Harold's Chicken Shack - Chicago, IL

So jumping from one roommate to another, my current roommate Susan's birthday was a few months ago.  We had planned to go out to dinner to celebrate but she came down with a nasty cold.  So what is a girl to do when your friend is too sick to go out.  Make chicken soup?  nope ... even better, get some fried chicken.  One thing that I've learned about living with Susan is that she loves fried chicken.  We are lucky enough to live close to Harold's the Fried Chicken King so I went there to grab a bucket of fried chicken for the birthday girl.  

As you can see this was a while back, when we still had snow on the ground.  I was expecting a tiny shack perfumed with the scent of chicken skin getting fried in hot beef tallow and oil and walls stained with greasy finger marks.  However, I was shocked to walk in and see a pretty sterile establishment.  Everything had a brand new or "I just passed inspections" feel to it and I couldn't really believe they've been frying chicken here all day.  

The great thing about Harold's is that they fry your chicken to order so you don't have to worry about getting that batch of chicken that's been sitting under a heat lamp for who knows how long.  They have fried chicken, chicken wings, fish and shrimp dinners along with a selection of fried appetizers like french fries, fried okra, mushrooms, onion rings, jalapeno poppers and even pizza puffs.  They fry pretty much everything!   

Since it was my first time, I tried to ask the women at the counter what she recommended and she was not willing to share her secrets.  She couldn't even tell me what the most popular picks were, she was not having any of it.  I just stuck to the agenda and got a bucket of fried chicken, cole slaw and french fries.  Because everything was fried to order, I had to wait about 20 minutes. 

Here's a quick peek at the chicken before we devoured our dinner.  Oh I forgot to mention, it comes with  your choice of mild or hot sauce.  I asked for both.  The mild sauce is more like BBQ sauce and the hot sauce tasted like Frank's.  Overall, the fried chicken was awesome, crispy and perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper.  

In honor of Susan's b-day, Gook brought over cupcakes from Molly's.  

We had a selection of birthday cake, mixed berry and boston cream cupcakes to try.  I had the mixed berry one and it was delish!  I'm a huge fan of their center filled cupcakes.  You get a little surprise at the end.  

 

We ended up postponing her b-day dinner to the following week, but we had a quiet night in with a few close friends feasting on fried chicken and cupcakes.  We even indulged her by letting her watch her favorite bulls play.  Here's to many more fried chicken nights to come! 

Harold's Chicken Shack

1361 N Milwaukee Ave

Chicago, IL 60686