See you later beef. Fried chicken is the only thing you need in your burger right now. Absolutely hunts down London’s best chicken burgers
Words Joy Montgomery
Chicken burgers never looked so good
PATTY& BUN
With venues scattered across the capital, Patty and Bun has garnered an impressive reputation for their lip-smacking, premium burgers. Offering just the right sauce-to-chicken ratio, the ‘Hot Chic’ Chicken Burger is a favourite amongst team Absolutely. Expect a generous fried chicken patty, coleslaw, pickled cucumbers, lettuce and smoked garlic aioli, all sandwiched between soft Brioche. Dreamy.
CHICK N’ SOURS
Chick ‘n’ sours is your local fried chicken shop – but not as you know it. With venues in Seven Dials and Haggerston, they’re known for their whimsical menu of herb fed fried chicken and sour cocktails. Their ever-changing menu and veritable offering of chicken burgers means you’ll never get bored. ‘The Brunch Bun’ is a highlight – think fried chicken, Asian slaw, Gochujang mayo, Avo, Fried Egg and Sriracha Sour Cream.
BUTCHIES
A new kid on the fried chicken block, Butchies launched as a street food joint back in 2013. Fast forward to 2017, and the fried chicken specialists are opening a permanent joint in Shoreditch. Served on a butter-toasted bun, Butchies’ chicken ‘sandwiches’ come in various guises, including the BBQ Sunset which boasts house BBQ sauce, pickles, slaw and smoked streaky bacon.
CLUTCH CHICKEN
Tucked away in the backstreets of east London, Clutch Chicken is the restaurant that offers fried chicken with a side order of R’n’B. The Buns Hun (bonus points for the excellent name) is a Clutch speciality, packing a hefty stack of boneless chicken thighs with a mound of Kohlrabi slaw and topped off with smokey ‘clutchup.’
COQFIGHTER
Another Absolutely fave, Coqfighter has two locations in Boxpark Shoreditch and Croydon. Brought to life by three Aussie brothers with a passion for fried chicken and Korean food, Coqfighter specialises in an eclectic mix of burgers, wings and bao buns. ‘The Original’ is a mouth-watering mountain of panko-fried thigh, shredded iceberg, pickled red onion, smoked sambal mayo and Korean hot sauce. This one is a biggie.
MOTHER CLUCKER
Mother Clucker serve tea brined, buttermilk soaked, twice battered fried chicken from a converted US Army ambulance parked in the Truman Brewery. We were won over by the brand’s chicken strips, which we sampled at Lewisham’s model market this summer, and the ‘Cluckwich’ takes these moist morsels of fried chicken and packs them into a bun with pickled pepper, iceberg lettuce, hot sauce and lime mayo.
