Dish With Gish: Go Chicken Go vs. Stroud's: Really, they're both winners

I’ve always thought of Kansas City as a beef city, considering the metro is famous for barbecue brisket and burnt ends.

But the overwhelming response to The Star’s monthlong fried chicken tournament taught me that Kansas Citians are just as passionate about poultry.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve fielded dozens upon dozens of emails, phone calls and tweets about the tournament, which tallied more than 20,000 votes and ended with a decisive victory for the locally owned fast food chain Go Chicken Go.

After Go Chicken Go took the crown, longtime reader Vernon Hudspeth of Kansas City called to say he wasn’t at all surprised.

“They serve darn good chicken,” Hudspeth said. “Even cold it’s good, you see what I’m saying?”

I dined at Go Chicken Go for the first time two weeks ago. It was so good that I returned the next day.

The chain has five locations; I went to the ones at 59 N. Seventh St. in Kansas City, Kan., and the largest at 1000 S. Harrison St. in Olathe.

The chicken in the three-piece dinner was delicious, with its crisp, perfectly salty crust of batter. The center-cut breast meat was just as juicy as the drumstick.

The dinner costs $7.98 and comes with a buttered dinner roll, mashed potatoes with yolk-yellow chicken gravy and a cup of lightly sweet and tangy coleslaw. The meal was too much for me to eat in one sitting, so I saved one thigh for later that afternoon, when I devoured it straight out of the fridge. Hudspeth knows what he’s talking about.

The next day, I returned for a half order of Go Chicken Go’s specialty, gizzards and G-sauce ($4.54). Typically I don’t order gizzards because their texture can be chewy. But the gizzards I had at Go Chicken Go were tender on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and addictive when dipped in the sweet and spicy red sauce.

Go Chicken Go owner Alex Lowe says the nugget-sized organs can be difficult to cook, but his employees have their technique down to a science.

“Our gizzards are like dry-aged steak,” Lowe says.

The other finalist in our fried chicken tournament was Stroud’s, a Kansas City institution that’s nationally famous for pan-fried chicken served family-style.

At Stroud’s the chicken is cooked to order, so customers typically wait at least 20 minutes for their food. On a recent Wednesday, I waited about that long for my two-piece lunch ($9.75) at the chain’s Independence location, 19700 E. Valley View Parkway.

The wait was worth it: The chicken tasted fresh and, although the pieces varied in size, each was cooked to golden perfection in a mix of oil and lard. The decades-old recipe (just flour, salt and pepper) reminded me of fried chicken my mom or grandma used to make on Sundays.

As Kim Markley of Independence says: “I could actually taste the chicken in the chicken.”

Stroud’s appeals to fried chicken purists, but those who like it spicy might want to add a few drops of Louisiana hot sauce or the garlic-laced seasoning blend on each table.

Stroud’s is also known for its homestyle sides — mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans served in heaping bowls, even if you’re dining solo. I’m a fan of the warm, yeasty cinnamon rolls, which practically melt in your mouth.

After dining at Stroud’s and Go Chicken Go, it was easy to see why both ended up in the finals in our fried chicken tournament.

I thought I’d be sick of fried chicken by now, but there are so many more restaurants I want to try. At the top of my list is the North End, 910 E. Fifth St. More than 40 people wrote in to recommend the Italian restaurant, which serves fried chicken from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturdays.

Others recommended the buttermilk-marinated chicken served on Thursdays at the Red Door Woodfire Kitchen & Bar, 11851 Roe Ave. in Leawood, and the sour cream fried chicken at Chaz on the Plaza, inside the Raphael Hotel at 325 Ward Parkway.

Nancee Ellis of Overland Park used all caps and two exclamation marks to express her enthusiasm for the fried chicken at Price Chopper, 8686 Antioch Road: “IT IS ADDICTIVE!!”

One of my favorite phone calls was from Mel Solomon of Brookside, who shared memories of the Green Parrot Inn, a restaurant at 52nd Street and State Line Road that closed in 1955. The Inn served family-style fried chicken, and it must have been stellar, because Solomon still craves it 60 years later.

I guess that’s the power of really good fried chicken.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Dish With Gish: Go Chicken Go vs. Stroud's: Really, they're both winners."