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Finger-Lickin’ Awesomeness: Where To Find The Best Fried Chicken In Vancouver

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Finger-Lickin’ Awesomeness: Where To Find The Best Fried Chicken In Vancouver

by Andrew Morrison | I’m digging the fried chicken at Juke these days, especially the little sandwiches they make ($9 for a pair!), but when I think about it hard and put it up against my other favourite fried chicken in Vancouver – like the delicious stuff at Fable Diner, Re-Up and LA, to name but a few – it’s a seriously tender call. Accordingly, I’ve listed all of them below for your ranking consideration. Good luck choosing just one…

Re-Up BBQ
810 Quayside Dr.

High quality bird rubbed with the company’s signature spice mix, coated in yellow mustard and thoroughly doused and dusted in a sieved blizzard batter of potato starch and all-purp/rice flour. Still waiting for a location closer to home…

Burdock & Co
2702 Main St.

Wait, chef Andrea Carlson does fried chicken? It’s true, and fabulously so. The pieces are boneless, succulent bites that come prettily arranged with buttermilk mash and pickled vegetables. A refined option, but no less delicious.

AnnaLena
1809 West 1st Ave.

Another fancy take on fried chicken, this time from the very creative Mike Robbins. His buttermilked pieces are crispy, boneless, wicked tender and artfully set among charred sishito peppers with an electric sesame dashi mayo.

Mamie Taylor's
251 East Georgia St. (Closed)

Nicely seasoned and lounging on top of a sweet corn and herb waffle, with peach mustard and dandelion greens. The key here is the Midas-like gravy, which makes everything it touches extra amazing.

Juke Fried Chicken
182 Keefer St.

Their gluten-free awesomeness is all the rage right now. They’ve tweaked the batter and seasoning since opening, so try to imagine it even more delicious than when you first tried it. Good on the bone and off. Bonus: popcorn chicken!

LA Chicken
11780 Thorpe Rd.

No list of fried chicken would be complete without mention of this strip mall staple in Richmond with its sun-bleached 80s decor and two piece boxes loaded up with fries, (questionable) salad and gravy for just $10. Just try to talk us out of it…

Duffin's Donuts
1391 E. 41st Ave

If we ever did a “Best 4am Fried Chicken” poll this invariably entertaining bastion of edible eclecticism would beat out Church’s by a landslide. They do the Fritou stuff here, so it’s crispy, available in both regular and spicy, and very likely not even nearly organic.

Fable Diner
151 E. Broadway

Chef Trevor Bird’s new diner at Main St. and Broadway does an unforgettable fried chicken dish that sees three hot sauce powder-dusted, boneless pieces of fantastic fried to indecent perfection on ranch sauce with jalapenos.

Dixie's Authentic Texas BBQ
337 E. Hastings St. (Closed)

This Central Texas-themed BBQ joint is best known for its superb brisket, but it’s fried chicken is no slouch, especially when dealt alongside a pile of pulled pork with tots and gravy (an actual offering called “When Pigs Fly”).

Whose fried chicken would you eat first?

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There are 6 comments

  1. good fried chicken with some poutine or mashed potatoes and gravy…ah, to die for.
    a fab comfort food to be eaten on occasion.

  2. How was Torafuku left off this list? Not to mention the many great izakayas serving up killer karaage all over town?

  3. Nice point about the tweaking of the Juke batter. I wasn’t super impressed when I went there the 2nd day of opening but I went there a few days ago and it was much better. Had no idea that it was gluten free too.

  4. Juke in my humble opinion, it’s way down. Way way down. Way too expensive and way down in quality

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