Here's Where I Go For The Crispiest Fried Chicken In Seattle

As a born-and-bred Southerner from the Mississippi Delta, where I spent childhood surrounded by cornfields, flooded rice paddies, and canopied pecan orchards, food was always central to the concepts of community, connection, and abundance. When shelling huge sacks of black-eyed peas or shucking corn on the front porch, it's a given that the bounty will nestle beside something fried by suppertime — preferably piled-high platters of crispy fried chicken. It's the unofficial multi-state symbol of Deep South cuisine, at least in my book.

Frying Southern-style chicken is a time-absorbing art, not always compatible with busy metropolitan lifestyles. That's why, after eventually migrating thousands of miles from Mississippi to Seattle, it became crucial to find restaurant chefs who make it "just right" and ready to go. After many letdowns, I was intrigued to learn that a fellow former Mississippian by the name of Oprah Winfrey reportedly orders fried chicken flown from a certain Seattle chicken joint. My own search definitively ended once crossing the threshold of that place: Ezell's Famous Chicken. 

Before finding my comfort-food haven at Ezell's, the passionate fried-chicken pursuit centered first on the non-negotiable holy grail of crispy crust. As some folks say, "if it don't crunch, I don't munch." That crust must also be golden-hued and extra thick, generally achieved by double-dredging in seasoned flour and beaten eggs. The interior meat is ideally well-done yet tender, often due to marinating for hours in buttermilk. Finally, fried chicken is at its core a finger food, so it must exist as a single, compact entity. Authentic fried chicken brings high-bar expectations, but Ezell's rings all the bells.

Ezell's began as a humble eatery in Seattle's Central District, but quietly, mouth by mouth, it gained a following that now supports 16 locations in Greater Seattle. Most are still barebones and simple, with few if any seats — but winding takeout lines rarely draw complaints. In 1984, the founders — two sets of brothers and a sister — brought homespun chicken recipes from their small town in East Texas, gambling on warm welcomes by West Coast palates.

It took only a single bite to gauge the Southern-style cred of Ezell's fried chicken — despite the recipes originating in Texas, slightly outside the core Deep South states known most for country-style fried chicken. But cooking this way is more of a mentality, a shared collective of handed-down culinary tricks and instincts, more likely to cross state lines as history unfolds over generations. It became clear with every munch-and-crunch that Ezell's came from that same communal way of eating and sharing. 

As co-founder Lewis Rudd told local Seattle KOMO News, his mother was literally always cooking for the family: "Pure soul food, that's what she made. Fried chicken, black-eyed peas, the best collard greens you ever tried." They've stayed true to mama's cooking, with everything made from scratch on location. Side dishes follow in the same vein, though bent slightly more toward Western preferences, including slow-baked BBQ beans, kernel corn, potato salad, creamy slaw, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese. 

In a place like Ezell's Famous Chicken, the very name comes burdened with expectations of greatness. Transplants like myself yearn for not only the ultimate crispiness, but a mystic kinship to Southern comfort food, despite notable cultural and culinary differences. Fortunately, Ezell's delivers with genuine old-school cooking, using fresh, never frozen chickenand churning out endless from-scratch rolls from its original 40-year-old recipe. They taste exactly like ones in small-town Mississippi, soft and pillowy with little poofs of flour dusting crunchy, buttery tops. 

My personal favorite sides are Cajun crinkle fries and the mashed potatoes with rich brown gravy. I'm with Rudd's mama on the black-eyed peas; though absent on the menu, I wistfully long for them every time. Other deeply Southern dishes populate the "special-tees" category: a trio of cooked-to-order soul-food classics, including fresh gizzards, chicken livers, and golden-fried okra, which my own mama adores. The ill-reputed sliminess of okra dissipates inside the deep-fried batter. 

Dessert gets the ultimate nod from Oprah in a hand-signed photo stating, "I don't know what I like more — the chicken or the sweet potato pie," as reported by Vice. For dessert, I generally opt instead for the house-made peach cobbler, served warm and sticky, with chunky, real peaches and cinnamon-y caramelized crust. Ezell's remains primarily a takeout venue, so there's no small-town diner vibes with easy-breezy stories of Aunt Mildred eating too much Ezell's fried okra. But the sense of community still binds, the shared knowledge that this is where Seattle eats fried chicken — and it's pretty darn good.