Kyochon in Koreatown scored a "Best of" in the LA Weekly for "Best Fried Chicken." Being a fan of the most soulful of the soul food variety, I felt obliged to check up on the situation.
LA Weekly reported, "It has become evident in the last year that Korean fried chicken really is an evolutionary leap forward — marinated in a cabinet full of spices, saturated with garlic, double-fried to a shattering, thin-skinned snap dramatic enough to wake a sleeping baby in an adjoining room."
And then I tried it. WOW. Their spicy chicken is garlicky, lemony, lip-smacking and intense, but it should come with a warning label. Unlike the milder spicy verson of the Popeye's variety, those fiery red drumsticks will straight clear your sinuses. Kyochon serves crisped rice chicken strips, a light, fried chicken breast crusted over with salty Rice Krispies. It was nice, but tame. The cereal crust is more gimmick than a flavor enhancer. With such ingenuity with their batters, you'd think that their dipping sauces wouldn't be poured from giant Smart and Final-type gallons of sauce. But they are. Their spicy Chicken with Rice Cake dish gave us a dose of vegetables with our protein-heavy meal. Spring onions, chewy tubes of rice cake and chicken were stir-fried in a scarlet-hued garlic-laden pepper sauce. It was a dish worthy of the most high-end of Korean BBQ establishments that side of Hancock Park.
