Miami's Best Fried Chicken: A Top Ten List

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Buttermilk-marinated fried chicken at Whisk Gourmet Food & Catering in Coral Gables

Eating fried chicken is no tidy affair. Golden brittle breading bursts after a gentle nibble. Bits of crust cascade beneath your chin. Juices flow. Fingers glisten. Lips gleam. (Call this gloss pollo frito; it sure as hell beats Chanel.)

In Miami, a city brimming with restaurants of diverse ethnicities, fried chicken goes beyond the realm of American Southern cuisine. Across the Magic City, the epicurean cognoscenti can find Haitian, Jamaican, Dominican, Cuban, Japanese, Korean, and more.

What follows is a list of the ten best fried chicken places in town. Some serve bird on the bone; others do not. Some provide wings; others only breast. Regardless of origin, method or style, this poultry all starts and ends the same way: butcher, season, batter, fry, eat, napkin.

Photo courtesy Jackson's Soul Food

Fried chicken legs ($6.50) at Jackson's Soul Food in Overtown

10. Jackson's Soul Food
Jackson's Soul Food has been an Overtown institution for over 65 years. It has changed locations a bit through out the years, but some things remain the same: their famed fried catfish and eggs, their fried liver and onions, or, even better, their fried chicken legs. The latter is part of a breakfast special served alongside grits, eggs, and housemade buttermilk biscuits for $6.50. You can get them for lunch or dinner at a higher price ($9.95). But when you've got soul on your mind, few things can trump an early morning breakfast of fried chicken legs at Jackson's.

The Federal via Instagram

Federal McNuggets ($5)

9. The Federal Food Drink & Provisions
This Upper Eastside restaurant proffers many twists on classic American cuisine: Buffalo-style pig wings, duck in a jar with candied sweet potatoes, and chicken McNuggets. Paired with a silver saucer holding a honey dijon mustard sauce, these fried chicken bits are a playful rendition of a nostalgic, childhood snack. The peanut-marinated chicken is a small portion -- a bar bite to go with a drink or two. But, at a cost of just $5, you can perhaps order seconds or thirds.

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