Georgia-born chef Taylor Hester has rules about making good southern fried chicken. In his role as executive chef at the recently reimagined Dennett’s Wharf in Castine, he’s living proof those rules hold water north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Last summer, I sampled a piece of Hester’s chicken (OK, maybe two, possibly three). The family-style entrée was served to me while I sat on the famous waterside deck at sunset. It could well be that anything I ate while sipping a slightly effervescent orange wine and taking in the view of the Bagaduce River banging a right to flow into Penobscot Bay would be seen in a flattering light. But this southern fried chicken, boldly served in a place known wide and far for its exemplary seafood, was astonishing.
I caught up with Hester in late April, as he was preparing to leave his Brooklyn, New York, wintertime digs for summertime service on the Blue Hill Peninsula, to pump him for information on what makes his fried chicken so darn good. He doesn’t credit a single person—not his grandma or any of his aunties or any of the chefs he worked with in Georgia, Alabama, or Tennessee—as being the sole influence on the fried chicken he serves today. He credits them all.
“This fried chicken’s been a been a work in progress for almost 15 years. It’s one of those things where you’re constantly adopting and adapting, trying different people’s fried chicken, and then figuring out what goes into it,” says Hester.
The process of good fried chicken starts with the butchery, he explains. You must break down the whole chicken so that all the pieces cook evenly. “You can get the golden-brown skin on the outside, but it doesn’t get burnt before the chicken is fully cooked,” says Hester.
And those pieces need to sleep in a brine for both flavor and texture. “There has to be the right ratio of acid in the brine so that the meat doesn’t dry out,” he says.
From the brine, the pieces get dredged in seasoned flour. “A lot of care goes into the ratio of the spices in the dredge. Spices that are complementary and that will be familiar, but also some adding flavors that you might not be able to pinpoint,” says Hester.
And he doesn’t cook chicken in raging hot oil. Twelve to fourteen minutes in 325-degree oil is perfect.
Hester had not yet nailed down how he would present his fried chicken to diners for the 2023 summer season at press time. There was some nostalgia for the family-style plate I enjoyed, but there was some talk of a casual fried chicken sandwich, too.
No matter which version makes the cut when Dennett’s Wharf opens in mid-June, try the local seafood raw bar for starters, but bank on the chicken for a winner of a dinner.
