Southern fried chicken
Photo: Gatorfan252525 · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

Fried chicken has been the celebration plate of the Tennessee Valley since well before Chattanooga's restaurant boom, carried through Black Southern kitchens along the Big Nine and church-supper tables across the city. The dish's modern local shrines split the style: pressure-cooked and juke-joint loud on MLK Boulevard, or family-style with vegetables spinning past on a lazy susan. Either way it arrives with white bread, pickle and no apology.

Book a food experience

Tours, tastings and classes from the cities on this page, bookable on GetYourGuide.

Browse every bookable food experience

Common allergens: Gluten

Make it at home

Yield Serves 4Hands-on 40 minTotal 5 hrDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken, jointed into 8 pieces
  • 500ml buttermilk
  • 2 tbsp hot sauce
  • 300g plain flour
  • 2 tbsp cornflour
  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tsp cayenne
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • Salt and black pepper
  • Neutral oil for deep frying

Method

  1. Brine the chicken in buttermilk, hot sauce and 1 tablespoon of salt for at least 4 hours in the fridge.
  2. Whisk the flour, cornflour, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, 2 teaspoons salt and plenty of black pepper in a wide tray.
  3. Lift each piece from the buttermilk, dredge hard in the seasoned flour, pressing so it shags up, and rest 10 minutes on a rack.
  4. Heat 5cm of oil to 165C in a heavy pot. Fry dark pieces 14 to 16 minutes and white pieces 10 to 12, holding the oil between 150C and 160C.
  5. Rest on a rack, never paper, and salt immediately. Internal temperature should read 74C at the bone.

Tip from the editors. Keep the oil moderate; Southern crust is built low and slow, and a 190C fry gives you colour five minutes before the bone is done.

Where to eat southern fried chicken

Southern fried chicken in Chattanooga

Champy's Famous Fried Chicken ★ 4.4

$$ SouthernMlkUntil 24:00 Fri-Sat; 22:00 Sun-Thu

Champy's Famous Fried Chicken runs its MLK Boulevard fryers to midnight on Friday and Saturday, Chattanooga's late-night bird with cold beer.

TryFried chicken and hot tamales

TipFriday and Saturday the kitchen runs to midnight. Expect a wait after Lookouts games; the banana pudding travels well.

Directions

Bea's Restaurant ★ 4.3

$ SouthernEast Chattanooga

Bea's Restaurant hides on industrial Dodds Avenue in Chattanooga, spinning lazy susans of fried chicken for four generations of one cooking family.

Why locals goOff every tourist route in an industrial stretch of Dodds Avenue, and the lazy susan format never left the 1950s.

TipWednesday to Sunday 11:00 to 20:00 only. Tables are shared-spin; go hungry and let the staff keep the bowls refilled.

Directions

All Chattanooga signature dishes →

More cities are in research. Want southern fried chicken covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.

Browse all dishes →