Tonight I tried the "husband's side" of the
Ezell's Chicken "divorce" - Heaven Sent Chicken. For those of you who don't know this story, Seattle's iconic, Oprah-loving fried chicken establishment was once owned and operated by Ezell Stephens, his wife Faye Rudd, and his brother-in-law Lewis Rudd. They opened their first store in the 80's and have since been crazy-successful.
In 2010 Ezell was fired from the company's board of directors for opening unauthorized stores and sharing the secret recipe (uh oh!), while also losing the company buckets of cash. At some point Ezell and Faye divorced, and Ezell went off and opened the 'Heaven Sent' chain, while Faye and Lewis kept the 'Ezell' chain.
History lesson over, now on to the food! I ordered a fried chicken thigh,
fried okra, a roll, a cornbread muffin, peach cobbler, and bread pudding.
Now let me tell you, I was mad jonesing for fried
okra. Growing up in Texas it was a
regular on the school lunch menu, and a great love for fried okra has been with
me ever since. There are places like Bayou on Bay in Bellingham that make an
excellent fried okra. A friend recommended Heaven Sent, so I rushed over and
bought a large serving.
They made me a fresh, fried okra. Oh man!
So I popped a hot okra in my mouth... And my response was
"huh..." I ate about half the
serving, and my opinion didn't improve. The okra was a little rubbery, and a
bit flavorless. The fry dough was too hard, and stuck like tough pads on my
teeth.
I was so disappointed.
I ate the hot roll next. It was airy, so soft, and great
flavor. The only issue was that the flavor was very light. But overall, not too bad. I didn't have any butter or anything, which I think was the right choice, as otherwise it would have been a flavor of all butter, no roll.
Next was the peach cobbler, served in a pre-packaged plastic container. It was slightly warm, but
very tasty. It was a little heavy on the cinnamon, but the peaches were well
cooked, still a bit firm, and the crust was still crunchy.
As for the bread pudding, it was very unappetizing. It
was in brick form, from it's pre-packaged plastic container, and didn't exude any distinctive flavor. There weren't many
raisins (a boon to some) and was wet, as opposed to being moist. I wasn't able to get beyond two bites. Bleh.
Let's get to the chicken. It looked well fried and
crispy. I pulled off the fried skin to get to the meat. It was juicy, and
wasn't half bad. The skin was crispy, not too oily, but no real spice or
flavor.
I think I'll stick with my KFC. There, I know what I'm getting, and I know what I love.
