The Best Fried Chicken Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia

Following is a full transcript of the video.

Herrine Ro: Atlanta is home to some of the greatest fried chicken.

Tracy Gates: For us, fried chicken is Southern. It's a tradition in Atlanta. It's a traditional Sunday dinner.

Herrine: Honestly, that crisp is unlike anything that I've had before. We visited three famous spots, Busy Bee Cafe, Mary Mac's Tea Room, and JCT. Kitchen & Bar, to find which fried chicken is best in town. We're calling Erin because she is super sick. Ohh.

Erin Kommor: Herrine. I'm so happy you found a replacement, but I'm so sad I can't be there. You guys are gonna have so much fun. And let me know what the best chicken is, 'cause next time I'm in Atlanta, I'm gonna go get some chicken.

Alana Yzola: I got you, girl.

Herrine: So, we're in Atlanta, Georgia. This is my home state, my home city, and I'm so excited to find the best fried chicken in town. Alana, how does it feel to be back?

Alana: I feel, honestly, super hungry. [chicken crunching] I miss this show. I miss traveling to all these places, eating all this great food. And I do remember that, season two, we had our fair share of chicken.

Herrine: We do know chicken quite well. So, Alana, what are the qualities we're looking for?

Alana: OK, so, No. 1, it has to have a crispy coating. It has to be super crunchy on the outside, it has to be seasoned, and it can't be too greasy.

Herrine: No. 2, juicy chicken. The chicken should be the star of the show. And the moment you take a bite into the fried chicken, it should be moist and flavorful.

Alana: And three, the sides. Some of the places we're going to today have sides come with the chicken. Others, you have to order à la carte. But either way, the sides have to stand great on their own as well as an accompaniment to the chicken.

Herrine: OK. I think we have a great quality rubric situation going on. Let's go.

Alana: Let's go.

Herrine: So, we're headed to Busy Bee Cafe. And this place is an Atlanta staple since it opened in 1947. And just like its name, this place is busy, like, all the time.

Alana: Yeah, and I've been doing some research on this place, and apparently they've won tons of awards.

[bright jazz music]

Tracy: Well, Southern cooking, it brings back memories for people, because when you -- it's a lot involved, and people love it, and they can tell that you took your time to do it. So it's really that cook's passion for what she does. You can taste it in the food. Soul food, for us, is a traditional way that African Americans cook. And what it is, is a generation of passing, where parents teach daughters or sons how to cook, and then you put your take on it.

Herrine: What is your addition to your fried-chicken recipe?

Tracy: They just salt and peppered it when I got here. So I added more spices. I changed the flour they were using; I use a much lighter flower. And we actually cook ours in a pressure fryer. A pressure fryer, to me, duplicated what my grandmother did in a cast-iron skillet with the crispy skin and the seasoned meat that was still juicy.

Customer: It's juicy, it's really, really light, it's seasoned well, and it kind of tastes like my grandma's.

Tracy: [laughs] Everything's a secret. [laughs] I'll just give you the basic stuff. We used to use a White Lily flour, which is really, really light, but we incorporate that with a little cake flour. That makes it even lighter and crispier. It's fried in peanut oil, which is not greasy. It works well with the flavors, the seasons that we use on the chicken. The sides we offer, for a first timer, we would recommend the collard greens, the macaroni 'n' cheese, and the candied yams. Those are the top items that everybody, that's on literally every plate. We don't call you a real Southerner unless you really eating collards. [laughs]

Herrine: If your grandmother had a bite of your fried chicken, what do you think she would say?

Tracy: Oh, my grandmother would be so proud of me. But the first thing she would say is, "It's not as good as mine." [laughs]

Herrine: We have a live audience. This place is packed.

Alana: Packed. Like, I'm surprised we got a seat.

Herrine: The coating is great.

Alana: I can just see the crisps just falling off of it.

Herrine: And it's not greasy. All right. Shall we? [crunching]

Alana: Mm. Mm.

Herrine: Y'all hear that crunch?

Alana: I don't feel like I'm just tasting pure, like, fat or pure grease. I'm getting the actual crisp of it. And it's very light. I will say that too.

Herrine: It's very light. It's also very seasoned. Like, it's salty. I don't get, like, any kind of resounding seasoning, but it is well seasoned with salt and pepper, at least.

Alana: Yeah. I'm definitely getting the pepper.

Herrine: The coating itself is pretty thin.

Alana: I love that it is thin, because I feel like it really, like, lets us get to the meat quicker. You know what I mean?

Herrine: So let's get to the meat.

Alana: Yeah. They really took the initiative to make sure that each layer of seasoning penetrates through the skin.

Herrine: Also, that brining that they do, which is 12 hours, like, Miss Tracy said that she wanted to make sure that the meat is seasoned all the way down to the bone. And I can see what she means by that now. This is your first time in Atlanta trying fried chicken though, right?

Alana: Yes, it is.

Herrine: So, your thoughts?

Alana: My thoughts are, I can definitely see why Atlanta is, like, puts fried chicken on the map. Like, if this is what we have to look forward to, then I'm gonna leave very full, probably gain a couple, like, 10 pounds, but it'll be worth it.

Herrine: What do you think about the mac 'n' cheese?

Alana: It's, again, just like the chicken, it's perfectly balanced. It's very easy to put either too much cheese on it, so you don't get a lot of noodles. It's also very easy to not season your macaroni 'n' cheese at all. But with every bite, you're getting, like, the perfect amount of salt to it.

Herrine: The collards are so soft and so, like, flavorful, because they soaked up all that stock. I feel like the sides as a whole are just, like, very simple and stick to the very, like, classic, I don't know.

Alana: Roots. Like, Southern roots.

Herrine: Yeah, exactly.

Alana: I think that this plate is Destiny's Child, amazing music, but the chicken is and will always be Beyoncé. The fried chicken is, like, virtually perfect. I'm just, like, a super, super crunch fan, so even if they, maybe if they double-fried it a little bit, so it was, like, an even crunchier coating, it would be, like, phenomenal.

Herrine: The next place we're going to is also, like, an Atlanta institution. It's very similar to this, in terms of, like, plating and setup. So I'm very curious, like, what the differences will be.

Alana: So, Mary Mac's is another Atlanta spot that I've been dying to try out.

Herrine: This place is an absolute institution, and it is the quintessential Southern dining experience. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

[soft piano music]

Matt Thompson: We've won multiple awards in the state of Georgia for best fried chicken. [oil sizzling] So, in 2011, the Georgia House of Representatives named Mary Mac's Atlanta's dining room, officially.

Herrine: So, my parents are here because they insisted on seeing me work. So they're eating at a separate table, and they ordered the fried chicken. Let's go see what they think. Hi, Umma. Hi, Appa.

Appa: This chicken, fried chicken is one of, good, I ever taste before. They're very soft and very fresh. Herrine: [in Korean] Is it good?

Umma: Mm-hmm. I like it.

Appa: I think this is best.

Herrine: The fried green tomato?

Appa: Yeah, yeah.

Herrine: But we're doing a story of best fried chicken.

Appa: Cheers.

Umma: Cheers.

Matt: So, Mary Mac's started in 1945, and they were called tearooms because it was a lot of widowed women whose husbands would die in the war. And they would have to find a way to support themselves. We still use a lot of the original recipes, and we just kind of concentrate on made-from-scratch Southern fare, kind of like how your grandma used to do.

Jeff Thomas: This is the best recipe you can find for fried chicken. So, the chicken comes in fresh. Then it goes into a brining solution. The only thing we put into the brine is salt. It tenderizes it, and it adds to the flavor. And our flour batter, we only use two seasonings. OK? Now, this is a secret. I normally wouldn't reveal it to anybody, but you guys are special. All we put in here is salt and white pepper. When you're coating it in this flour mix, you get a good coating on it, because once it hits the oil, the oil automatically seals that flour in. We use canola oil. And then once it cooks, we want it to get golden brown, have a good crunch to it, and then when you bite into it, oh, my God. That's when you gonna get all the flavor and all the juices.

Matt: I'd say the most popular is probably the four-piece fried chicken, just 'cause you get to try all the pieces of the bird. It comes with two sides. I'd say the mac 'n' cheese is popular, and you have to go with some collards. A lot of people always add an extra third on there, and I'd say you gotta do sweet potato.

Alana: This macaroni 'n' cheese, though. OK.

Herrine: Shall we?

Alana: Yeah. 'Cause it has a crust.

Herrine: Yeah, I like a good crust on a mac and cheese.

Alana: The other one didn't. So creamy.

Herrine: I think it's the evaporated milk and eggs. And it has, like, this custardy binding thing. And you're right, like, that cheese crust is everything.

Alana: Yeah, it just adds, like, a nice little crunch to an otherwise extremely creamy pasta.

Herrine: Let's do fried chicken now.

Alana: OK. Why we're actually here. Ooh.

Herrine: I'm gonna go for the drumstick.

Alana: This is crispy!

Herrine: It is crispy. [crunching] Oh, my God!

Alana: It's very juicy.

Herrine: I think the skin here is crispier and more flavorful than Busy Bee. The meat, I'm not getting as much juice, but the coating is, like, very, very crispy and light.

Alana: The coating is, I agree, very crispy and light. The only thing I disagree with is you said that this one was more flavorful. I actually thought the opposite. I think Busy Bee's did a really great job seasoning it, for me, whereas this one is very, like, lightly seasoned, you know, more traditional Southern fried chicken, without the bells and whistles.

Herrine: It's just good, plain fried chicken. It's almost like pork crackling.

Alana: Yeah. [crunching] That's the best breading I've ever had. Ever. And to just get this from flour, honestly, is amazing. Alana: What flour did they use, did they say?

Herrine: Just regular flour.

Alana: Sometimes simple is better.

Herrine: I like this one better.

Alana: Really?

Herrine: It's more bitter and robust, which is, like, how I grew up eating collards. 'Cause I feel like the collards at Busy Bee were a lot more, like, salty and kind of soft. This is just like, honestly, the place that I would think about when it comes to, like, great Atlanta, like, Southern cooking. And I remember at Busy Bee, we were like, oh, I wish the coating was, like, a little thicker. I want to take that back almost, because this coating is thin just like Busy Bee, it's just crispier.

Alana: It's crispier, yeah.

Herrine: So it might just have to do with, like, the flour that they're using.

Alana: For you, do you think that the canola oil made it a little bit crispier?

Herrine: I'm not too sure if, like, the oil itself had a factor on the crispiness. I think it has more of, like, the flavor. 'Cause you do get an additional, like, nutty flavor with the peanut oil, but I don't miss it.

Alana: All right. So, I think for me, at the next place, the only way that this could be topped is if we had that crispy skin, but since the next place we're going to is a little bit more modern, maybe a teensy, eensy, eensy bit more seasoning. Just a little bit.

Herrine: I agree with you. I feel like if JCT has a more seasoned meat and juicier meat and a breading that is literally this but just with more spices, then it would win it for me.

Alana: So, compared to the other two spots, JCT is like a new kid on the block. But I've been doing some research, and I don't think we can count this chicken out.

Herrine: That's true. This place has been on so many media sites. I'm curious to see how it stands up to the two OGs.

Drew Belline: For us, JCT is really based in a lot of French and European technique. And what we do that is Southern is we source all of our ingredients in the South. We're obviously honored anytime anything gets recognized for us. We put a lot of love into it. We put a lot of trial and error.

Customer: I mean, it was moist. It's crispy on the outside.

Drew: Chicken at JCT, it changes through the year. We're sort of at the mercy of what the farmers are growing in the field at the moment. It's a half bird served with a couple of biscuits. We make those in-house. Buttermilk biscuits. We top them with a little bit of honey butter, some crunchy sea salt, and then you get one side. I think we have some really beautiful kale on the menu right now. We're doing that. It's just kind of done in sort of the style of collard greens. We make this really delicious smoked ham hock broth. And then we just gently simmer the greens in that broth with a little bit of sautéed onion, a little bit of tomato, a little bit of brown sugar and vinegar, sort of all those usual suspects of Southern greens. We have combined both of what we consider to be sort of the best worlds of brining chicken, so to speak. So we do half brine. We do half buttermilk, and then that chicken marinates on the brine and the buttermilk for 24 hours. The next step, we go to our breading process. You know, this is where people like to get into the whole, "This is my secret ingredient" type thing. For us here at the restaurant, we're using a spice blend of chili powder, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. We like to add a little bit of cornstarch and a little bit of all-purpose flour. What that cornstarch does is it adds just, when you're frying it, it removes a little bit of the moisture, wicks it away, and it makes it just a little bit, it gives it that little extra crunch that we're looking for in the crust. We let it sit in the breading for about three, sometimes four hours and just really develop another layer, so to speak.

Herrine: I wanna start eating the chicken now, because I really wanna eat the biscuits. [crunching]

Alana: Mm.

Herrine: Mm-hmm.

Alana: Wow. This is borderline illegal. OK, Herrine. What do you think about the crust?

Herrine: Just like we originally thought, the coating here is a lot thicker than the two other places. And I feel like the seasoning here is a lot more pronounced than the other two places.

Alana: Yeah. Here there's, like, a pronounced spice, and, like, a specific kick to it that I don't think we got at the other places. What do you think about the meat inside, though, flavor-wise?

Herrine: This is very, very tender, and it's still very seasoned.

Alana: I think all the flavor is on the skin. But the crust is just, like, shining so brightly that I don't miss the seasoning of the meat, if that makes sense.

Herrine: I think it complements each other.

Alana: Yeah, and the cornstarch is probably why the skin is so crunchy.

Herrine: Yeah, and how they let it just sit. I think that's really smart. It's almost like a double-breading situation. That's how crispy it is.

Alana: Which is what I was missing at Busy Bee's. 

Herrine: And at Mary Mac's, like, it had a lighter coating. Still, I think the crunch was a lot more pronounced at Mary Mac's.

Alana: Right. [chicken crunches] I know you were talking, but I'm really distracted by this biscuit.

Herrine: OK, yeah, let's do that. [Alana laughs] Let's do that. That might be the best biscuit I've ever had.

Alana: You know how we talked about how sides should, like, complement the chicken? I have an idea. What if we took some of the chicken, right? And made, like, a little sandwich? Yes.

[Herrine laughs]

Herrine: The biscuits here are incomparable to any of the bread that we've had. Shall we move on to the greens?

Alana: Yes, we shall.

Herrine: Flavor-wise, I'm missing, like, the riblets that you get from collards that give you that added texture.

Alana: I do like a little bit of texture, a little bit something to bite into, and I felt like these are a little bit too much on the soft side for me. But flavor-wise, it's obviously much more loaded. There are much more components in this. I think overall I'm shocked, because this isn't a traditional, like, soul-food spot. Again, when I think of fried chicken, I automatically go to soul food, especially when we're in the South, and the fact that they kind of pride themselves on almost a French style of cuisine, it's just shocking that it's this good.

Herrine: I feel like we touched on three very different spots.

Alana: Yeah. They all had their own charm, and they all kind of represented what I think of when I think of the South.

Herrine: But we do have to pick a winner. So are you ready to reveal? Alana: It's hard, but I think I got one.

Both: Three, two, one.

Herrine: I can't say that I'm surprised.

Alana: I have to say that I am a little bit surprised. Why'd you pick Mary Mac's?

Herrine: The fried chicken at Mary Mac's is very simple, but, like, simple in the way that, like, I love Southern food, if that makes sense. Like, every element, I feel like, was just executed perfectly. That breading especially, it was so crispy. It was so thin. It was so crunchy. The chicken meat itself was very moist and flavorful. Even the white meat was juicy. And the sides. I mean, like, the mac 'n' cheese and collard greens are just two, like, staple sides.

Alana: I think, for me, if we're running down the list, the crunchiness of that skin at JCT was insane. And I think that it really married the best parts of all the places that we went to. It had the robust seasonings that we had when we were at Busy Bee's. It had the crisp and crunch that we had when we were at Mary Mac's, but they married them perfectly together. And then on top of that, the meat itself was super, super, super juicy. And then for the sides, come on, like, that biscuit, that biscuit was the best biscuit I think I've ever had in my life.

Herrine: Yeah, that biscuit was the best biscuit I've had in my life.

Alana: The reason why I'm surprised at your choice, Herrine, is because you said, when we were at JCT, that you appreciated the complex seasonings. Like, you liked that. And I feel like if we had a blind taste test, you'd probably agree that JCT is just a little bit better.

Herrine: I hate to say it, but I do remember that I loved the coating and the seasoning at JCT, like, a lot, and that biscuit was amazing, and those greens, although they were not collards, they had everything I love in collards. So, what do you guys think? Do you think that JCT is the best fried chicken in Atlanta, or do you think I should have stuck to my guns and stayed with Mary Mac's? Or was it Busy Bee, or some other place?

Alana: Let us know in the comments below. Herrine: Bye. Alana: See ya.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in October 2020.

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