Marufish/flickr

KFC

As recently reported in The Washington Post, al-Yamama, a Palestinian delivery company, has been sneaking Kentucky Fried Chicken into the Gaza Strip from Egypt: a three-hour journey and an extra $20-30 for cold chicken, which admittedly can be good. Of course, if Colonel Sanders knew that the red-and-white boxes which bear his likeness were being smuggled under blockades in a conflict-torn part of the world, he'd probably be horrified.

Pressure fryer innovator and marketing genius, the Colonel did not like how his recipes evolved as KFC grew. The story of his involvement in the development and branding of KFC's products could consume even this short piece. Suffice it to say that, in interviews, Sanders once characterized the gravy as "pure wallpaper paste" and extra-crispy as "a damn fried dough ball stuck on some chicken." He would most likely be distraught to see that people were risking their lives, taking arduous journeys and paying substantially inflated sums of money for products he disparaged.

Thankfully, in the opinion of this former Kentuckian, there are Kentucky products far superior to cold chicken irrigated with wallpaper paste. It is our recommendation (though we can't speak for the Colonel) that smugglers wishing to import something from the commonwealth look elsewhere. Turn the page for a few suggestions.

More »

Anne Fishbein

Hainan chicken is a ubiquitous dish with roots in Wenchang City in Hainan, a Southeastern province in China. It has, however, spread well past its Chinese sphere of influence and is famous all throughout Southeast Asia -- particularly in Singapore, where it's the national dish.

Hainanese chicken over rice is an expert take on steamed free-range chicken with scallions, fresh ginger and sesame oil as the base. The long-grain rice, which is cooked with chicken broth, is just as aromatic as the chicken. It comes out with a glossy sheen and has a hint of peanut oil and shallots in the mix. As for the sauces, there are different variations depending on the restaurant. Most commonly is a dark, sweet soy sauce, a minced garlic with scallions dip and in some places, a garlic-soy sauce with chili oil.

Even if you're reading this in China or Singapore, for most of us the SGV -- also Hollywood and Downtown L.A. -- is a bit easier to get to, so we've rounded up our 10 local favorites. Turn the page.

More »

C. Pete Lee

Chicken wings -- whether fried or drenched in sauces savory, sweet, goopy, or blue-cheesy -- are always a crowd favorite. An almost perfect finger food, with bones you can creatively dispose of. (Even vegans love their gluten-free soy-based mini-drumsticks.)

If you're a fan of the hugely popular L.A. wing spots -- Hot Wings Cafe, Alondra Hot Wings, Wingstop and Big Wangs -- get ready for a new experience in flavor explosion at places you drive by every day, but never stop to try. These may not be your usual wings, but they may easily be the best unusual wings you've never had in Los Angeles. (And, maybe your new favorites.) Plus, all five offer party platters -- they're perfect for your Super Bowl party. Turn the page.

More »

Malcolm Bedell/From Away

The award-winning Apricot-Shellacked Ghost Chile Wings

Malcolm Bedell, a food blogger from Rockland, Maine, was the big winner in the Today show's first Super Bowl chicken wing cookoff today, with his Apricot-Shellacked Ghost Chile Wings. Why, exactly, is this so unspeakably thrilling? Because he is my little brother!

I never would have imagined, when my little bro was a porky young lad who used Pepto-Bismol as the "secret ingredient" in the chocolate-mint milkshake he once made me, that one day he would win a nationally televised chicken wings contest precisely for his genius at combining unusual flavors.

Yet that is exactly what Bedell, 34, did before 4.5 million viewers this morning.

Bedell not only won the first annual Golden Chicken prize for his Apricot-Shellacked Ghost Chili Wings -- the contest was not even close. Judge Sunny Anderson, a chef and Food Network personality, quickly dismissed the other two contenders' Asian Scorpion Pepper Wings and Wicked Wasabi Wings, saying, "I would go back 1,000 times over, I would eat the whole chicken farm of [Bedell's] wings....It's finger-licking goodness. The Today show wing-off winner, baby!" Plus, Bedell got to meet Air Bud. And Kevin Spacey. Recipe after the jump.

More »

G. Snyder

Jim Dandy's fried chicken

Like egg rolls and gyoza, fried chicken is one of those dishes that your mother probably makes better than everyone else, because no one else's version is quite as crispy, or quite as juicy, or made with quite as much love. That said, when Mom isn't around and the craving strikes, there are quite a number of places, both down- and upscale, where you can find comfort in chicken that's almost as good as your mom's. Turn the page for our list of the ten best fried chicken in Los Angeles.

More »

Williams-Sonoma

Handmade chicken coop

Williams-Sonoma brings to mind beautiful china, gourmet kitchen tools and pricey pots and pans. Chicken coops? Not so much.

But handmade hen houses are part of a new line of home and garden goods, launched last spring. The avian abodes are made by several vendors, including Laughing Chickens, a Northern California company.

"Our agrarian collection offers products that support a lifestyle of healthy living and brings the virtues of homegrown and homemade into our customers' everyday lives," a Williams-Sonoma spokesperson told us in an email.

More »

A. Scattergood

TiGeorges' Chicken's Island combo

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4) -- and probably beyond, at this rate -- we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes.

37: The Island Combo at TiGeorges' Chicken.

One imagines George Laguerre, who opened his Haitian restaurant TiGeorges' Chicken some fifteen years ago, as something of an Echo Park Job. First there was the devastating January 2010 earthquake in his native Haiti, which destroyed the homes and businesses of many of his friends and family. Then, only a month later, an electrical fire destroyed the roof of his restaurant, as if catastrophe had simply changed direction. It took almost a year for Laguerre to reopen. But reopen he did, the restaurant recalibrated and rebuilt so that it seems, on the surface, as if nothing much has happened. It has, of course. Haiti still remains in partial ruins. And catastrophe leaves patterns and fissures, whether you can see them or not.

But all that is forgotten, at least for dinner, when you sit down to a plate of TiGeorges' chicken, the focal point of the menu and of the restaurant itself, the tables of which are gathered around an enormous custom-made medieval-looking spit near the restaurant's front window. (An apocalypse would probably not destroy that thing, certainly not a little ceiling fire.)

More »

G. Snyder

Hot Wings at Beer Belly

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4) -- and probably beyond, at this rate -- we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes.

44: Hot Wings at Beer Belly.

Is there a more natural and satisfactory partner for football and beer than a plate of deep-fried, sauce-drenched chicken parts? Not at Beer Belly, the Koreatown pub whose offerings seem as dedicated to hair-on-your-chest dude food as they do local craft beers.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I recently became member of the Beer Belly fantasy football league (current record: 1-1). At first this seemed like a poor decision, since both the staff and regulars that make up the league are die-hard fantasy players while I on the other hand, have all the skill of an NFL replacement ref.

More »

G. Snyder

Smothered Chicken at R & R Soul Food

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes.

56: Smothered Chicken at R & R Soul Food.

A good soul food plate should be formidable. It should make you worry whether you are going to be able make the drive home without falling asleep, never mind cleaning your plate. At Carson's R & R Soul Food, a former branch of M & M Soul Food that was taken over by an enterprising cook, the smothered chicken reigns supreme -- and believe us, it will put the fear of God into you (and not just because of the all-African-American Last Supper portrait hanging in the dining room).

More »

Sarah Palin's Twitter page