How Oakland Revolutionized Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken is typically attributed to the south. Soul food, and wherever it reaches, takes fried chicken with it. Logically too, as fried chicken has its roots in slavery and depression era. Batter and fry any cut of meat and it's a meal indiscernible from where it began, but delicious all the same.

Oakland is taking fried chicken to the next level now: challenging it and pushing its limits until it has become something more.

It all started with Bakesale Betty's fried chicken sandwich. Sure, there were a handful of soul food restaurants and of course the big chain chicken shops like Church's, but Betty marketed to a new crowd, and developed a recipe so perfect that it was the only entree on the menu. The shop, located on the corner of Telegraph and 51st, is open for 3 hours Tuesday through Saturday. Lunch for the masses. Show up any day of the week at 11am and there will be a line out the door and down the block. This chicken is amazing, and it's not a typical chicken sandwich.

Chick Fil'A holds the highest honor for their fried thigh on a sweet bun with a slice or two of pickle. It's basic, it's something people crave, it's a legend. It created the standard for a fried chicken sandwich that any fast food chain can point at and say "we need to make something to compete with that." The competition needn't be creative, they just need to slap a fried chunk of chicken in a hamburger bun and call it a day.

Betty takes it a step further. She made a spicy batter and brine, fried big breasts to perfection, made a spicy jalapeno and vinegar slaw, and sandwiched it in a french roll. The flavor immediately knocked any other fried chicken out of the park. It was new, exciting, perfect. It didn't try to copy any other fried chicken sandwich.

 Betty was an innovator. She set the stage for what is now becoming a point of pride for Oakland. The fried chicken sandwich with spicy batter and spicy slaw is now an unofficial flavor of Oakland. That might have been the end of it.

Then along came Tanya Holland, opening Brown Sugar Kitchen in an industrial turned art district in West Oakland. Seriously, no other restaurants in sight, little to no foot traffic, and still an hour long wait on a weekend morning.

Tanya Holland raised the bar for southern comfort food, soul food, in Oakland. Her restaurant says "I see that you have a lot of soul food, and I see that you have a lot of yuppies and hipsters that aren't going to these soul food places." So she built a place that caters to the "refined palate" while still making soul food classics. Her entire menu is just your standard soul food dishes made to perfection and often with a little twist that elevates it in the ranks.

Brown Sugar Kitchen is known for their chicken and waffles, which you might be thinking has been done to death. Most places make chicken and waffles that could might as well be made by Ihop, or rather a Safeway chicken tender on an Eggo waffle with some syrup. The chicken doesn't need to be flavorful because the sweetness of the syrup will distract from it, and the waffle doesn't have to be anything special because the juices of the chicken will seep into it's nooks and make it savory. Fried chicken and waffles had become complacent, just an item on the menu most people have tried and said "yeah this is great, but it's not worth the lethargy that follows," so they pass on it.

What makes Holland's fried chicken so special is the brine. It's lousy with actual herbs and spices. Not the Colonel's "11 herbs and spices" that consist of salt, pepper, and MSG. The color of the bird, batter and interior, is a dark red tint from the paprika. The cayenne gives the meat itself a little kick.The standard mix of garlic and onion powder doesn't get bogged down by the standard heaping cup of flour. In the crevices of the meat are pockets of parsley that could have only been introduced in the brining stage. The batter is dark with flavor. Even the waffle and syrup are elevated with their little twists of cornmeal and honey butter.

Holland and Betty are making a statement with their fried chicken, saying that Oakland adds more spice, more depth of flavor, to their food. Oakland prides itself on its approach to the tired medium of battered bird.

Their legacy lives on with the newest addition to the East Bay fried fowl family, Aburaya Japanese Fried Chicken.

On the cusp of China Town and Downtown Oakland, Aburaya's brick and mortar just opened its doors after years of truck tours and pop-ups. I discovered this place while riding my bike, and the line out the door said more than any half-wit Yelper could. This place is special. This place is next.

Similar to Bakesale Betty's, Aburaya is open Tuesday to Saturday from 5pm to 10pm, with a line out the door to boot. Unlike Betty, however, they make their chicken to order. This is not an in and out kind of place, this is a wait in line, place your order, and wait another 20 minutes while they make it.

The reward is worth the wait. The original menu consists of 9 flavors of fried chicken, some dry and some sauced. The chicken itself is prepared uniquely. No matter the flavor, they are all brined thighs with a dry rub rather than a thick batter. The reason they have to make the chicken to order is because each piece of chicken has to be rubbed with the unique flavor chosen before going into the fryer. Then when it comes out, some get sauced, some just get a dash of dry seasoning, and it's served on a bed of lettuce or rice. The meat is still visible through the light batter and each piece is a little different comes out a little misshapen.

Aburaya is the most experimental, out of left field chicken in Oakland, and their experimentation is rewarded with adoration from the locals. The price for the portion is good enough to attract crowds from every direction, which in Oakland Chinatown means everything from corporate lawyers to lake dwellers. True success in a city being struck with dividing gentrification means unity over a single dish, and there's no dish more fitting than fried chicken.