There's one thing that Hemel is not short of; no, I'm not talking about roundabouts....I'm talking about chicken shops. There's fried chicken and peri-peri chicken on almost every block. So when the guys behind Union Sourdough Pizza said they were starting up a fried chicken joint, you'd be forgiven for rolling your eyes. But this is no ordinary fried chicken. Joe & Grant have spent some time perfecting the most amazing crispy fried chicken. Their secret recipe is under wraps but what piqued our interest is the fact that they brine the chicken for 24 hours in a secret 8 ingredient brine and then marinate in buttermilk & spices before finally coating in batter and deep frying. That amount of care and TLC has gotta make some dayyyymmmm fine fried chicken. And it does.
We ordered a selection of their offering to try out on only their second day of trading (!). We got their Sassy Wings ( broiled and then fried and covered in a sauce of our choice-we chose BBQ), Sassy Strips (brined, marinated and battered chicken breast with dips - we chose Hot Honey), and a Big Bacon Double Cheese Sassy which is an immense fried chicken thigh, hash brown, bacon, cheese, burger sauce and lettuce in a brioche bun. and obviously we added some house crinkle fries and extra dips, just to road test for you guys...
Ordering was super simple through the One Delivery app and arrived perfectly on time and piping hot. The packaging is all cardboard boxes/bags and branded paper inserts apart from the dips which are in little pots. It felt like real street food to the door which was nice. I almost suggested to J that we take it outside and pretend we're at a market.
I didn't read the description of the wings properly and was expecting them to be battered, so I was a little disappointed that they weren't when they arrived. They were also the drumette part of the wing and not the wingette which was a bit sad-for some reason I've always preferred the wingette (my party trick is to eat it all in one go.....attractive or horrifying, who knows!) My disappointment was short-lived as i still wolffed them down and enjoyed their succulence and the sticky, unctous BBQ sauce that they were smothered in. I dipped one into the ranch dressing however I actually found it unnecessary. It is quite a tart ranch, rather than the creamy type I was expecting so I dispensed with that for the remainder of the wings.
The breast strips were gloriously plump, battered and crispy. You don't get too many in a portion, but a portion is only £4.50 so I'd recommend doubling up. The batter was quite dark and a little overdone, however we needn't have worried as the meat was succulent and perfectly cooked. The batter lacked a bit of flavour, but generally this is pretty good chicken. Especially when dunked into the hot honey dip which was sumptuously sweet, sticky and perfectly fiery.
The burger was probably the highlight of the mains. It came in a brioche bun, which felt a little bit of overkill with all the flavours in the chicken. The meat was a thigh, which is unusual for a fried chicken burger, but it totally worked. It made the burger super succulent. I'll be honest, I was so into the chicken, I could have ditched the burger it was in! Not that it was poor, but the chicken eclipsed it. The burger sauce is all homemade, perfectly zingy and creamy, and what a glorious treat to have hash browns in a burger!!
The chips were really good.... really good. They were super chunky, homemade crinkle-cut chips - made with great quality potatoes- with the most amazing seasoning (their "house seasoning" which added heat, saltiness, sweetness and smokeyness). They were a bit underdone and lacked a crisp crust but I can forgive that and would order a huge amount more when we order again.
All in all this was not bad fried chicken by a long shot. It's not fancy free-range or organic chicken but it's brined, marinated and prepared well and with care. Some bits were a tad overdone, some a little underdone but the concept, and flavours more than made up for it, and considering it was only their second night, they nailed it. We wish they offered the thighs from the burger (and the sassy gherkins as sides) separately as they were easily the highlight. I could dunk them into the burger sauce meal after meal!
Service:
Easy ordering through the One Delivery app. They also called to check something about our order just to be sure which was a nice personal touch and showed they cared.
Value and price:
Small portions but the price wasn't too high so if you wanted more it's easy to supersize. However sometimes you don't want double, just a bigger portion of what you have so I would almost say they could charge more and give about a third more in each portion.
Quality:
Not the best quality of meat, but this is fried chicken and that's not the focus. It's all about the batter, the sauces and those fries here, and in that respect, they nail the quality
Overall:
GOOD - considering this was tested on day 2 of this ambitious duo's new offering, we're impressed. They got us hooked and we'll be back.
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