Fried Chicken Tonight in Boston!

[chocojosh]

Three of us are getting together tonight for fried chicken. Our original plan was to head to Highland Kitchen, but we thought it would be fun to try someplace we haven't been before.

We have three ideas:

1) Peach Farm

2) Soul Fire

3) Trina's Starlight Lounge

Any opinions on which of these will serve us best? We want crispy and moist.

If you have an idea for another place not on this list, feel free to suggest.

Thanks!

[yumyum]

I've been craving fried chicken too and ended up at Highland Kitchen tonight. My luck, Joe was working the bar and the plate of 4 pieces of chicken, garlicky mashed potatoes and gravy, and vinegar-tangy porky greens was the most comforting hug of Southern-fried love you could want on a drizzly night. The only dud was the biscuit which was a hockey puck without any flavor. No matter, I think the Monday night fried chicken dinner at Highland Kitchen is worth traveling for. $12.95 for dinner and leftovers. Joanie could get three meals out of it. ;-)

[Joanie]

Ha ha, this has definitely been on my list. But bummer about the biscuit, maybe it was an off nite. I loves me a good biscuit.

[chocojosh]

Thanks for all the input. We ended up at soulfire. Quite good and a good deal - very cheap beer too. Haven't been to highland kitchen in a while, so hard to compare, but I think that the SF chicken might be a bit crispier than at HK. Both quite good I think, but with very different vibes (much younger crowd at soul fire).

[gourmaniac]

Glad you enjoyed it. I think SF chicken has a nice combination of spicing crispness and juiciness of meat. How much was the all you can eat wings?

[Joanie]

We had fried chicken there on Sun. and it was quite decent (but preferred the catfish). What'd you get for sides? How crowded was it? I'm always surprised they don't get more people.

[Nab]

I guess "decent" is a good descriptor. It's got a really heavy breading, that had some kind of slightly sweet note I found unappealing. Meat was moist, but I'm just not a fan of chicken that's been breaded in a 2-inch layer of pancake batter.

[Joanie]

Wait a second, there's major exaggeration going on here.

[Nab]

Okay, maybe so, but I think you could've made three meals out of just the breading on a drumstick and wing. No exaggeration.

[BobB]

"I'm always surprised they don't get more people."

Well, they were pretty disappointing early on. The one time I tried their fried chicken (a year or more ago) it was greasy and almost inedibly salty (and I like salt).

From what I read lately on the board here it sounds like they've improved quite a bit. Time to give them another try.

[heathermb]

If you haven't made up your mind I'd add Highland Kitchen to your list. Their monday night special is a to-die-for fried chicken plate complete with biscuit, gravy, greens and mashed potatoes. Amazing.

ETA - Just saw your mention of HK in the original post - so I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. Sorry!

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Highland Kitchen
150 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA 02143

[kobuta]

I'd second Privus bonchon chicken, as the only fried chicken I crave these days.

Peach Farm - I love them for so much other food but I'd nix them for fried chicken - the ja ji gai is not even comparable to typical fried chicken in my opinion. Skin is usually barely crispy (just slightly crisp at best) and the meat tends to get dried out. I find most Chinatown restaurants often over cook the ja ji gai so the meat is dry as a bone.

[ScubaSteve]

third on the Bon Chon.

[emilief]

Fourth.

[gourmaniac]

I tried Soulfire the other for fried chicken and was very pleased with the quality and price. You might want to a fried chicken crawl since Privus and theri excellent bon ton chicken is close by. I like Peach Farm but fried chicken isn't really a strength unless you mean the cantonese Ja Ji Gai. Their chicken wings are pretty good though. I haven;t tried Trinas yet and can't recommend Coast Cafe which gets praise here.

[chocojosh]

Thanks for the advice. Just saw that soul fire has all you can eat wings on monday night. Any experience with these?

[gourmaniac]

I haven't tried this. I thought that the wing I had was excellent but even the breast which is usually dry was pretty good.

[chocojosh]

Good to hear. Thanks!