5 places to get great fried chicken right now.

Note: The Express-News is suspending traditional restaurant reviews until restaurant dining rooms fully reopen.

Fried chicken was an event at my granny’s house in the country. I won’t dwell on how fresh the bird was, but it involved the occasional leftover pin feather.

I’ll dwell instead on how my granny’s hands were dusted white with flour as she laid the pieces in twin iron skillets spitting with Crisco. My granddad could work a chicken bone clean, turning it in his thick carpenter’s hands like a lathe operator.

It’s a comforting memory. And fried chicken is full-on comfort food at these five restaurants with almost 350 collective years in business, ranging from relative East Side newcomer Tony G’s Soul Food to old-timers like the Pig Stand on Broadway, M.K. Davis Restaurant in the

Five Points neighborhood, De Wese’s Tip Top Cafe on the Northwest Side and Earl Abel’s, which relocated near the Pearl just last year.

We’re talking full bonein fried chicken. Not tenders, not nuggets, not sandwiches with their own Instagram pages. Time to make some new memories.

Pig Stand

Vintage photos show jalopies pulled up outside the Broadway Pig Stand in 1931. It’s the last of a oncemighty chain of diners famous for the barbecued Pig Sandwich.

But it’s fried chicken for me every time, dropped fresh when I order it. The process takes about 20 minutes, but my four-piece dinner is hot, crunchy, juicy and clean, plated with french fries, an iceberg salad with Thousand Island and buttered Texas toast for $10.99.

It was disorienting to see owner Mary Ann Hill ringing up orders and helping out in the kitchen while wearing a surgical mask. But then a cool biker chick at a front booth played Santana, Chicago and the Doobie Brothers back to back on the tabletop jukebox, and things felt right again. 1508 Broadway, dine-in and takeout, 210-222-9923, sanantoniospigstand.com.

Tony G’s Soul Food

With its sharp new sign and red window awnings, Tony G’s could pass for a button-down national franchise. But inside it’s cool and quirky, with swirled epoxy floors, picnic tables in primary colors and psychedelic oil paintings.

The breading on a twopiece fried chicken lunch ($11.95) holds close to the bird in thin, well-salted sheets, keeping the meat underneath moist and pull-apart tender. But the Tony G’s story is told in the familiar soul-food verse of meat-and-three, with sides competing to see who can steal the show.

Sweet potatoes drip with brown sugar syrup, greens squeak with vinegar in a porky liquor and twirls of mac and cheese cling together lush and dense. With cornbread and a lemonade-iced tea mix called swamp water, it’s an experience with meat on the bones. 915 S. Hackberry St., dine-in and takeout, 210-451-1234, Facebook: @TonyGsSoulFood.

Earl Abel’s

Danny Badiola and his partners bought Earl Abel’s in October, shortly after the 85-year-old restaurant moved to the old Timbo’s Burgers spot near the

Pearl. Then the pandemic hit, and Badiola fought to keep the brand going, never closing, shifting to takeout.

Earl Abel’s began its fried chicken journey in lockstep with Harlan Sanders (the Colonel himself ) and his upstart Kentucky Fried Chicken process. If the bird here reminds you of KFC in the good ways, then you get the idea.

A three-piece dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, mac and cheese and a biscuit ($11.95) takes 15 to 20 minutes, but it’s worth the time for something this hot and fresh. Earl Abel’s famous pies? They’re still here, too, baked in-house, on display in a case filled with the optimism that business will bounce back. 1639 Broadway, dine-in and takeout, 210-444-9424, earlabelssa.com.

M.K. Davis Restaurant

Let’s be honest. There’s something missing when you can’t get a frosty schooner of beer to go with your enchiladas, meatloaf, chicken or chicken-fried steak at M.K. Davis.

I showed up on the last day before the dining room finally reopened, so no beer for me. But still some of the best fried chicken for the money in town at $8.99 for three pieces with salad, fries and Texas toast.

I ate half in the parking lot when it was still shattershell crispy, the other half cold the next day, each experience satisfying in its own way. 1302 N. Flores St., dine-in and takeout, 210223-1208, Facebook: @mkdavisrestaurant.

De Wese’s Tip Top Cafe

The front counter was empty at Tip Top during a weekday lunch. You never see that. But more important, the pie case above the kitchen window was empty. And that’s something you never want to see.

But safety protocols during the pandemic dictate distancing for people and pastries alike. They’re both still there, just farther away.

The four-piece chicken dinner at this wood-paneled diner is still golden brown, still as thick with breading as it is with meat, still a crunch-fest worth dipping in white cream gravy on the side. With mashed potatoes, an iceberg salad and a toasted biscuit, it’s $11.49. A piece of banana cream pie with fresh banana slices and whipped cream? Priceless. 2814 Fredericksburg Road, dine-in and takeout, 210732-0191, Facebook: @tiptopcafesanantonio.

Photos by Mike Sutter / Staff Chicken options include a four-piece dinner with fries, salad and Texas toast at the Pig Stand restaurant on Broadway.

Tony G’s Soul Food offers sides of greens, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese and cornbread.

Fried chicken options include mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and a biscuit at Earl Abel’s.

M.K. Davis Restaurant’s side options with fried chicken include fries, salad and Texas toast.

Fried chicken options include mashed potatoes, salad and toast at De Wese’s Tip Top Cafe.