Korea-Fried Chicken

I feel like Hottestplate has reached for the superlative one too many times.

So, this time, Hottestplate is just going to let the statistics do the talking for it. The ‘Plate went to BBQ Chicken down by Kroger for the first time last Monday, and then went back for the second time last Friday. Hottestplate has never return-visited a joint so fast in its aggregated life.

The first thing to know about BBQ Chicken is that it’s not barbecued chicken in the Texas sense. There is no fat cowboy hovering over a black barrel, shifting drumsticks around with his tongs while bragging incessantly about how many hours he “smoked ‘er.” A more accurate name would be Korea-fried chicken, but maybe the Colonel would arrive to holler “I declare!” if they went with that name.

The second thing to know is that BBQ Chicken is in the parking lot of Denton’s infamous Murder Kroger. In the site of a former Grandy’s. That sounds inauspicious for ambience, but it works, in a roadside-Prada-store in Far West Texas kind of way.

In the era of RFK Jr.’s hippy-cop FDA, Hottestplate feels compelled to add a warning: This is not health food. It’s Korean food, but not the kind of Korean food that has been fermented for an age in the deep-delved earth. This chicken is not going to fill your biome with good-guy microbes or improve your bicep curl. Hottestplate doesn’t care. Hottestplate is not trying to live to the ripe old age of 200 in some kind of vat of cryo-cabbage so it can play VR tennis with a Zombie Kennedy and Peter Thiel's Wi-Fi enabled husk. Hottestplate believes in living. Hottestplate believes in the Now. And nowhere north of the square does Hottestplate feel more full of life or Denton Now than licking its ‘Plate fingers in BBQ Chicken. 

Here, there’s always a bustling crowd (the first time Hottestplate tried to go, the wait was an hour, at lunchtime…) The wait staff are zippy, wit-wise and service-wise. Owner Sung, who moved to Denton from Florida, was bubbling over with friendliness (even though she didn’t know Hottestplate was the most influential, if only, food critic in the entire Dentoplex). One waitress Hottestplate talked to was from Seoul, and she assured us that BBQ Chicken was an almost perfect simulation of a South Korean chicken place, with the only difference being slightly more elbow room in the Denton version.

BBQ Chicken came recommended to Hottestplate from a Korean American and a fried-chicken American so flavor expectations were high.

The chicken is cooked immaculately. Fans of Babe’s (for Hottestplate’s money, the best fried chicken in the area) will recognize the remarkable whiteness of the brown meats, and the sweet spot between juiciness and wateriness. Both times, Hottestplate ordered the family basket, going for the half plain, half special sauce option. The plain breadcrumb skin is not as much of a meal in itself as Babe’s or other Southern-style joints, but arguably showcases the chicken meat itself more effectively.  The special sauce is a real treat. Fans of gochujang chicken will recognize the happy marriage of chili and salt. BBQ Chicken’s special sauce adopts the sweet-and-sour flavor of some Chinese sauces without disrupting that marriage.

Like the skin, the sides are unobtrusive but solid. The waffle fries are excellent, the rice and pickled radish do their unglamorous jobs well.

So cast those resolutions aside. Make January a little less dry (again).  Live it up, and check out BBQ Chicken.