Get clucked

With three high-profile fried chicken shops opening in Surry Hills and Darlo last month, Sydney’s chookaholism has reached the intervention stage. But which is best: classic Southern fried, South East Asian, or homie-style? Freya Herring rates them

How finger lickin’ good are Sydney’s three new fried chicken joints?

JUICY LUCY

we’re full, but we can’t stop eating it

Why? It’s a new kind of chicken shop, with exciting, surprising flavours, beautifully cooked chicken at affordable prices, and the chook is free range

Rating:

The stretch of Elizabeth Street near Central isn’t exactly the plushest part of Surry Hills. Juicy Lucy may not look like much from the outside, but between its sun-yellow, graffiti-bedecked walls the smell alone will tell you a different story. It’s a new late-night venture from Thai restaurant Sugarcane, which is just around the corner. Owners Milan Strbac and Griff Pamment grew up in the Western Suburbs, eating out of chicken shops one night and Thai restaurants the next. Juicy Lucy is a fusion of those two things: a chicken shop with a South East Asian bent. Order Aunt Lucy’s Seasoned Chicken. It’s been brined overnight with Sichuan pepper, cassia bark (like cinnamon), cloves and coriander seeds, making it super tender. It comes whole, halved or quartered, stuffed with garlic rice that hums with the aromas of those spices, layered with the deeply savoury flavours of a slowly cooked chook. It’s roasted on the rotisserie rather than in the Southern-fried style, upping the moisture levels even further. We also love the giant, hulking Lil Kim burger. A glossy, sweet, charred bun encases a massive wedge of crisply battered, tender-fleshed chicken, sour nuggets of kimchi, crunchy ’slaw and spicy Korean barbecue sauce. We’re full already, but we can’t stop eating it. The Jackie Chan sounds good on paper: a wrap filled with rice, Malay chicken, pickles and herbs. But although the chicken is soft and fragrantly spiced, there’s just way too much rice, and it feels more like a biryani than the burrito we were expecting. But the flavours are fantastic. Our server tells us that the chicken is free range, which is very impressive given a whole bird costs only $18 when we visit. Good work, Juicy Lucy. The service isn’t great though – one staffer seems properly annoyed taking our order (which they then get wrong). But no matter: you don’t come to a chicken shop for service. You come for tasty fast food. And Juicy Lucy delivers. 232A Elizabeth St, Surry Hills 2010. 02 8540 8726. www.facebook.com/ juicylucychicken.MonWed 11am-10pm; Thu-Sat 11am-11pm.