Double Do-Rite Donuts

After our less-than-satisfying char dog, we spent some time enjoying the sunny weather in Millennium Park and took a walk up the lakeshore to our old neighborhood of Streeterville. Our plan was to get lunch from Do-Rite Donuts, which we had visited in the Loop on an earlier trip, but which now had chicken sandwiches that sounded delicious. (Funny coincidence, on that earlier trip, we had gotten Do-Rite and then Gold Coast Dogs later in the day, while on this trip we had Gold Coast Dogs and then Do-Rite later in the day, something I never even realized until putting this post together.)

On our first visit to Do-Rite a couple of years earlier, we were kicking off the morning with some coffee and doughnuts. I don't know when it happened, as it wasn't the case when we had moved out of Chicago seven years earlier, but by the time we made this visit in 2012, Chicago had become a serious doughnut city. We hit up quite a few of the big players on the trip, and Do-Rite was one of them. A picked up a Dark Matter coffee (which he thought wasn't bad, but he was expecting a dark roast because of the name and it turned out to be lighter and not as bold), and then we got three doughnuts to split.

The three doughnuts we got were the valrhona chocolate glazed, the maple bacon, and the special of the day, which had a pineapple glaze, shredded coconut, and nuts. It's been about five years, so we don't really remember that many details, but we do remember that we thought the doughnuts were quite good. If I had to guess, I'd say that my favorite was probably the daily special since I love pineapple and shredded coconut, but A thinks we might have liked the valrhona chocolate the best because the chocolate was excellent. (This is the problem when you don't take notes and don't write a post while the memories are still fresh.)

And now back to our 2015 road trip visit. We knew we would eventually get doughnuts from Do-Rite since we knew they were good, but first, it was time for chicken sandwiches. We split two for lunch, the "original" and the CBR. We had considered getting the one called "The Sweet Heat," which was a fried chicken sandwich with spicy maple aioli on a glazed doughnut, for the novelty of having a fried chicken sandwich on a doughnut "bun" (although we have seen that concept elsewhere since), but decided not to and to get "regular" chicken sandwiches instead.

The original chicken sandwich contained a fried chicken breast, special mayo, lettuce, and dill pickles. This sandwich was good, very basic, but a little bit bland in flavor, especially compared to the other sandwich. The texture of the fried chicken was good. The lettuce was a little more like cabbage, which was something we weren't expecting, and we weren't really sure what made the mayo special but it seemed nice and creamy.

The CBR stood for (aged) cheddar, bacon, and ranch (mayo), and we got the spicy version of this sandwich. This sandwich had much more flavor than the other one, probably from the bacon, but we wouldn't really call it spicy. Cheddar, bacon, and ranch is usually a good combination, and that was the case here as well. The CBR is still on the menu online, which is nice to see.

Considering we eat a lot of fried chicken sandwiches (especially in 2015, which was kind of the year of fried chicken sandwiches for us personally and they seemed to be everywhere), these probably fall in the middle part of the list for us. They were good and we enjoyed them, but we definitely have others we like better at home (like Hill Country Chicken, Bobwhite). We would try more varieties at Do-Rite though. Who would say no to more fried chicken sandwiches?

After we finished our chicken sandwiches, we went back in for a doughnut, this time choosing the cinnamon old fashioned topped with cinnamon sugar. This was a good cake doughnut, very soft in texture, with good cinnamon flavor. Do-Rite definitely does doughnuts well. We've had good experiences both times we've visited, so we would return.

Whole Foods Bryant Park

We were looking for a light dinner on Memorial Day (yes, this post is a bit overdue), and as we walked through the Herald Square area, started thinking about Chick-fil-A. It wasn't Sunday, unlike most days that we find ourselves thinking about Chick-fil-A, so we figured they would be open. Unfortunately for us, we got there about two minutes after they closed for the holiday, so no Chick-fil-A for us. Since we were close to the Whole Foods in Bryant Park, we decided to go there and finally try out the prepared foods in their "food hall." It wasn't really much of a food hall as there weren't any stalls, but instead you order from a menu with different themed options on some central kiosks.

We split two things. The first was a Korean hot dog which was topped with kimchi, a sweet and spicy sauce that looked gochujang-based, and scallions. We were pleased to see that the kimchi toppings on this hot dog were plentiful, and the toppings and sauce tasted good. The hot dog itself seemed fine but nothing extraordinary, but went well with the kimchi and sauce. However, the bread was not great at all. It was dry, crumbly, and cold, and really detracted from the rest of the hot dog. A griddled bun would have been much better.

The other thing we split was from the hot chicken menu - the Nashville-style hot chicken sandwich, a fried chicken thigh which came with slaw and some pickles on the side. We ordered it with medium spiciness, since we figured hot chicken would be hot and we probably shouldn't order it spicy because we might end up with something extra spicy (like saying spicy at a Thai restaurant). For hot chicken, it wasn't really very spicy at all. I think I got one bite with any kick to it at all, and A got none. Considering this was what medium was, we figured that if we had ordered it at the spiciest level (one above), it probably wouldn't have been that spicy either. The pickles and slaw were fine but nothing special.

We weren't that impressed with our first visit to WF Bryant Park's "food hall." The two things we ordered were just okay, and we probably wouldn't get them again. Also, considering how few other people were ordering at the same time we did, it took a very long time for the food to be ready. We might try some of the other options at some point -- they had Italian sandwiches, reubens, and Indian-inspired bowls as well, the last of which was probably the most interesting of those three -- but there are lots of other places we'd like to go in the area first. I also think we like the WF buffet bar better than what we got here.

Flushing Food Crawl

Considering how many food options there are in Flushing, we don't get out there nearly as often as we should. It's only a (relatively) short trip on the 7 train, yet almost all of it has been unexplored by us. For that reason, for one of our dining resolutions for 2017, we decided we should go on a dumpling crawl in Flushing. Last weekend, we did just that (and can finally check off our first fully completed resolution!).

Our first stop was Tianjin Dumpling House at the Golden Shopping Mall in the basement food court. Out of all of our stops on the food crawl, this was the one we had actually been to before, grabbing some dumplings before a wedding a few years ago in case it was like a typical Chinese wedding and the food wouldn't be served for hours. Their specialty is the lamb and green squash dumplings, although the lamb/carrot and pork/chive ones we got the last time (because they were out of the squash ones) were good too. (Just as a side note, probably best to not think of this as your typical "mall" or mall food court; it's a bunch of stalls in a cramped basement that have been there forever just serving good food.)

Each order of dumplings at Tianjin has 12 dumplings, and they range in price from $4 to $7. Really inexpensive. The lamb and green squash ones were $6, which was a great price for 12 dumplings. They were cooked to order so they did take a little bit of time to get, but they were totally worth it. One of our favorite things about the dumplings was the nice chewy wrapper which had sort of an al dente texture to it. We assume that the wrappers are handmade because you can't get that type of elasticity from a machine-made wrapper, and also because the dumplings are all different sizes.

The dumplings themselves had a mild lamb flavor but not an overpowering gaminess. The green squash added an interesting texture. We didn't get much flavor from the squash, but it added something of a "wetness" to the dumplings that helped ensure that they didn't get too dry. For dipping sauces, this no-frills place doesn't have any pre-prepared sauces available. Instead, they have bottles of soy sauce and vinegar and containers of chili sauce and a green-ish garlic sauce. We have no clue what made it green, but it was delicious and had a really nice sharp, garlicky flavor. This was our first stop of the day, but after discussing, we both agreed that it was the best.

Next up was probably the one we had been most excited about - White Bear. We had wanted to go to White Bear for ages, and every time we saw pictures of the wontons in chili oil, we wondered why we hadn't made it yet. These were also $6 for 12, and they came topped with scallions and some pickled vegetables along with the chili oil. (It's #6 on the menu if it's not obvious.) They were also supposed to have good dan dan noodles there, but we didn't want to overdo it and end our food crawl after two stops, so we didn't get those.

We liked the flavor of these dumplings, but we thought that they would be better. The way some people talk about White Bear, we expected this to be something like a life-changing dumpling experience, and it wasn't. It sounds like maybe our expectations were just too high, but while they were high, there was also the fact that we thought our first set of dumplings from Tianjin were better. The wrappers here were handmade and thinner, like a lot of wonton skins are, but that made them less chewy and in some cases, easier for them to fall off the filling. A couple of our wontons were either broken or broke as we tried to pick them up. Flavor-wise, we noticed that despite the chili oil, they weren't really very spicy at all. We've had wontons or dumplings like this before that were much spicier and thought those had more flavor. These were also on the salty side. The pickled vegetables here added some nice freshness and differentiated it from other dumplings we had in the past, but they also contributed to the saltiness.

We intended for our next stop to be more dumplings, but as we wandered around, we found ourselves in the food court at the New World Mall (this one, a more typical mall and mall food court). We walked around looking at all the stalls and all the many food options until we stopped in our tracks at Cheers Cut. When we were back in Vancouver, we had tried Taiwanese large fried chicken for the first time (post coming eventually in our trip recaps) and it was incredible. We had heard rumors that places in NYC were starting to make this, but didn't really know where to go yet. When we saw that Cheers Cut had large fried chicken, we had to stop the dumpling crawl and get some chicken.

Cheers Cut (apparently with two locations in NYC, as well as one each in Tampa and Philadelphia) had two sizes of large fried chicken - large (samurai) and extra large (ninja). We, of course, went with the ninja ($7.95) so we could try more, and in the choice between pepper and chili topping, went with pepper since it was closer to what we got in Vancouver. In style, it was very similar to what we got in Vancouver (and presumably what they serve in Taiwan, but A never had this there, and M hasn't been to Taiwan) - a chicken breast and thigh flattened into one large piece of chicken, breaded, and deep fried. The dark meat retained some of the bones, even in this flattened form, but there was a mix of white and dark meat in every piece.

While this chicken was good, we preferred the one we got in Vancouver. The breading on that one attached more to the chicken and didn't really get soggy and flake off at all like this one did in parts, there was a little more flavor in the topping, the breading, and the chicken itself in the Canadian one, and the chicken was a little juicier there. That said, until we hear about the location of another Taiwanese large fried chicken joint in NYC, we don't have anything to compare it to in this city, so guess it's the best one for now. Maybe someday there will be other places here to compare, but right now it's much cheaper going to Queens than flying back to Canada.

Our next stop we figured would be one of our last, since it was a full-service restaurant instead of a quick service place - Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao. We were going, obviously, for XLB, but we also heard that they made good scallion pancakes. Since we'd pretty much been eating heavy food without vegetables all day, we also figured we should balance that out with a plate of cucumber and garlic ($4.50). That was nice and refreshing with good garlic flavor, although a couple of pieces of cucumber were a little on the bitter, softer side. It felt really good to eat all those cucumbers though, since we were incredibly dehydrated.

The scallion pancakes ($3.50) came first, since soup dumplings take a little bit of time to make. These were crispier and flakier than the scallion pancakes we're used to getting. Despite the crispy exterior, though, the insides were still soft and chewy just the way we like them. While these were quite good, the ones A's mom makes are better.

The last thing to arrive was the steamer of six pork soup dumplings ($5.95). These were quite delicious. The soup inside was rich and flavorful without being too scalding. The filling was also flavorful and soaked up a lot of the flavor from the soup. The really nice thing was that the wrappers were thinner than most versions you get in NYC. That was always our gripe with the offerings in NYC. While in overall rankings we'd rank higher the ones we got at Din Tai Fung in Asia and others we got in Vancouver, these are probably our favorite of the ones we've tried in NYC. We haven't tried everywhere in NYC though, so we're open to further comparisons, but so far, these are the best we've had here.

After all of that savory food, it was time to end the day with some dessert. We headed back to New World Mall to the food court, as we had been hearing a lot recently about some stall there named Erqal that served Uyghur ice cream. When we went on our walk through the food court earlier, we had seen it and mentally bookmarked it for dessert. With tax, a regular ice cream was only about $3, which was pretty good for such a large cup.

The first thing we noticed about the ice cream was how it was made. There was a giant whirring motor spinning a frozen metal bowl holding the ice cream base. In the bowl was also a large wooden paddle that provided the aeration required to make the ice cream. When it's fully frozen the wooden paddle is then used to scoop out the ice cream into another container so that it resembles a large clump. The ice cream definitely had a different texture from most of the ice cream we usually eat. It had hints of brown sugar and caramel in the flavor, and texturally it wasn't as creamy as any other ice cream we had ever eaten. It was more icy and watery for lack of a better term, and it lent itself to being eaten very quickly. It was an interesting experience, and we really enjoyed the ice cream.

We had a pretty productive day exploring Flushing, trying different foods from all over China, checking off our resolution to go on a dumpling crawl, and even seeing bits of history from the colonial era on our walk, like the Kingsland Homestead. We should definitely explore more neighborhoods in the city more often.

Root and Bone

We've wanted to go to Root & Bone in the East Village for the longest time since we knew they were supposed to have good fried chicken, but every time we had passed by, they were pretty crowded (and we're not big line waiters if there are other good options around). When A saw something on Blackboard Eats recently offering a discount, we jumped at the chance to go and made a reservation for the end of January. It was Restaurant Week and their Restaurant Week menu sounded good (including a free drink), but we decided to order a la carte instead. (Couldn't use the discount on RW anyway, but we really wanted the bucket of fried chicken which wasn't a RW option.)

To start off, we got an order of Grandma Daisy's Angel Biscuits with honey roasted chicken jus, benne seeds, thyme, and sea salt. We had pictured Southern biscuits sort of like the ones you would get at Bojangles, but what arrived looked more like dinner rolls. The insides were soft and the outsides a little bit crumbly with a little sweetness, and they were pretty dense. They weren't exceptionally large but they were really, really filling. We thought that the chicken jus on the side would have a little bit more chicken flavor than it did, but it was still a good dipping sauce.

There were 8 pieces of fried chicken (2 pieces each of breast meat, wings, thighs, and drumsticks) in the main event, the Crispy Fried Bucket of Bird, which was described on the menu as "free range organic chicken, sweet tea brined, lemon dusted, with spiked tabasco honey" for hot sauce on the side. Our perceptions of the chicken were a little bit different since M only ate white meat and A had both.

From M: The flavor of the fried chicken seemed good, but the breast pieces were pretty dry. It was good that we had the honey tabasco hot sauce on the side, because I definitely needed to use it. Overall, I felt like the chicken was fine, but not great, just because the white meat was so dry. That said, I did have the majority of the second breast piece as cold fried chicken the next day (with more hot sauce, which they were nice enough to pack up with the chicken without even asking for it). It was a little less dry as cold fried chicken, and I actually think I liked it better as cold fried chicken than freshly fried. I didn't really get any of the citrus flavor from the lemon dusting until eating it as cold fried chicken, and it really came out there in a good way.

From A: This was a little disappointing for how much hype there was from the reviews. The skin and breading had a salty and sweet flavor to it, but the chicken itself seemed a little bland. The white meat was also on the drier side, and that's always a disappointment. The dark meat was nice and juicy, but suffered from the same overall mild lack of flavor. I don't know how it happened, but after the descriptions of their chicken preparation, I was expecting so much more and ended up disappointed. I ended up using a lot of the honey tabasco, and that was really tasty.

We got two sides with our bucket of bird, the first being the macaroni and cheese, "big pasta" with crunchy cheese and a biscuit thyme crust. Compared to some other tables nearby, we definitely lucked out in getting tons of the crust, and we love the crust on mac and cheese. This was really, really good. The pasta had a nice chewiness to it, the cheese was rich, it was nicely seasoned all around, and the crispy crust on top livened up the texture. At first, we thought the side order looked a little on the small side, but after eating it, it was just right. We were big fans of the mac and cheese here.

The other side dish was the brussels sprouts which were crispy fried sprouts with pickled serrano, bacon croutons, and bourbon sorghum. We didn't expect it from the description, but putting aside the serrano, eating these brussels sprouts instantly transported us back to Kin Shop. Crazy that they reminded us most of Thai-inspired brussels sprouts, but there was something about the seasoning and the sauce that was just so similar, and the texture of the crispy fried sprouts was pretty much exactly the same. Since we loved those brussels sprouts, we obviously liked these too, and it was nice getting that flavor again. A found (unfortunately by accidentally biting into one) star anise, and that helped shed a little light on why the flavoring of the sprouts was so similar as that's more of an Asian seasoning.

We had a good dinner at Root and Bone. The vibe was fun, we had a good time with our neighbors, and the food was good. Although we liked the fried chicken, we wouldn't call it the best in NYC and there are definitely other places we prefer for fried chicken, even in the same neighborhood. But we enjoyed our experience there, which is really all we could ask for. If we ever do make it back, we'd look to try some of their other menu items, and definitely more of their sides.

Crispy Spicy Chicken

If you've been reading here for a while, you might remember my love for fried chicken sandwiches. One of the fried chicken sandwiches we've had before but never written about here is the one at Mighty Quinn's. We tried this for the first time last year and thought it was just okay, especially compared to the other BBQ and the dirty frites there, but decided to try it again last weekend on a food crawl walk through the city.

Technically the "crispy spicy chicken sandwich," it consists of a nice-sized piece of fried chicken (which they smoke first) on a soft bun with slaw and pickled cucumbers. Like everything else at Mighty Quinn's, you could also get pickled onions or peppers on the side or on the sandwich if you wanted. The sandwich is topped with a chile-lime hot sauce. The hot sauce had a nice tangy flavor, and it worked well with the flavor of the chicken.

The first time we had this, the chicken was very lightly fried. This time it was much crispier, which we liked better. Other differences from the first time were that the only vegetable that time was pickled celery (versus slaw and pickled cucumbers now) and that last time there was so much hot sauce it was dripping off the chicken in all directions and very messy. All three of these changes seemed to us to be for the better, and we didn't know whether it was because we went to a different Mighty Quinn's location, if the sandwich changed over time, or if we just got a better made sandwich this time around. This sandwich was good. The chicken was nice and crisp, which worked nicely with the crunchy cucumbers and slaw, and the soft bun was good for soaking up all those flavors and the hot sauce.

While it was good, this chicken sandwich is probably not going to replace the sandwiches at the top of our favorite chicken sandwiches list, but it was definitely solid. The BBQ influence makes it slightly different from the others, and variety is always good. Sadly we just missed the end of the meatloaf sandwich days at Mighty Quinn's and never got to try it (sold out on the times we did try and then things got hectic), but at least we got a good chicken sandwich as consolation.

Sriracha Chicken

It was late afternoon yesterday when I went for lunch thanks to a bit of a doctor's office fiasco, so I wanted something quick. There was a Wendy's nearby, and they're probably my favorite of the big 3 fast food spots, so I stopped in there, lured in part by the giant sign for bacon sriracha fries. Once inside though, I saw that not only were there bacon sriracha fries, but a sriracha chicken sandwich. That sounded even better to me.

After doing a quick check online to make sure there was no broccoli slaw hiding anywhere in the sandwich (I've been surprised by it before), I ordered it. The sandwich (which is technically called the "spicy sriracha chicken sandwich") had a sriracha-infused bun, spicy crispy chicken, sriracha jack cheese, a few slices of applewood smoked bacon, creamy sriracha aioli, spring mix, and red onions. It seemed like they pretty much added sriracha to every single component that they could. It showed, as the spice of the sriracha was definitely there. There was a bit of a burn (in a good way) from the sriracha. I liked the sandwich.

As I thought about the sandwich more and more as I was eating it, I realized that this might be the closest thing I've had at Wendy's to the wild mountain chicken sandwich that they offered more than a decade ago and that I still miss. I think I mention this sandwich every single time I try something new at Wendy's, but I can't help it. It was so good. That one had a southwestern pepper sauce instead of sriracha aioli, and because of it, the spice there was more zesty than the burn of sriracha. There was also colby jack instead, which I preferred to this cheese. But otherwise, it was close. It was good on its own and even better because it came close to the best sandwich they've ever made.

Chicken Caesar

As we've been wandering the city on all of our Pokemon walks, we've been seeing posters for limited time chicken caesar specials in the windows at McDonald's. I guess the posters worked because after unexpectedly chasing a rare Porygon today when I went for lunch, I found myself hungry and near McDonald's, and decided to stop in to try it.

I went to look for the sandwich on the McDonald's site, but apparently it's only a special in the NY area. Not only is there a chicken caesar sandwich, but they also have salads and McWraps as part of the promotion. I'm not sure if all the special caesar ingredients are the same across the different items, but I imagine they're fairly similar.

The chicken caesar sandwich pairs crispy (or grilled) chicken with toppings of lettuce, tomato, caesar dressing, and some parmesan shavings. Unlike some other fast food items, the sandwich ingredients didn't look that different from the poster; they just weren't styled as nicely.

Overall, I thought the sandwich was fine, but it didn't seem all that different from your regular chicken sandwich. The cheese and caesar flavors were there but not incredibly strong, and the other stuff is all fairly standard. I don't know that I need to go get this again before the promotion ends, but I wasn't disappointed that I tried it.

Week 23 - Deep Frying

Even though I'm doing the 52 week cooking challenge just for myself (and not for points on Reddit), I really hate skipping a week and breaking my streak. I've only skipped a week once - molecular week during the first year I did the challenge (the reasoning explained here) - but I doubled up some other challenge weeks to "make up for it." The Week 23 theme this year was deep frying, which I just don't do at home. I don't cook much (if any) red meat at home, and I don't deep fry. Those are basically the only "rules" I have, which keep our home cooking a little bit healthier, but it also means I don't have to deal with my issues with deep frying (wasted oil, possible burns since I'm a giant klutz, the fear of burning the kitchen down). I didn't want to skip the week altogether though, so I figured I would just pan fry something. I ended up doing shallow frying for the first time, and since the challenge is all about stretching your boundaries and trying something new, I think this should count as much as deep frying for me since the effect on me is pretty much the same.

Chicken not pictured because it had been thawing in the sink

Just like Week 22, I ended up finding a good recipe for this challenge from the Everyday Harumi cookbook. This time it was for fried chicken with a leek sauce. The original recipe called for deep frying the chicken, but I planned to modify the recipe to pan fry it. The ingredients for the fried chicken dish (as adapted) were:

for the chicken:
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($4.50)
- 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce ($0.05)
- 1 tbsp sake ($0.10)
- potato starch to coat chicken (about 6 spoonfuls) ($0.40)
- canola oil for frying (a few tbsp) ($0.30)

for the leek sauce:
- about 1 cup of leeks, finely chopped ($0.70)
- 1 red chili pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped ($0.28)
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce ($0.20)
- 1 tbsp sake ($0.10)
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar ($0.10)
- 1.5 tbsp sugar ($0.10)
- 1 tbsp canola oil ($0.10)

The total for the fried chicken was approximately $6.93. We ate it alongside some brown rice and a cucumber salad, which probably added another $3, making the grand total just under $10. Not bad at all.

It was really easy to make the leek sauce. First up was prep - finely chopping the leeks and the chili pepper, and combining the soy sauce, sake, rice vinegar, and sugar in a separate bowl.

To make the sauce, I added the canola oil to a small saucepan, and then sauteed the leeks and chili pepper until soft. After that, I added the sauce bowl ingredients to the pan, stirring frequently to help the sugar dissolve. I started the sauteing right before I started frying the chicken, and cooked it all on low so it wouldn't be done too quickly. I ended up removing it from the heat only a few minutes before the chicken was done.

The prep for the chicken was a little more complex, but still not difficult. After slicing the chicken breasts into smaller, thinner pieces, I added the soy sauce and sake to a bowl and let the chicken marinate for about 10 minutes. After that, I set up a bowl with potato starch to coat the chicken. I was pretty excited because dredging the chicken in the potato starch was probably the best I had ever done at breading something, and I was really proud of that. Unfortunately, I then piled the chicken (coated in potato starch) in a bowl with pieces on top of one another, and let it sit that way for a few minutes while I set up the stove. That meant that when I picked up the chicken to drop it into the oil to fry it, quite a few of them came out missing one side of their potato starch coating. Oops. Lesson learned.

For the frying itself, I added a few tbsp of canola oil to the wok, probably half an inch or less. I was planning to pan fry the chicken, but after I added the first batch (of 2) to the wok, the chicken displaced so much oil that it looked like I was going to end up shallow frying instead. That still worked for the challenge, but I was a little uneasy about it because of the prospect of all of the bubbling hot oil. Sure enough, the oil was boiling loudly at some point, but since the original plan was pan frying, it never occurred to me that I should wait for it to do that before dropping the chicken in. As a result, the first batch of chicken came out missing even more of the potato starch breading since it stuck to the pan.

The second batch, since the oil was already hot enough, came out much better, much more golden brown, much crisper, and with much more of the breading intact. Lesson learned, even if I don't particularly want to do that again. For each batch, I flipped the chicken over partway through (which was a challenge when the breading was stuck to the wok). I don't know exactly how many minutes in that was though, since I did it entirely by sight and guessing. Once the chicken was fried, I removed the pieces with a slotted spoon and let them rest on paper towels to soak up some of the oil. We topped the fried chicken with the leek sauce when it was time to eat.

This challenge meal confirmed for me that frying at home is really not for me, and I should avoid or adapt recipes that require it. I don't think this was so much of a self-fulfilling prophecy as being pretty certain about the reasons I wouldn't enjoy it because I know myself when it comes to some things. The chicken itself turned out okay, even if the second batch was much better than the first, and the leek sauce was really tasty and a good complement for the flavor of the chicken. That said, if I made this again, I think I'd rather just saute and/or bake the chicken and use the sauce. I didn't really enjoy shallow frying that much, and I still have no desire to deep fry at home. I appreciate the challenge for making me try doing this, but honestly, I'm just glad this challenge week is over and hopefully will not return anytime soon.

Wickedwich

We've been to Hill Country Chicken more than 10 times, yet we've still never written about it (despite starting several times). I think part of the issue was that we kept adding every visit to the same post with the intention of publishing one giant post about all the good stuff at Hill Country Chicken, but it just got so monstrous that we never made any progress. Probably better to just talk about what we've been getting recently in pieces so we don't forget whether we liked it!

On my first few visits to Hill Country Chicken, I got chicken tenders or a fried chicken breast, but lately I've been getting their fried chicken sandwiches. I've made no secret of my love for fried chicken sandwiches, and on my most recent visit, I got the Wickedwich, which I think I got before, but since I never posted about it, am not 100% sure. The Wickedwich is a fried chicken breast with "spicy (but not too spicy!) honey, red onion, cheddar cheese, and sour pickles." It's $9.50, so not cheap fast food, but not as much as a sit-down restaurant could be.

I'm a big fan of this sandwich, although it's a little bit messy to eat because the honey drips everywhere. One of the best parts of the Hill Country Chicken sandwiches is that the chicken itself is always good, very juicy and never dry. They absolutely get the fried chicken part right. The cheese adds some richness, the honey has a little bit of zing to it (but really isn't spicy), and the red onion and pickles provide freshness and crispness. It's a nice, balanced combination, and I would definitely get this again (after trying all of the other fried chicken sandwich options).

Hill Country Chicken is located at 1123 Broadway, right near Madison Square Park.

Rodeo Rings

I went to Burger King recently and had a ridiculously unhealthy lunch. I went with the intention of trying the new chicken rings they've been promoting all over the place (even if I hate that they are actually named "chicken fries rings" because I think that name sounds so wrong), and I can never resist the call of onion rings when I'm there. I figured I'd end up sharing some of the chicken rings with everyone else, so I also tacked on a rodeo chicken sandwich that I found on the value menu but had never heard of before.

The chicken rings (I really can't say chicken fries rings; I know they trademarked chicken fries and that's why they're named that way, but I still can't) are similar to the chicken nuggets and chicken fries at Burger King, lightly breaded, seasoned, and shaped white meat chicken. I wasn't entirely sure what the seasonings were, but according to the nutritional information sheet, the seasonings are paprika, garlic, onion, and "spices."

As far as size, they're quite a bit larger and thicker than the onion rings, which are probably the best point of comparison. The box had 6 rings for $2.89, but I think that price varies by branch. I liked the chicken rings a lot, and would consider getting them again. But I've always liked the fried chicken nuggets and fries at Burger King (and chicken nuggets in general), ever since I was a kid, so it's not surprising that I like these too, despite the horrible name.

The rodeo chicken sandwich combined everything that I usually get from Burger King into a single sandwich - fried chicken, onion rings, and BBQ sauce. I'm not sure if I just missed advertisements for this when it was a new menu item (since even if they're playing on TV, I often tend to mentally tune them out) or if it just appeared on the value menu with no fanfare, but I never noticed it before. It was kind of like deja vu, same type of experience we had when we went to McDonald's on a road trip last year and found the grilled onion and cheddar burger on the value menu that we'd never heard of.

Although the rodeo chicken sandwich was okay, I think I preferred the fried chicken (in the form of the rings) and the onion rings with my dipping packets of BBQ better than the sandwich put together. I think it's because the onion rings on their own were crisper than they were in the sandwich, and I could control the amount of BBQ sauce better. Also, the sesame seed bun had the same problem a lot of fast food buns do in that they get a little bit soft and soggy. The sandwich was fine, but I think I'll stick to the nuggets (or rings or fries) and onion rings separately.

I definitely overdid it with all the fried food that day at Burger King, and probably should have mixed it up with some other stuff instead of just fried chicken, fried chicken, fried onions, and more fried onions. I made all my choices pretty quickly, so now I'm wondering what else was on the value menu that I didn't know about but could have tried. I'll take a closer look next time.

Welcome Sticky's

We've been watching the progress of the new Sticky's Finger Joint in Hell's Kitchen over the past few months, and for a while, they've looked almost ready to go. Of course, the day that we didn't check on them was the day they actually opened with a special on $1 baskets of chicken. Oh well. In any event, this weekend was opening weekend, so we decided to go check them out. Service was a little slow and the staff still seemed like they were learning what went into each menu item, but considering they had barely been open for 2 days, we weren't expecting service perfection.

We ordered 2 things - a basket of fingers and fries and a wrap sandwich (they said the wraps were only on the menu at this location). There are 2 options when you order a basket. You can either get it plain, which is just 3 fingers, fries, and a sauce (a little takeout sized dipping container of sauce), or you can get a "signature" basket, which adds on a bunch of pre-designed toppings and douses all of the fingers and fries in sauce. We opted for the second, and got the General Sticky Tso style, which meant Sticky Tso sauce, scallions, hot peppers (pepper flakes, not actual peppers), and black and white sesame seeds. A had been in the mood for General Tso's chicken for a long time, so he was immediately drawn to that one.

The difference in price between the 2 baskets is a little less than $3, so you're paying (quite a bit) extra for more sauce and some garnishes (and I guess the fact that it's a composed combination). That said, the basket was pretty good. There was enough sauce and toppings to cover all 3 chicken fingers and the fries, the sauce was tasty (although a little salty, but we were expecting that because General Tso sauce is usually salty), and the chicken fingers themselves were succulent and a nice size. We were pretty happy with these, although the upcharge to get the toppings does seem a bit disproportionate to the amount of food actually added.

For the wrap sandwich, I opted for the spicy classic, which included a couple of spicy chicken fingers wrapped up with greens, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and chipotle mayo. We really liked this. The flavor reminded us a lot of the Fuku finger crunchwrap from Mission Cantina (which we still haven't written about, but will hopefully get to soon...) but without the crunch. The spice on the chicken seemed similar, and that zesty chipotle mayo was also comparable. Everything in the wrap worked well together.

We had a nice opening visit to Sticky's and are glad they're finally open, since we love fast casual and the more options in the neighborhood, the better. We're also fans of chicken fingers, so I think we'll be back here quite a bit.