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If there is anything that I love eating more, it has to be fried chicken. There’s nothing like tearing through a crunchy exterior to find a plump, juicy piece of meat waiting for you. It’s almost like a present. Sadly, most, if not all, of the fast-food type fried chicken places are deficient in one way or another (at least in my opinion). Too often, the breading is soggy or the chicken is dry due because of a crack in the shell coupled with sitting under the heat lamp. Or, the worst, when every bite is so oily you think you’re going to have a heart attack right there.

Enter Honey’s Kettle in downtown Culver City, which has managed to earn a place in my heart for its ability to serve really good fried chicken. They use deep kettle drums that allow for extremely high temperature cooking. This tenderizes the chicken while trapping in the natural juices. It also creates a crackling shell stays crispy over time as well as allowing the chicken to retain its heat.

Even though the chicken they gave me had been sitting under a heat lamp, it tasted as though it had just come out of the fryer. While the batter is devoid of any type fancy spices or flavorings, they offer little cups of honey and hot sauce that you can either drizzle over the chicken or use as a dipping sauce. The best part of Honey’s Kettle is that the chicken isn’t greasy. The high temperature means the chicken is cooked quickly, which prevents too much oil from being absorbed.

In addition to the chicken, I was sampled the buttermilk biscuits as well as their fresh-squeezed lemonade. The biscuits were fluffy on the inside and had a great firm exterior. I found the taste to be somewhat blander than I had hoped. The true testament of a good biscuit is the desire to eat it by itself. I ended up using a lot of honey with them. Personally, I’m partial to the one’s at KFC when they aren’t undercooked.

The lemonade was excellent. It didn’t have that artificial flavor that I find in most “fresh-squeezed” lemonade. It had a sharper lemon taste. My guess is that they toned down the ratio of sugar and water to lemon juice.

Overall, I was very impressed with my meal. With the drink (the regular was huge), the two pieces of chicken, a side of coleslaw, and two biscuits, my meal was $9.98. Afterwards I was stuffed. Parking was no problem. There’s a public lot behind the building that has two hours free and with two more if you validate your ticket from the movie theatre across the street. Hmmm…I think I might have figured out my next date location.

Honey’s Kettle
9537 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232

2600 East Alondra Blvd.
Compton, CA 90221

By Jeff (see more of his posts).