Building of a mighty Empire
A popular fried chicken food company in the Garden City has had one hell of a year, writes Kate Robertson.
When Jayden Smith starting planning the launch of a fried chicken food truck, he emailed one of his heroes to ask for advice. Los Angeles-based chef, Howlin’ Ray’s Johnny Zone – for whom two-hour queues are standard – told Smith, ‘‘the ultimate thing is to create something you want to eat every day and don’t care about what other people think’’.
And so, after more than a decade spent working for other people as a chef, Smith, 30, went out and did exactly that. He searched for what Christchurch was missing and concluded, ‘‘there’s not enough fried chicken’’.
‘‘There was Monster Chicken, KFC, and the C&C Chicken & Cornbread food truck out New Brighton way, but no-one was really doing it as a proper restaurant,’’ he says.
One year on from the launch of Empire Chicken, you’ll find people sitting outside the truck – rain, hail or shine (‘‘People sit in the rain . . . I honestly can’t believe it’’) – devouring one of the signature burgers or tasty tenders.
His grind hasn’t gone unnoticed, either. Empire Chicken had two big wins at the recently held Christchurch Hospitality Awards – one for Outstanding Pop-Up Establishment of the Year, and the supreme award for Breakthrough Talent of the Year.
Those awards wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Smith’s wife and business partner, Monique, who until Empire Chicken’s launch, had zero hospitality experience.
Not one to mince words, Smith admits ‘‘it sucked in the truck’’.
‘‘It’s small, it’s pokey, it’s not fun to be in and not a fun place to learn.’’
The pair met through church five years ago, when they were both working with children and youth. Monique, 24, now works as a primary school teacher, but for the first two months of trade, it was just her and Smith in the truck, serving their friends and family, and desperately trying to spread the word.
‘‘Even now she’s still the rock behind everything,’’ he says.
For the past eight months, Empire Chicken has been parked up on Oxford Tce, outside the Riverside Market. In a matter of weeks, they’ll open their first shop inside the new complex.
The market is something that wouldn’t have been possible pre-quakes, if only for the lack of available space in the city. That said, you can’t ignore the large group of people who still haven’t returned, whether it be for reasons of past trauma, ‘‘It’s not hard to make good chicken, but to get it consistent all the time is where it gets difficult,’’ Empire Chicken’s Jayden Smith says.
Take time
‘‘Our chicken marinates for a minimum of 12 hours, but ideally for 24- to 36 hours. Leave it marinating in your fridge until the next night, then you can come home from work and batter it in some flour and fry it’’.
Brine it
‘‘If you can brine it in something salty or something citrusy – something to break down the chicken – it allows you to get more juice or more moisture than what you’ll need. Then when you fry it, you get less oil absorbing into your chicken.’’
Flavour it (or not)
‘‘Then it all depends on your flavour profile. I like a light coating, so we’ve gone with southern fried chicken and a little bit of the Japanese style, and played around with some lighter batter. But some people like really thick, Korean chicken. If you wanna go with that, you just figure out what you want to put on it.’’ expanding suburbs or a reluctance to pay for parking.
It’s for this reason that Smith reckons it’ll be another 10 years before the central city ‘‘is really booming’’.
‘‘Once the Convention Centre is done, the Metro Sports Centre is done, and they chuck a stadium in – that influx of people into the city will hopefully boost everything. But I think we’re just going to be grinding away for at least the next five years to try to get that stuff under way.’’
In the meantime, he’ll keep doing what he’s doing – luring people back to the central city with his sought-after fried chicken (or perhaps out of the city, to one of the many locations they take the food truck).
This time next year, Smith hopes they’ll be in the right place to start dreaming up a second shop front – a ‘‘cool venue’’ he and Monique can really make their own. Somewhere in the wider suburbs that boasts ‘‘better parking, a bit more space, a bigger kitchen, and is licensed for beers’’.
While the timeline is flexible, Smith knows one thing for sure, ‘‘this isn’t a one-store-only sort of thing’’.
Empire Chicken’s spiced maple syrup
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