Fried chicken is 'trending feverishly' among chefs

Chicken at JCT. Kitchen and Bar, Atlanta
(Photo by Iain Bagwell, Wall Street Journal)

Fried chicken is hot. Sure, that's the best way to eat it, but if done well, it's also good cold, and by hot we also mean spicy. But what we're really talking about here is buzz, not sizzle, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

"Old-fashioned, hard to eat, messy to cook, downmarket and déclassé, it once seemed to belong to the South—and not in a good way. Yet now, against all odds, this old-school classic is trending feverishly," writes Josh Ozersky. "Rock-star chefs in hipster enclaves have foodies in a tizzy over weekly fried chicken nights. . . . And most radical of all, Korean immigrants have brought their own version of the dish to this country—one so spicy, crisp and addictive it threatens to snatch away the South's golden-brown crown."

Ozersky names some leading chicken chefs, restaurants and their treatments, and quotes "the dish's leading scholar," John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi: "Fried chicken is a rural dish from our past that has become even more beloved in the modern moment. It's a primal food, eaten with your hands, with a bone at its core. It's something we can all connect with, whether we're from the South or not." (Read more; subscription may be required)