People get very competitive about fried chicken and where the best fried chicken can be found. So you can't blame the owner of the restaurant we headed to for perfecting his recipe over weeks and weeks, until it was just right. He serves it up at Sidecar, located at 560 5th Avenue in Brooklyn.
Sidecar opened in an area locals refer to as the South Slope, just at the edge of Park Slope, where gentrification is rampant.
"This place five years ago was really bad, but now it's up and coming," one customer said. "It's my favorite restaurant in the area now."
And that's exactly what the DeCoursy brothers were aiming for. Each plays an important role.
"As seriously as he takes the food is how I take the cocktails," Bart DeCoursy said.
And a sidecar is, of course, always available.
And when the brothers discovered an advertisement for an elixir that cures all pain on their walls during the renovations, they decided to keep it, because it works so well with the restaurant's old-time feeling.
As for Chef Johnny DeCoursy's menu, it's only his personal favorites.
And back to that chicken...to get there, he first brines his chicken and then soaks it in buttermilk. Flour is mixed with herbs and is sprinkled and packed onto the chicken. Then, it's into the fryer.
It's briefly cooled, and plated with a potato-turnip mash and kale flavored with homesmoked bacon and honey.
It's the chef's obsession that's usually polished off by customers.
Recipe for Sidecar's Buttermilk Fried Chicken:
Ingredients (for 24 pieces of chicken):
Preparation:
