Team Popeyes checking in! I love all of Popeyes sides.
I haven’t been to Church’s in years so really no recollection of how it tastes. Pioneer Chicken was a childhood favorite growing up in Los Angeles County. I seen one in Boyle Heights, probably not worth it anymore. Besides if I am in that area I am getting tacos lol. KFC is not my first choice for fast food fried chicken but it can scratch that itch and I like making sandwiches with the sides/biscuits.
@JeetKuneBao agreed. The best fast food side is red beans and rice at Popeyes. Biscuits are better here than KFC.
FWIW, if you liked it as a kid and want that nostalgia hit, IMO it’s worth it. I hit them a few years ago after not having them for a couple of decades. Cracking open the containers of the sides, the mashed potatoes and gravy, and the rice, the aroma hit exactly like childhood and took me back immediately.
The crust and skin was still just as crisp and crackly and exactly like my memories. What was different that I didn’t remember was how much oilier it was. The skin although tasty was dripping a lot of grease, more than any fast food place.
I’ve done it a couple of times since that first revisit, mainly to include friends and family in the nostalgia trip and everyone enjoyed the meal and agreed it was like the old days. But it wouldn’t make my regular rotation for fast food fried chicken.
I still prefer Krispy Krunchy chicken for best QPR fast food fried chicken.
Me too!
There’s a Krispy Krunchy at the 76 Station DIRECTLY ACROSS from the Church’s closest to me. They also happen to be a block from the local independent theater that local film fests tend to rent.
I wanted to like KK so much, but I found the price difference to Church’s, esp if you happen upon a coupon in the weekly junkmail circular, to be almost negligible. And the quality difference was… noticeable. It wasn’t inedible, but it was dry, kinda bland (a consequence, I’m sure, from sitting under a heat lamp with low product turnover.)
When I lived in Vancouver, there was an all-night super sketchy donut shop called Duffins, and THEY had super cheap fried chicken that really did hit the magic QPR button. A slight cut below KFC, but $5 Canadian for a leg, thigh, and a roll? You bet!
The Krispy Krunchy Chicken at Big T Mini Mart in Alhambra seems pretty popular on social media. I liked it (maybe too salty for some) but haven’t been there in over a year.
I think it really depends on the location. The one I go to is inside a steam table Chinese place. I’ve noticed they keep a very small amount under the heat lamps. A couple of times they’ve even asked if I minded waiting while they make a fresh batch.
Overall the place tries to keep up good quality. They even have a spicy fish and tofu entree that’s pretty decent as one of the their regular steam table options.
Their honey butter biscuits - if fresh - are one of my fast food craves.
Er. Should make that “were one of my fast food craves,” as I don’t think I’ve had them since leaving Florida. In 2004.
Marina Del Rey? The one at Lincoln and Washington?
All the Church’s in the valley have closed. Most have become Popeyes. But in Florida, we had Bojangles. Yum!
I like their chicken too… but the chickens are pretty small… are we sure they’re not KRISPY KRUNCHY KANARIES?
I think the acronym there might prove… what do the kids say these days? … problematic.
Yup. Golden Scoop
At Golden Scoop? I haven’t run into that. They’re normal sized to me. Visually they look the same as what I see in other fast food places or supermarket fried chicken. I haven’t gotten from those places in a while though. Compared to Pioneer, KK at Golden Scoop is smaller but not extremely so.
They have raised prices. An 8 piece of dark, legs and thighs, is now $11.99, as of two weeks ago. Was $8.99 pre-pandemic. But size has remained the same to me. It’s still acceptable QPR to me but certainly not as good as what it was before.
I love alliteration but…yeah…
Whoops. I didn’t notice or think of that.
Ugh.
Guess I’ll need to start looking at possible acronyms for everything I say.
I last went to the one in Valley Village.
Another place that occasionally serves tiny chickens is El Pollo Loco. Compared to Popeyes or to KFC seem a little small to me.
Though nothing is as tiny as Ay Papa Que Rico. Not kidding, smaller than game hens.
Speaking of fried chicken some of these Cambodian donut shops doing takeout American-Chinese are also doing chicken. The spot above does a Black Pepper Chicken with a very tasty sauce. Local spot. A little southeast county secret.
For dessert a maple bar, chocolate bar, and a apple fritter/bear claw will hit the spot for me! Not all 3 lol. If only some of these donut shops started serving a limited quantity of some Chiu Chow or Khmer food that would be f’ing great.
Interesting. The biz model is the chicken is supplied by approved vendors. Operator takes the prepped chicken and fries on site. KK provides signage and equipment to the tier level operator paid for.
Theoretically this maintains a consistent standard. The prep and holding part would be the operator variable KK can’t control. A location could choose to just fry up a couple of big batches all day and let them sit under the lamp vs more frequent small batches.
You’d think piece size would be consistent though. As noted, seems like at Golden Scoop the quality is good due to the location’s dedication to maintaining the quality for all their food.
I can see a convenience store struggling to have more consistency in quality vs Golden Scoop which is cooking food all day. But that doesn’t explain the size difference.
Wonder if the supplier offers different tiers of sizes to manage the profit margin. That’s the only thing I can think of, unless some locations are bypassing buying from the approved supplier which would kind of defeat the purpose of making it easy to sell?
The last few years I’ve seen more of that combo donut/chinese takeout/fried chicken in local places. It always struck me as smart business. You’ve got all the same equipment needed for frying and cooking, it’s not that tough to expand out a product line that would appeal to the same customer base.
Like your example and mine with Golden Scoop, if a place cares about overall quality, chances are their food is good. Which means there’s a good chance your scenario could come true! Somewhere out there there’s an owner who wants to put out his good regional food. Just need to find it!
It’s probably just my perception. I’ll need to do something more scientific. A Bang X3 is obviously going to be needed.
I salute your dedication! For completion’s sake, I think you should include a couple different supermarket fried chicken for comparison. And then head down to Boyle Heights and get some Pioneer chicken too!
Boyle Heights? While I’m at it, I should see if there’s an MPG difference on various brands of gasoline, as long as I’m going to be putting on a few hundred miles for this “project”
Multi-tasking for maximum efficiency! Can always do a bang bang with other options around Pioneer Chicken. Get a bean and cheese burrito at Al n Bea’s, breakfast burrito at George’s. Those all fall under fast food as befitting this thread!
I AM built like a cow, four stomachs and all LOL
I remember pioneer chicken from when I first moved out here. But maybe a Boyle Heights bang bang bang bang bang bang bang would be a good idea.