Restaurant Review: Strouds Fried Chicken

(Photos taken off their website) 

My mother grew up down the street from where Strouds Fried Chicken first opened its doors, out on Troost street in Kansas City, Missouri. From the house where my mother grew up several blocks away you could smell the scent of fried chicken. Going back to Kansas City, we always find time to make a stop at Strouds. 

As I have grown in my appreciation of great food, several of my friends have asked me, do you still enjoy a cheeseburger that isn’t decked out with aged cheddar, made of ground wagyu beef, and topped with caramelized onions? Do you still enjoy a greasy cheeseburger from a shack on the road? The answer, hell yes. 

Alex Guarnaschelli is a chef right after my own heart. She owns one of the best restaurants in New York, Butter, which serves ingenious upscale takes on American classics with a french twist, but, don’t get between her and a fried hotdog. On the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate, in the episode called “Fried”, she chose a fried hotdog with fried bacon as the ultatime fried food. She’s down with going into a shack and getting a hotdog that has been dropped in the deep fryer. In fact, there are two other stories that exemplify her and my belief of the importance of “simple” / “street” American cuisine. 

One of them was when she revealed she loves a cup of diner coffee. Yes, she loves gourmet coffee, as do I (I especially love Ethipoian coffees that have a scent of rose in them), but Alex also enjoys a cup of diner coffee. The type of coffee that has been sitting on the burner for a long time. That has a slightly burnt edge to it and is too strong for its own good. I enjoy that too. There’s something nostalgic and heart-warming about that aroma. 

Another time she complimented Jamie Oliver on his “newspaper” smell from the hot oil hitting the newspaper which held fish and chips. There was something about that newspaper smell that was a turn on. 

Similarly, there is something that is a turn on about Strouds Fried Chicken. If I was being a stuck up foody, I would tell you to only go to Strouds for the fried chicken and avoid the sides, but doing that, would deprive you of the full experience. At Strouds, you get your choice of which fried chicken dinner you want. Do you want the standard? A half chicken: 1 breast, 1 thigh, 1 leg, and 1 wing, or do you want only dark meat? Only white meat? The sides comes standard: mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, salad or soup, and cinnamon rolls (which are really dinner rolls rolled in butter, cinnamon, and sugar). I am someone who hates canned green beans and yet, Strouds uses them in the classic way I’m sure they made them back in the 1930s. They are cooked with bacon (don’t go in thinking you’re going to find something to eat if you’re a vegetarian) and even though they have that slightly tin-y quality, they taste great. 

The potatoes can at times be a little lumpy, not much, they’re pretty good, and the gravy is a light chicken gravy (not a white cream gravy) with a healthy dose of black pepper. All the better to balance with the sweet sticky gooeyness of the cinnamon rolls. So, you really have to try it all, but let’s not kid ourselves, you come to Strouds for the fried chicken. 

Here is where Strouds shines. They make the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. First of all, the pan fry it instead of deep frying it. In my mind, that’s the only way to do it. Cast Iron retains the flavor of food cooked in it, and these cast iron pans have been used for pan frying chicken since the 1930s. You can’t replicate that flavor. Second, the crispness and juiciness of the chicken is heavenly perfection. It is not a coat of a batter that is so crunchy that you could lose a tooth, but rather a perfect crunch that somehow stays with it long after it’s been fried. Biting into the meat, the crisp salty skin gives way to the most lush and juicy chicken you can imagine. You will need napkins from the juice that flows down your hands while you’re eating. By the way, eating it with your hands is a must. If I see a fork and knife, there will be hell to pay. Now, pan frying does take much longer than deep frying, so if you come in, expect a 30 minute wait for your chicken. It is worth it. If you want something to snack on in the meantime, order the mix-n-match which is a combination of livers and gizzards deep fried. The perfect thing while waiting for more golden fried goodness. I’ve converted more than a couple people who “hate livers” to enjoy eating them.

So that is Strouds… but this time… I did try something different.

I am also a glutton for good chicken fried steak. I know, I know. So many people hate chicken fried steak, and it does have a deserved bad reputation because it is so often done horribly. If you get a frozen breaded steak that is deep fried and covered with canned gravy… well, you’ve fallen victim to one of the classic problems with many diners. But, a good chicken fried steak is hard to beat. A steak that normally would be too tough to eat, tenderized until it can fall apart in your mouth. Then breaded and, not deep fried, but either shallow fried, or done on the flat top. It should be like good Schnitzel. Then, smothered in homemade gravy. The gravy should flow, not be a pile of mud-like substance… if it is, that gravy is either canned or has been sitting for way too long. 

The best I’ve ever had was at a small cafe called Tiny in Aptos. There were the type of place you never would suspect of having good food and I think my parents who tried other things on their menu that your instincts were correct, but never have I had a better chicken fried streak. Buttery, rich, crispy without being deep fried. Just amazing. They unfortunately closed. 

So, it was with some hesitancy that I tried the chicken fried steak at Strouds. Not necessarily because I didn’t think it would be good, but that meant skipping the fried chicken, and it’s not every day I am in KC. The Chicken Fried Steak was worth it. No where near the best I’ve had, but a very light breading, crisp, but not deep fried, with a wonderful black pepper kick. As a result, I can also recommend the chicken fried steak, although the chicken is better.