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Fried and Gone to Heaven

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Just a quick note to say that I had my first experience with Ezell’s fried chicken last night.

FUCK YES.

The spicy blend was actually spicy, not like most weak-ass “spicy” eats I’ve found in Seattle in the couple months I’ve been here. The skin was perfectly crisped, the flesh perfectly moist and tender, the overall sensation perfectly delicious and homey (because I was eating take-out at home).

I sing the praises of Ezell’s!

Comments (39)

1

Welcome to the cult. Gotta love them biscuits!

Posted by Carollani | April 10, 2007 12:45 PM
2

I agree about what Seattle considers spicy - sometimes I have had to remind restaurants that I was born in Texas to get them to give me a really spicy dish here.

Your 5 is my 2.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 10, 2007 12:45 PM
3

Mmmmmmmmm--Ezell's is the best. For a fancier fried chicken dish, try Kingfish. It's awesome.

Posted by Southerner | April 10, 2007 12:49 PM
4

ew.

Posted by something else | April 10, 2007 12:54 PM
5

Ezells stinks! It stinks up the 48 bus whenever the bus stops at the stop right there, and sometimes people get on the bus with their stinky chicken and stink the whole stinking bus up. STINKY!!!

Posted by boyd main | April 10, 2007 1:01 PM
6

It took me forever to "finally make it over to Ezell's" but I've been a loyal junkie addict chicken slut ever since. "Gimme some Ezell's mannnnnn, I'll suck yo dick!"

Posted by jackie treehorn | April 10, 2007 1:05 PM
7

good work, jonathan. you are now officially a resident of seattle.

although, you really gotta try the fried chicken from the mini mart next door to redwood. according to mark mitchell, an expert and authority on the subject, it is the best cluck in seattle.

Posted by kerri harrop | April 10, 2007 1:05 PM
8

I was pretty surprised, you know with all the CD, CD, CD! in association with Ezell's, to run across the one on the sleepy of Edmonds/Lynnwood at 196th.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | April 10, 2007 1:09 PM
9

Oprah has Ezell's chicken FedExed directly to her mouth. Personally, I have long had a strange fantasy about sleeping—at least a nap—with my head on a pillow of Ezell's rolls. Hell, maybe on a whole roll-mattress.

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement | April 10, 2007 1:09 PM
10

side

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | April 10, 2007 1:10 PM
11

I wish the UW Ezell's never closed. They need to open one in Ballard. The only choices for fried chicken I have are QFC, Safeway,and KFC.

Posted by elswinger | April 10, 2007 1:10 PM
12

I meant to add, Ezell's is the only place I have found gizzards, which I love.

Posted by elswinger | April 10, 2007 1:12 PM
13

Hey Boyd, the smell of fried chicken emitted from Ezell's is heaven.

Posted by junkie | April 10, 2007 1:19 PM
14

junkie - If that's the case, I'm glad I'm going to hell.

Posted by boyd main | April 10, 2007 1:23 PM
15

boyd, that's where you vegetarians belong.

Posted by junkie | April 10, 2007 1:27 PM
16

The Ezell's in Edmonds, while still good, really can't hold a candle to the one in Seattle.

I know a couple of gas station-type delis that have great fried chicken, especially if you get it before it has been petrified in the warming case, but I ain't telling y'all where, cuz I don't want any competitors for my grease fix!

Posted by Mr. X | April 10, 2007 1:35 PM
17

Cluck is a serious matter, so I should clarify a bit what Kerri mentioned up there --

The chicken at the corner store next to Redwood is amazing when you get it fresh. I think he does two batches a day. No sides, no nothin', but world-class cluck. Also, the chicken man gets really happy when you tell him how good it is, so that is a bonus. Ezell's spicy chicken is as good, more dependable, and the sides and desserts are fantastic. You can't really go wrong there. But the corner store is just two blocks from my house, so that's where I go most often.

Posted by Mark Mitchell | April 10, 2007 1:42 PM
18

Hey, that's where I got dinner last night too!
I think I figured out the secret to the rolls.
They taste EXACTLY like the Hum-bao dough from House of Hong.
Somebody get on that.

Posted by Jonah S | April 10, 2007 1:43 PM
19

I used to live near the Ezell's in Edmonds and their awkward, preaching reader-board messages,

e.g.:

Love God
Family
Order Take Out Chicken
Pies

...made me vow to never set foot inside. But Christians, go for it--make sure to eat as much artery-clogging crap as you can every day (just in case there's no fast food in heaven, you know).

Posted by Amy Kate Horn | April 10, 2007 2:24 PM
20

I've never been to Ezell's, so I guess I don't really live here yet...

Posted by Dan Savage | April 10, 2007 2:34 PM
21

Ezel's also has locations in Skyway and Woodinville!

Posted by chicken head | April 10, 2007 2:46 PM
22

Dan, you live here but your heart's in New York.

Posted by Mav | April 10, 2007 3:10 PM
23

Y'all is crazy, ya know? You too William in Seattle with yo regional arrogance crap. Put yo spice on 'dis, foo'!

Posted by Shaniqua | April 10, 2007 4:05 PM
24

AKH@19: I've always assumed that meant they only wanted monotheists for customers. I don't qualify, and they don't want my money.

Posted by pox | April 10, 2007 4:20 PM
25

Oh, and try the BBQ at that place along the beach in the parks between Madrona and Seward Park - yum! Can even get collard greens and grits! My ex-girlfriend and I stopped there last summer and it was FINE!

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 10, 2007 4:56 PM
26

Ezell's is great fried chicken. I don't discriminate against food purveyors on the basis of religion.

Elswinger--if you want gizzards, you can also get them at Chicken Valley in the Pike Place Market.

Dan, you really must check it out--Ezell's is like snowboarding.

Posted by tiptoe tommy | April 10, 2007 4:57 PM
27

funny, Shaniqua ... you know, that's one of my son's classmates names ...

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 10, 2007 4:59 PM
28

This just in: Earth is round!

Talk about late news. I love Ezell's as much as anyone, but it has been around for what, 20 years? How often can a journalist rediscover that wheel?

Posted by Gurldoggie | April 10, 2007 5:01 PM
29

I'm kinda picky about my fried chicken, so I don't think I'll be trying this place. Most fried chicken from restaurants I have had, even ones that are supposed to be really good, is greasy, dry, flavorless, and the crust is way too thick.

Maybe ezells is an exception, but my experience has been that the food in Seattle is only good when your talking seafood.

(I know im going to get shit for saying that, so feel free to respectfully disagree)

Posted by brandon h | April 10, 2007 5:16 PM
30

Oh, and most restaurants usually leave the skin on. I like my crust to adhere directly to the meat.

Posted by brandon h | April 10, 2007 5:18 PM
31

Just had an Ezell's open near my home in Renton, and finally got to try it. Good chicken, tasty biscuits. But Ezell's doesn't hold a drumstick to Doofer's chicken down the road. Mmm mmm mmm!

Posted by him | April 10, 2007 5:53 PM
32

I've had hit-and-miss luck with Ezell's. Sometimes it's quite good (but not any better, really, than QFC's when it's fresh). Had family in town. They are Southerners, and I wanted to impress them with some of Oprah's chicken. Got the shit home and it was dry and old. This has happened more than once. So, I gotta say it ain't all that. Not always at any rate.

Posted by Bauhaus | April 11, 2007 1:31 AM
33

"Your 5 is my 2"

Tell that to the tiny ladies in the kitchen of your local Thai restaurant. I am quite certain they can give you a "5" that will blow you all the way back to Texas. And that (a farang 5) would be their "2."

"the food in Seattle is only good when your talking seafood."

Seafood and local vegtables, yes (and it's "you're" btw). But who needs to eat anything else? And why drown it in grease?

Posted by Joe | April 11, 2007 2:18 AM
34

the perfect day in the Central District:

Breakfast at Ezzels (nothing better than fried chicken and rolls for breakfast)

Lunch at R & L Home of Good Barbeque on Occidental (Pulled pork sandwich served on very very cheap white bread with collards on the side)

Dinner at Catfish Corner (best catfish ever and the counter woman calls me honey)

Posted by kevin jones | April 11, 2007 6:48 AM
35

the perfect day in the Central District:

Breakfast at Ezzels (nothing better than fried chicken and rolls for breakfast)

Lunch at R & L Home of Good Barbeque on Occidental (Pulled pork sandwich served on very very cheap white bread with collards on the side)

Dinner at Catfish Corner (best catfish ever and the counter woman calls me honey)

Posted by kevin jones | April 11, 2007 6:48 AM
36

What I want to know is where they get those giant chickens from. God god, those wings are the size of a breast...but good!

Posted by B-LO | April 11, 2007 9:23 AM
37

What I want to know is where they get those giant chickens from. Good god, those wings are the size of a breast...but good!

Posted by B-LO | April 11, 2007 9:24 AM
38

I completely and full-heartedly support whoever it is that said they want to sleep on a pillow of their rolls ... only if I get second nap.

Posted by louley | April 11, 2007 2:35 PM
39

I'm sorry to break this to you, but while I love Ezell's, their chicken is not spicy. I'd been eating there a while and it wasn't until someone was talking to me about their spicy chicken that I realized it was supposed to be spicy. It's not spicy. You can get some pretty spicy stuff in Seattle that I'm sure even posturing Texans might find spicy, but Ezell's is not one of them. And now I feel like some fried chicken.

Posted by Andy | April 15, 2007 2:43 AM

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