insightray's Profile
least terrible chains?
Can not agree more about being unhealthy but they are all very satisfying going down. The one chain that has impressed me is the new lineup of burgers at Hardees. A little more money than other similar chains but a much better taste than most of their competitors. Plus the burgers are charbroiled rather than fried.
Chicken Delight Still The Best Fried Chicken In The Tri State [moved from Tristate board]
I gave a rundown of how we prepared the chicken in a previous post. Modern Maid and Golden Dipt both have products on grocery store shelves that are similar to the Chicken Delight batter. Big difference is they instruct you to bread it dry, but if you add water to bring it to a pancake consistency, add pepper and chicken salt and refrigerate overnight prior to cooking you will have a wonderful Chicken Delight experience.
Chicken Delight Still The Best Fried Chicken In The Tri State [moved from Tristate board]
While Sara Lee (then Consolidated Foods) controlled us, the CD batter came to us in large bags with very little information on them listing the ingredients. We had to mix it with water to a pancake type consistency and then proceed to marinate the chicken for a minimum of 8 hours with a 24 hours preferred. After the demise of control by Sara Lee, we bought a general mix from Modern Maid Corp and added pepper and a chicken salt to enhance the flavor. It was almost the same taste. Several mixes are available today in the grocery stores that tell you to bread the chicken in the dry mix, but if you make a pancake type batter out of it you just might duplicate the CD taste.
Chicken Delight Still The Best Fried Chicken In The Tri State [moved from Tristate board]
As a former franchisee of Chicken Delight, I can only chuckle at the misconceptions of the company. We were not pressure fried, but it did take 24 hours to marinate our chicken. Overnight in salted water and ice and then the CD batter in the morning and refrigerate it for at least 8 hours prior to cooking at 275 degrees for 14 min and 30 seconds. The temp always had to be at least 350 for a 24 piece frying (the max our fryers could handle) or 300 for a 12 piece. You then set the temp back to 275 after the set down into the fryer. Chicken Galore and Chicken Holiday were both off takes Chicken Delight. A small company in Canada bought the CD name around 1972 from Consolidated Foods Corp (Sara Lee) after a protracted battle over franchise fees (long story involving the US Supreme Court). The small company from Canada was controlled by Marriott, which in my opinion wanted to close CD as they owned Roy Rogers, which was # 3 in chicken sales. KFC was # 1 and we were # 2. in the nation with over 1000 locations. There demands were abusive and in order to keep the CD name would have put most of us out of business just on royaly demands. One quote was, "sign this contract, do you desire to be a big fish in a small ocean or a little fish in a large ocean". Many of us decided to take the name down and hence Chicken Galore, Chicken Gal and Chicken Holiday were all born. A few CDs continued on, alas I made the mistake of closing rather than going on as I was drained of all cash due to the protracted legal battles and all of the signage changes. The year was 1974 and I wish I could redo it now! I do miss it.
