In Grandma's day, the drumstick -- and the rest of the chicken -- took all day to kill, clean, pluck and cook. Our young stomachs rumbled as we smelled the delicious, warm grease doing its work for hours while we couldn't taste so much as a cracker lest we "ruin our appetites." But it was worth the wait.
Nowadays, inexpensive ready-to-go drumsticks can be had in the time it takes to belly up to the counter and pay for the thing. Last week I hit area emporiums that offer fried chicken legs right now. Note the emphasis: I did not include some restaurants famous for their fried chicken (Lucky Wishbone is a favorite) because you can't buy just a drumstick and you're required to idle while they cook it up for you. That's a different article, which I'll undertake as soon as my arteries clear from this assignment.
I found four sources for quick-chick in a one-mile stretch on or near Northern Lights Boulevard: The deli counters at Fred Meyer and Carrs, KFC and Popeyes just off the drag on C Street. I ordered four drumsticks at each location, sticking with regular recipes rather than extra-crispy or spicy formulas for the sake of comparison, and blind-tested them along with two other chickenistas.
Here's what we found:
There's not a lot of difference. All came hot and fresh; Popeyes, in fact, was right out of the oil. All had similar flour-based breading. The grocery deli legs were a little smaller than the others but cost less. Beyond that, it seemed as if the same 16-legged chicken might have run through Midtown dropping off limbs at each location.
In the blind taste test, two of us agreed that Fred Meyer had the best-tasting bird by a pinfeather. We both liked what we perceived as a slightly better use of spices. Carrs seemed to have the crispiest coating and the firmest meat. Both KFC and Popeyes were notably more tender and bigger. KFC's coating was most likely to separate from the meat. Popeyes had the mildest flavor of the lot.
But aside from our top pick, we reached no consensus. More baffling, on second tastings we sometimes contradicted our earlier assessments.
Nonetheless, I can make a few suggestions:
1. Fred Meyer is probably the best buy for regular drumsticks.
2. If you go to Popeyes or KFC, the spicy or extra-crispy versions will have more oomph for those whose tastes tend toward stronger flavors. (Mine do; I can't recall the last time I had Popeyes mild before this, but I relish its spicier Cajun coating.)
3. Put leftovers in a sealed bag or container to maintain moisture; 20 or 30 seconds in a microwave is ample to reheat.
The morning-after test
A drumstick really shows whether it has legs when you take it out of the fridge the next day and eat it cold. Here's where the extra meat on KFC and Popeyes pays off since it can (theoretically) retain more moisture.
But the cooling had an effect on the spices. All three of us, who originally found the Carrs chicken bland, now made it our No. 1 or 2 pick on account of flavor and the way the breading retained its crispiness. Two of us put KFC at the top of our picks, and one put it on the bottom. Freddy's drumstick, the former champion, sank to third place. The ultra-mild Popeyes fared poorly when eaten cold.
A quick zap in the microwave oven likely would have told yet another story. But speed was a reason for this experiment. If we wanted to wait for our chicken, we'd go eat at Grandma's.
Everything but the bare bones was consumed before 7 a.m., however. As I said, fried chicken never gets the chance to go bad.
Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.
Carrs
Location: 600 E. Northern Lights Blvd.
Hours: 24 hours daily
Phone: 339-0600 Web: www.safeway.com
Fred Meyer
Location: 1000 E. Northern Lights Blvd.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily
Phone: 264-9600 Web: www.fredmeyer.com
KFC
Location: 123 W. Northern Lights Blvd.
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily
Phone: 274-7174 Web: www.kfc.com
Popeyes Chicken
Location: 2960 C St.
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to midnight Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday
Phone: 569-1919 Web: www.popeyes.com
Tale of the scale
Fred Meyer: $4.76, 10 ounces
Carrs: $5.16, 9 ounces
Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits: $7.96 (included four biscuits), 11 ounces
KFC: $8.17 (with one biscuit), 11 ounces
Lucky Wishbone: (not reviewed) four drumsticks, not available for individual purchase, would weigh 12 ounces
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