Fried chicken is a Portland staple. Portland Monthly’s Alex Frane visited the City Cast Portland podcast with his picks for the best, in a bunch of different categories:
🍗 The Best Straight-Up Fried Chicken
You'll find a wide variety of excellent fried chicken:
Prepare for a long wait at this dive bar. But it is definitely worth it.
This spot introduced Portland to Thai-style fried chicken. Tip: You can order it with roti bread and other fixings for the full experience.
This one's a food cart that serves Korean fried chicken (to those in the know, KFC). They also have American-style, if you're looking for something less spicy.
🥪 The Best Chicken Sandwich
The best in this category include a fluffy bun, sauce, and crunchy vegetables (slaw, maybe), Frane says:
It's a crowd favorite.
Their menu includes a Nashville-style hot chicken. And their sandwiches are big enough to split.
This is the Korean option among these recommended sandwich spots.
🐔 Best Chicken Wings
Maybe you're not into fried chicken, but will make an exception when the dish arrives as wings. Here are your best bets:
This corner market serves some excellent chicken wings (with jojos).
It's a Buffalo Bills bar, so naturally it serves Buffalo wings. (Side note: It's also possibly the city's one Star Trek-themed bar.)
This is a South Korea-based chain with a few locations in the area. They serve boneless wings, which is sort of not a wing, but they are tasty enough to break the rules of this category, and earn a mention.
Pok Pok (may it rest in peace) was once the classic Portland restaurant whose specialty was fish-sauce-flavored wings. That dish is still available at this St. Johns bar.
🗞️ Read up on more tasty ideas:
- A Crispy, Crackly Guide to Portland’s Best Fried Chicken [Portland Monthly]
- Winged Victory: Portland’s Top Chicken Wings [Portland Monthly]
