Ezell’s Chicken

Ezell’s Chicken
5 Locations in Washington
11805 Renton Avenue South (Location visited)
Renton, WA

I will admit something: I have never watched a single episode of Oprah’s show despite all the pop media news that pops out about here every once in a while. I still remember that reference in Ocean’s Thirteen and I was saying “huh?!”. Of course, I can be an exception to the general rule in North America, as I don’t tend to watch those type of shows anyway. If that is the case, why then bring her name? Well, when the proclaimed most “powerful” women speaks, a lot of people listen. And when she praised Ezell’s Chicken, the question of course is: how good is their fried chicken? Since I was in the SeaTac area, the only way to find out was to get some fried chicken…

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any Ezell’s near the hotel I was staying and that meant driving around the US highways. Don’t get me wrong: their highways are way better than what we have here in Vancouver (*); however, at the end of the day, I prefer Vancouver’s lifestyle over the American highly highway based lifestyle. What I did not know was that the closest Ezell’s was in a really odd area, almost in the middle of nowhere and near somewhat strange looking casinos (**). Of course, it is possible that the darkness and the rain contributed to that feeling…

(*) Of course, we all know there are no actual highways in Vancouver itself.
(**) Disclaimer: I used to work in a company who owns some casinos in Washington. I have left that company over a year ago.

It was both good and bad that I arrived at the moment (~8:30 p.m.). The good is that they were still open. The bad was that they were about to close in 30 or so minutes. That translates into limited availability of goods and/or the food being way past their last batch of fried goodness. The first part is very important as, besides their chicken, I was looking forward to their chicken livers and gizzards. I know some of you might be making funny faces right now but, c’mon, if it is in the menu, it is because people want to eat that! Unfortunately, they ran out of it so, in the end, I ordered…

Four pieces of chicken which came with two sides. Oddly, unlike other chains, their “meal” order does not come with drinks. In the end, I just had some ice water with me. Also, that location did not have eat-in tables so I had to drive back to the hotel before I could have my dinner. Let’s start with the sides.

While they have some interesting sides, like sweet potato pie, and basic like fries, I went for baked beans and potato salad. The baked beans were quite decent, specially if you like beans. A bit sweet, though; had it had some more acidic/tomato-ey taste or meaty flavour, it would have worked better. This last part is personal preference but still good at the end of the day. As for the potato salad, it looked (and partially tasted) like the ones you could get in Costco – just generic, so I won’t say anything else.

One of Ezell’s claim is the type size of the chicken they use as well as the amount of cuts they make. In their case, they use 3 pound chicken and cut it in eight pieces. In theory, that translates into larger pieces of chicken. That was partially the case but, at the same time, the way they are cut is really strange. In the picture above, clockwise from 12:00 o’clock are: a bun/muffin (which I did not pay too much attention), wing, drumstick, “breast” and thighs. I am making some assumptions here, as I ordered a mix of dark and white meat.

The reason I put “breast” in quotes is because it is not the usual way you have a chicken breast cut. If you have a whole breast, that cut was diagonal, rather than split in half. Whether it ended up being as three pieces, I can’t say. It is possible, though, that the rest of the meat of the breast ended up in the wing side. Though not really visible in the picture above, a huge chunk was ended up there. That is why what you see at 2:00 o’clock does not really resemble a wing. Of course, the thighs and drumsticks are less fuzzy when it comes to cutting it some it is pretty obvious a chicken thigh is a chicken thigh and a drumstick is a chicken drumstick (and not a drumette).

And that brings the topic of taste. First of all, as a reminder, it was already their last batch and I had to drive back to the hotel (~15 minutes drive). Furthermore, when I was there, I could see the chicken outside under the lamp rather than in a hot box like KFC does. As a result, I was partially surprised it was still lukewarm and crisp. However, no “steam” was caught up in the box, so that explain the resulting crispiness. While that is all good, the rest of the chicken was not. The “breast” was dry, though I was expecting it to be that way. Likewise with the breast portion that was attached to the wing. The dark meat, on the other side, was able to keep its moistness. But, past this part, I couldn’t taste much of the chicken or seasoning. Texture-wise, I could tell it was chicken(-like) but nothing else.

If I had to make a comparison, I will have to say these are somewhat close to Church’s offering. (Of course, it somewhat depends on what are your thoughts on Church’s Fried Chicken), though with, again, crispier skin and less salt/pepper/seasoning. Past that, I do not see any major redeeming quality that tells me to go back. OK, OK, size of the pieces aside. In the end, it was an interesting ride but not in a hurry to go back. Heck, if I wanted really good fried chicken close to the border, I would rather drive to Surrey/Abbotsford for Lee’s Chicken instead.

Tagged under: Chicken • Seattle