You can get fried chicken anywhere and everywhere. But when you want a quality friend chicken, or unique, interesting kind, or both, that is a different story. For that, you have to have all-natural ingredients, freshly made each day, and down-to-earth place. Hill Country Chicken happens to be all that and more. They were even featured on “Best Thing I Ever Ate – Fried Chicken” on Food Channel.
The inside is really bright with natural light coming in from lots of windows. The interior was very cute, decorated in that casual, home-style feel from good-old-days. The first you see when you walk in is this big open space, and then the dessert window filled with pies and other goodies. I was very excited to try them out! There is a long counter where you order, and you can select the sides while looking at what they actually look like right in front of you. The people working behind the counter were not so nice nor friendly, but it is NYC…
This place is famous for their “skin-less” fried chicken, which they call it “Mama Els’ Chicken” – which is what we came to try. We ordered Chicken & Waffles ($10), which comes with Mama Els’ Chicken Breast with Maple Syrup & Molasses Butter. What is Mama Els’ Chicken, you might ask? It is skinless, rolled in crushed crackers, and has crunchy, golden crust! They brine the chicken in buttermilk with herb, rosemary and black pepper, with sugar and salt. Then, it is coated with seasoned flour, egg washer, and crushed crackers. After all that treatment, it goes into their special deep fryer. The chickens come out spicy, juicy, crunchy!
They fried the chicken after we put in the order, so it was super fresh, just amazing chicken! And it was a pretty big size too. The waffle was really great also, it was soft, moist, sweet…and the syrup and molasses butter made it even more perfect! We also ordered Cheesy Fried Mashed Potatoes ($3.75), which had actual fries mixed with mashed potatoes and cheese, you get to have best of both world, and it was so delicious! The mashed potato was creamy, and fries were still in tact. I don’t know how they do that…
I sooo wanted their dessert pie, but after having the chicken and waffle, we were completely full. It didn’t look that much, but it really was! I need to go back there just for the desserts next time!
The staffs behind the counter might not be so nice or friendly, but the staff who brought the food from the kitchen was really nice and kind. So they kind of balance it out, I guess.
Hills Country Chicken – 1123 Broadway, New York, NY 10010