Chef Jassy Lee is a living embodiment of an international fried chicken triangulation, a case study in the global affinity for spicy, battered, and crispy poultry. Born in Taishan, Guangdong, she emigrated to the U.S. in 1991 with her parents, but also visited relatives in Belize, members of that country’s Chinese immigrant community, which is largely responsible for another beloved expression of deep-fried poultry. Lee’s Belizean family owned restaurants and served fried chicken—uhhh, BFC?—marinated in a multichile blend, battered and fried, and draped with sweet ketchup.
The fresh birds Lee sources for Big Boss are enormous, and conjure an image of the impressive quantities of chile powder she must go through each night when she packs and seals them tight with a blend of ghost, habanero, serrano, and four other chiles before the battering and frying and the final application of heat and sweetness. Lee scouted notable Nashville hot-chicken locations to research the last step, and offers hers in five spice levels, the middle of which is loaded with a respectable but by no means excruciating amount of capsicum and encrusted in a shatteringly crispy crust. Though most of her business is carryout, her product is best appreciated immediately on one of the stools at the counter looking out onto Halsted, where one’s enveloped in a kind of graffiti-art womb that mimics the fireworks in the mouth.
Instead he tapped his extensive experience frying chicken for staff meals and opened Chicken Pollo Shack. Like Lee, Rodriguez offers a world-beating spicy chicken sandwich, this one a double stack of fried chicken thighs served buffalo style. He also offers a double cheeseburger modeled on the south side’s endemic Big Baby. But prompted by the kind of media attention Xocome received, Rodriguez has been selling ridiculous amounts of fried chicken, burning through 5,000 takeout menus in a just a few months.
*More good news: Rodriguez and his mother have reopened Xocome Antojeria at its original location.
2520 S. Halsted 312-877-5031 bigbosschicken.com
Chicken Pollo Shack | $
3944 W. Chicago
773-904-8846
chicken-pollo-shack.business.site
