Finding Chicken
- Faye Goldsmith
- Mar 18, 2019
- 5 min read
Fried chicken has been causing quite the buzz (or should that be a cluck?!) in Berlin of late. For example last autumn's opening of Kokio - promising a taste of Chibee (Korean fried chicken and beer) culture in Prenzlauer Berg - lit up almost every foodie instagram feed that I follow and people have been raving about it ever since.
However, great chicken is so much much more than just hyped KFC and it doesn't necessarily have to be deep fried to be delicious. So with this in my mind, here are some of my favourite ways to enjoy the humble Hähnchen in the Hauptstadt.
Gräfestraße 71, Kreuzberg
St Barts is a hip Gräfekiez gastrobar which offers a seasonal small plates menu in a pub style setting. Their contribution to poultry gastronomy is the regular star menu item; chicken cooked under a brick. This ancient way of cooking guarantees both crispness and moisture due to the method of heat distribution. St Bart's version (€14) was certainly both of those things with an extremely juicy half bird wearing a layer of crispy skin served with a lemon & caper vinaigrette. My only complaint was that I wanted a nice dollop of something creamy to go with it such as an aioli which would have elevated the dish to perfection.
Oranienstrasse 6, Kreuzberg
Goldies which is located slap bang in the middle of one of Kreuzberg's busiest tourist streets, offers the ultimate posh fast food experience. They focus on freshly made fries with elaborate but delicious toppings such as Peking duck or Sicilian caponata. You won't see their fried chicken on the online menu but it is usually offered as a special and it is awesome. When we went it was topped with green chilli salsa and was a perfect example of the art of fried chicken. Moist, crisp and with a slightly acidic but well balanced, spicy topping that leaves you feeling satisfied rather than disgusted. The chicken is around €9 for a large portion to share offering a good value, filling, fancy, fast food feast.
Leuschnerdamm 25, 10999 Berlin
Henne must be tried at least once if you are a meat eater visiting or living in Berlin and then you'll probably want to go back again. It is a fascinating restaurant dating back over 100 years with a gorgeous, perfectly preserved Jugendstil pub interior that serves just one thing and does it to perfection: crispy half chicken. For €9.50 you get a perfectly cooked half roast chicken and you can add either potato salad or cabbage salad as extras and sausages as a starter. The chicken is out of this world, with the crispiest skin and super moist meat. Reservations are a must at weekends as it fills up quickly with a mix of lots of different types of Berliners and lucky tourists in the know.
Reuterstrasse 28, Neukölln
Berlin is certainly no stranger to shawarma as giant sticks of chicken meat have been spinning away in every kiez for decades. However when the Syrians recently came to town in large numbers due to the refugee crisis they brought with them a style of shawarma which is on a whole new level of deliciousness. Such is the popularity of Syrian chicken with those of middle eastern heritage that there were huge queues round the block when they opened their first restaurant on Sonnenallee in 2017. Soon afterwards they moved to larger premises on Reuterstrasse where they are now settled. Their chicken shawarma is some of the best I have tried: moist, tangy with citrus flavour and in satisfying slices. As a sandwich (€3.50) it is simply served with flatbread fried in the juices from the chicken and a tasty garlic yoghurt dip. They also serve it on tellers and as a hummus topping.
Lychener Str. 6, Prenzlauer Berg
My husband travels regularly to the USA for business and after one trip he kept raving about fried chicken and waffles with maple syrup for breakfast. I couldn't quite get my head around the concept as a breakfast dish, but as it contains three things I enjoy I decided to have a look for it in Berlin. It just so happened that at that time the Berlin blogosphere was raving about a new Southern style restaurant offering this very dish and one cannot ignore this kind of serendipity. We soon visited for brunch and it was every bit as good as my husband had enthused about but the one thing that I didn't expect was how much this dish would bring back memories of my childhood. When I was six my mum moved in with a man from South Carolina and she soon learned how to make his favourite authentic southern fried chicken which I learned to love too. A huge bowl of thighs and drumsticks would grace our dinner table at least once a week (until she moved away to the USA when I was eight) and the chicken at Southern Vittles tasted exactly the same as that childhood feast. I cannot think of a better recommendation than that.
Kokio
So finally what's with this KFC Chibee hype? Kokio is practically full every night, with at least 70% Asian origin customers tucking into plates of boneless or bone-in chicken bites with a crispy coating and sticky sauces. Their chicken is very satisfying but don't make the mistake we made and just go for the boneless as you won't want to stick around very long in the cramped space. I think what makes Kokio so popular is not only its function as a taste of home for Korean expats but also for Europeans the sense that whilst eating a familiar comfort food you are partaking in a more cultural experience.
Some other notable options:
The OG Korean chicken in Berlin famous for its crispy wings coated in sweet sticky sauces of increasing levels of spiciness.
This small imbiss in Wedding's was open way before Kokio and is much cheaper but it is a bit off the beaten path and the chicken is a bit too greasy for my taste. My recommendation if you are in the area is to give their boring Hite an beer a miss and grab some food as takeaway to bring to nearby Eschenbräu where they serve home brewed craft beer in a lovely beer garden.
A friend recommended this to me for their famous crispy chicken burgers which are better than the beef burgers. A good late night option if out and about in this busy area.
A street food truck which has won all sorts of awards for its delicious buttermilk fried chicken burgers. Look for them at the Bite Club street food events and other foodie festivals.
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