

In the pantheon of chicken-fried fare, fish isn't typically a commonplace ingredient — let alone something as esoteric as blowfish tails. But considering their similarity to chicken wings, it makes sense that these surprisingly meaty morsels would get the chicken-fried treatment.

While not a regular fixture on the menu, chicken-fried blowfish tails are a recurring special at Little Donkey, an inventive and eclectic tapas-centric spot in Camrbidge from chefs Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette. The dish is a particular favorite for Oringer, who marinates the tails in yogurt before dredging them in a spiced flour mixture seasoned with garam masala, fennel pollen, chili, and lemon zest. The flavorful fins are then deep-fried until crispy and golden brown and served with a riff on Carolina barbecue mustard sauce made with Indian spices and mustard seed. In case chicken-fried blowfish tails weren't dazzling enough, keep your eyes peeled for more recurring specials at Little Donkey — both chefs have been known to tinker with recipes like chicken-fried sweetbreads and chicken-fried chicken of the woods mushrooms.

One surefire way to amp up the innate comfort food factor of a dish like chicken-fried steak is by fusing it with another cuisine that's just as hearty: American barbecue. At Revival, a St. Paul-based barbecue concept with a few locations throughout the Twin Cities, chef Thomas Boemer doubles down on chicken-fried traditions with his chicken fried ribs and gravy.

While St. Paul isn't exactly known for barbecue or chicken-fried recipes, Boemer debunks regional stereotypes and bridges culinary gaps with this standout dish that subs pork for steak. Here, thick and hefty St. Louis-style pork ribs are battered in buttermilk and spices, fried until golden brown and tender, and adorned with a country sausage gravy. The accompanying pickle slices serve as much-needed palate cleansers. With more smoky notes than the standard chicken-fried steak, it's a unique regional fusion version of this all-American staple. 

Located about halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis, in an area of the U.S. typified as "flyover country," the underrated city of Columbia proves its dining scene is worth a stop in and of itself — especially for the locally sourced, quasi-Southern cuisine served at the ironically named Flyover. Here, Midwestern and Southern staples like mac & cheese, meatballs, pretzels, and catfish are served alongside a standout vegetarian riff on chicken-fried steak.  

Plump cauliflower florets are seasoned, dredged, and deep-fried until crispy, golden, and reminiscent of veggie chicken nuggets. They're spread across a plate on a bed of smoked sweet potato puree, then topped with chimichurri sauce and fresh goat cheese. The result is a chicken-fried dish that, while utilizing the same techniques as deep-fried steak, veers as far from tradition as possible, with an impressive layering of flavors and textures along the way.

Seeing as Millers All Day is the kind of restaurant that serves things like biscuit dough cinnamon rolls, lobster fries, and birthday cake scones, it's safe to expect that this is one place that doesn't shy away from indulgence. Indeed, the inventive and whimsical Southern-style restaurant serves its own breakfast-centric riff on chicken-fried steak, upping the ante on the notion of steak & eggs by giving it a deep-fried makeover.

Along with other meaty daytime entrees, like ham-studded breakfast casseroles and biscuits and gravy, Millers All Day features an extra-hearty version of steak & eggs. A saucer-sized slab of beef is breaded and deep-fried, then topped with a generous dollop of rosemary-sausage gravy — you know, in case the steak wasn't savory enough by itself. A mound of soft, fluffy scrambled eggs round out the plate, along with a smattering of perfectly crispy home fries.

Chicken-fried steak can be found in all shapes, cuts, and sizes throughout the steak-loving state, but it's not just beef that gets the chicken-fried treatment here. Even in Fort Worth, the kind of carnivorous city that lays claim to some of the largest stockyards in the nation, different culinary innovations, like chicken-fried oysters, can be found at inventive restaurants such as 97 West Kitchen & Bar.

Texas oysters, plucked fresh from the Gulf Coast, are a common snack throughout the state, but deep-frying the bivalves and covering them in crema? That's a different story. Kind of like a Texan riff on oysters Rockefeller, Gulf oysters are chicken-fried and served on the half-shell with some of the most eclectic accouterments to ever hit a chicken-fried platter. Chipotle butter adds some richness and smoke, while pickled mango pico lends an unexpected punch of tropical sweetness and tang. It's all finished with a bit of fragrant cumin crema, a decidedly lighter alternative to the typically Texan cream gravy.

From creamy clam chowder to lobster rolls and its namesake cream pie, Boston certainly isn't lacking in decadent comfort cuisine, but Southern-style, chicken-fried delicacies aren't nearly as common in this part of the country. And that's precisely what makes Loretta's Last Call such a welcome novelty. This is the type of place where crispy vittles feature less chowder and more pimento cheese, sausage gravy, and deep-fried okra.

An apt homage to the American South, where okra is a staple ingredient whether it's being pickled or prepared in a gumbo, Loretta's Last Call serves a chicken-fried okra dish as a finger-licking appetizer that could hold its own in any region of the country. Here, whole pieces of okra are dredged, seasoned, spiced, and deep-fried, so that they retain their satisfying snap when you bite through the crust. They're served stacked together in a mini cast-iron skillet with a side of Cajun remoulade as a spiced condiment.