The Best Fried Chicken In Every State

As much as Americans love their burgers and French fries, there's growing proof that there's something this nation loves even more: fried chicken. Look around, and you'll notice that fried chicken is ubiquitous on restaurant menus these days. KFC serves approximately 60 million buckets of its chicken in the United States per year, and fast food fried chicken sandwiches have never been in such high demand.

While fast food chicken is available on seemingly every corner, if you do your due diligence and find the best fried chicken in your state, the difference in quality could shock you. Instead of going with the most convenient fried chicken, do yourself a favor and go out and track down the best of the best. You're worth it, and your taste buds will be eternally grateful.

To help you in this endeavor, we've located the best fried chicken in all 50 states by weighing reviews, awards, recommendations, and doing hands-on taste testing.

Lucky Wishbone is a landmark restaurant that has been the place to get the best fried chicken in Anchorage or anywhere in the state of Alaska since 1955. Their specialty is pan-fried chicken, and it's so good that it will remind you of your grandmother's cooking. If you're hungry and ready to feast, say you want the Pop meal, and you'll get five pieces of pan-fried chicken. The reviews for Lucky Wishbone are reliably outstanding, so order with confidence.

The delectable, deep brown crust of the fried chicken at Monte Ne Inn Chicken Restaurant is so good that you'll be a fan for life before your taste buds even encounter the meat. From there, the tastiness of the meat will only supercharge your dining experience. Monte Ne Inn Chicken Restaurant, which has a history dating back four decades, gets nearly perfect grades no matter where you look for reviews. You can find this place in Northwest Arkansas in the city of Rogers.

The best fried chicken in the state of Colorado can be found in the middle of nowhere at a family farm that has been around for more than 100 years. Juniper Valley Ranch, located about 20 miles south of Colorado Springs, has been serving fried chicken since 1951, and patrons continuously sing their praises, with the fried chicken taking center stage. Order the yummy Skillet Fried Chicken, which comes with an appetizer, sides, a dessert, and a drink.

Kick n' Chicken is more than a rhyme, it's the place to go in Delaware for the ultimate fried chicken that has won multiple awards. The secret to the tastiness of their chicken is that their birds are fresh and never frozen. Additionally, they don't even start making their fried chicken until you order it. That freshness is very apparent when you're chowing down on their fried chicken. Kick n' Chicken has three locations in Delaware in the cities of Lewes, Long Neck, and Milford.

Located in Savannah, Georgia, Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room began in 1943 when Sema Wilkes took charge of a boarding house in the city's historic downtown. It didn't take long before her Southern cooking became a big hit. More than 75 years since Mrs. Wilkes opened the doors for the first time, this place is still known for having the top fried chicken in all of Georgia. While the menu here is relatively limited, all you need to focus on is the chicken and how great it tastes.

If you're in Idaho and you want the best fried chicken in the state, you just need to remember one word: Honey. Once you recall that honey is the key, you'll know to go to Honey Eatery and Social Club and order the Honey Fried Chicken. The scrumptious chicken is fried twice and served with potato salad, coleslaw, jalapenos, and, yes, honey from a local source. As you would expect from something called Honey Fried Chicken, it has a pleasant sweet taste that your taste buds will ask for again and again.

In Southeastern Indiana, fried chicken is such a universal obsession that it's unlike anywhere else in the United States. In fact, they love it so much there that they have something called the Chicken Trail that connects 40 fried chicken restaurants in the area. The first stop (and, as luck would have it, the best stop) on the Chicken Trail is Fireside Inn in the city of Greensburg. Patrons insist this is the best fried chicken anywhere — and it's difficult to disagree.

Take a delicious step back in time to the year 1857. That's the year that Hays House Restaurant was founded in Council Grove, Kansas, which makes it the oldest restaurant that has been continuously in business that you can find anywhere in the country west of the Mississippi River. How has this restaurant survived for so long? It probably helps that they have the best fried chicken in Kansas — and they have for a long, long time. In addition to their excellent fried chicken, don't miss their stupendous desserts.

Willie Mae's Scotch House was born in the historic Treme neighborhood of New Orleans back in 1957. It soon moved to its current location in the Sixth Ward, which is just outside of Treme and the world-famous French Quarter. Not only does Willie Mae's Scotch House have the best fried chicken in New Orleans, it's the best anywhere in Louisiana. Order The Willie Mae, and you'll get a fried chicken breast along with sides of honey, pickles, and purple cabbage with slaw sauce.

The Food Market is a hip, modern hotspot in Baltimore, Maryland, that serves fancy yet approachable comfort food. While the presentation of the food is definitely aesthetically pleasing, it's the great taste of their fried chicken that will have you telling your friends about this joint. Though their dinner menu is lengthy and can be intimidating, what you want to do is go with the Pickle Brined Fried Chicken Breasts. In addition to the fantastic fried chicken, you'll get liquid cornbread, bacon-flavored greens, hot honey, and gumbo gravy.

Green Dot Stables has two locations in Michigan in the cities of Detroit and Lansing. This highly regarded eatery is best known for its scrumptious sliders. Specifically, the Fried Chicken slider is amazing. You get a crispy filet of fried chicken that has been doused with maple syrup. This bad boy tastes even better than it sounds. If you enjoy chicken and waffles, you'll adore these sliders. While you're here, take advantage of their $3 cocktails and their wide selection of beer.

The choicest fried chicken in the state of Mississippi can be found at the Old Country Store in the city of Lorman. You may have seen this restaurant featured on the Travel Channel or the Food Network, so you won't be surprised to learn that this legendary eatery has such fantastic reviews. The owner, a man named Arthur Davis, claims to have the best fried chicken in the world — and no one who tastes his food denies his proclamation. In fact, Alton Brown agrees that the fried chicken found at the Old Country Store is the absolute best.

The fried chicken at Roost Fried Chicken is so good that they put it in their name. Located in Bozeman, Montana, you can't find better fried chicken for miles and miles. With praise flowing in everywhere from the Los Angeles Times to Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, this place is quickly becoming a restaurant you need to add to your bucket list. At Roost Fried Chicken, you can order the Southern Fried Tasty Chicken as Classic Southern, Nashville Hot, or Sweet Heat. No matter which avenue you travel, you will be thrilled with your meal.

Between all that sinning and winning, take a break the next time you're in Las Vegas and hit up The Black Sheep for some of the best fried chicken you can find anywhere. This restaurant is a unique combination of Vietnamese food and American comfort food. When you want one of a kind fried chicken, opt for the Black Sheep Hot Chicken. This majestic meal features spicy fried chicken on honey toast with honey mustard seed, pickled Japanese cucumber, and green onion.

For delicious fried chicken in New Jersey, Treesy's Soul Food Cafe is the first and only stop you need to make. While Ashley's Buffalo Fried Chicken is great and Ebony's BBQ Fried Chicken is epic in its own right, you can't top Linda's Fried Chicken. The crispiness of the skin gives this fried chicken a memorable texture, and the taste of it will make you crave it for the rest of your days. Treesy's Soul Food Cafe gets great grades from their overjoyed customers.

For fried chicken that is the absolute best in New York, head straight to Bobwhite Counter. This Manhattan eatery has only been around since 2012, but they've quickly grown to become the place to be when you want the best fried chicken in the Big Apple. Whether you want your fried chicken in a wrap, in a sandwich, in a biscuit, or flavored with buffalo or barbecue sauce, you can find those options on Bobwhite Counter's lengthy menu. If you don't know what to order, go with the Three Piece & a Biscuit that includes two drumsticks and a thigh.

Brew Bird is a super cool restaurant located in Fargo, North Dakota. They have the best fried chicken in the state, and their chicken tenders live up to the hype. Favorites on their menu, beyond their unbelievable tenders, include the Hot as Cluck sandwich that featured fried chicken that has been bathed in habanero hot sauce and topped with flavorful white barbecue sauce. For a meatless option, their Cauliflower Wings are surprisingly great and widely recommended by loyal patrons.

Eischen's Bar has been around since 1896 but didn't start serving their fantastic fried chicken until the 1960s. Today, this Oklahoma bar is known to have the top fried chicken in the state. While the menu at Eischen's Bar doesn't have many choices, that's because they value quality over quantity. Try the Whole Fried Chicken that comes with dill pickles, sweet pickles, white bread, and onions. It'll blow your expectations out of the water. While you're at it, don't skip their fried okra. It's also the best around.

Chef Marcie Turney and co-founder Valerie Safran have a great restaurant going in Philadelphia called Bud & Marilyn's. This place has great fried chicken, the best in all of Pennsylvania. The Nashville Hot Fried Chicken has half a chicken, potato bread, scallion ranch, pickles, and a hot dip. It's outstanding and will leave you craving for more. If your taste buds can't handle the spice, you also can't go wrong with Marilyn's Fried Chicken that's served with honey butter, dill pickles, and a biscuit.

Edmund's Oast has the ultimate fried chicken found in Charleston or anywhere else in the state of South Carolina. Their Four-Piece Chicken Dinner comes with collard greens and a pasta salad. For the fried chicken, you get your choice of flavors: New Orleans BBQ, Korean, Garlic Crab, Spicy, or Original. All five of those flavors are spectacular. It doesn't matter which one you pick because you'll go back over and over again until you've tried all five.

To get the best Nashville hot chicken, it makes sense to head to Nashville, doesn't it? Prince's Hot Chicken is so good that it's clearly the best chicken eatery in Nashville or anywhere in the state of Tennessee. At Prince's Hot Chicken, it's a given that you'll be ordering their hot chicken. The only question remains is how hot you want it. While the hottest option is called XXXHOT, you really don't want to go much beyond Hot unless you know what you're doing. Then again, even their spiciest fried chicken is so flavorful that you won't mind the discomfort.

In Utah, the place to visit when you need the best fried chicken dinner in the state is Pretty Bird in Salt Lake City. This place is known for their spicy fried chicken that gets glowing marks from their happy customers. When you order fried chicken from their menu, you need to specify the spiciness level you prefer. You have five options: Hot Behind, Hot, Medium, Mild, and No Spice. While even the No Spice chicken is really, really good, you don't want to miss out on the gloriousness of their spicy chicken.

The state of Virginia simply doesn't have better fried chicken than what can be found at Mama J's. Their fried chicken is so phenomenal that you'll struggle to go to any other restaurant in the city of Richmond. When you order the fried chicken at Mama J's, you get to pick either white meat or dark meat. Plus, you can pick between dinner rolls and corn muffins. Reviews for this eatery in Virginia are routinely outstanding, with satisfied patrons pointing to the great service and, of course, the great food.

Olde Country Diner is a very highly rated restaurant in Martinsburg, West Virginia, that serves delicious fried chicken that customers can't stop talking about. Order the Fresh Fried Chicken, and you will get to pick two vegetables to pair with their great chicken. Other notable items on the Olde Country Diner menu include the Chicken Tenders and the Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich. You can find the small city of Martinsburg about 90 miles northwest of Washington DC.

Is America's best fried chicken located in Pinedale, Wyoming? That's what has been said more than once. Pitchfork Fondue specializes in authentic Western cookouts and has been featured on the Cooking Channel. This place is only open in the summer when the weather is good (apart from their year-round catering business), so it's not exactly easy to get your hands on their great fried chicken. That said, it's worth the extra effort to try what could very well be the best fried chicken in the nation, depending on who you believe.