10 Feb Please The Palate Pick of the Week: South City Fried Chicken

If there is one way to eat chicken, it is fried. It is just so delicious when you get that perfectly tender and juicy meat surrounded by crunchy batter. Now, take that chicken and place it on a buttered Portuguese bun and add a variety of toppings to represent different Southern flavors and you have South City Fried Chicken, the Please The Palate pick of the week. South City Fried Chicken is Los Angeles’ newest fried chicken location. Opened the first of February in downtown Los Angeles’ Corporation Food Hall on Spring Street, South City Fried Chicken is owned by Chef Sammy Monsour (the “General”) and business partner Joshua Kopel (the “Colonel”). Owners of Preux and Proper, located a few doors down, they have been bringing Southern Flavors to Southern California for a few years. Now, Monsour, originally from North Carolina, and Kopel, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are introducing Southern flavors in a series of fried chicken sandwiches at South City Fried Chicken. The juicy free-range boneless chicken breasts are soaked in an heirloom buttermilk marinade and dipped in a proprietary “stay crispy” batter. The chicken is fried to order so that it does not dry out. They pickle and ferment, smoke with hickory and make all their sauces from scratch. Chef Monsour even makes chicken bacon by curing chicken thighs and hard smoking with hickory. South City Fried Chicken offers eight different styles of fried chicken. Each sandwich represents a different city in the South. Behind each sandwich is a story, a love letter to each city. And these love letters are translated into rich and complex flavors for all of us to enjoy. New Orleans, LA – Creole remoulade, cajun spice, Thai basil, fried egg, collard green kimchi, ginger-miso BBQ Miami, FL – jerk spice, lemongrass remoulade, mint, jalapeno, lime, shaved baby icebery, heirloom tomato. Louisville, KY – pepper jelly, bourbon barrel aged green hot, poblano butter Birmingham, AL – Alabama white, hickory smoked onions, horseradish chimichurri, Tillamook cheddar Austin, TX – rojo bean hummus, burrata, Javi’s Tia’s hot sauce, pickled radish, cilantro, blue corn tortilla crumble, heirloom tomato Greenville, SC – house smoked chicken bacon, gruyere, duke’s mayonnaise, shaved baby iceberg, heirloom tomato, bo spice Sandwiches range between $11.99 – $13.99. And for a side dish, there are hand-cut fries to order and coleslaw. South City Fries – hand cut skin-on fries with low-country boil spice and red remoulade Memphis Juke Joint Fries – Memphis rib rub, house smoked chicken bacon, Turbodog brown ale cheese sauce, shaved jalapeno, cilantro Pop’s Slaw – savory and bold with collard greens, Duke’s scallion, horseradish and creole mustard South City Fried Chicken 724 S. Spring St. Los Angeles, CA