How Fried Chicken Became a Good Azz Food Signature
The Chicken Lady almost never sold chicken.
When Keisa Carroll started her Good Azz Food truck, she was committed to offering a menu of healthy options. But her daughter Kynnedi, now 18, convinced her to include a southern favorite - fried chicken - as part of a signature “Soul Bowl” with collard greens and mac and cheese.
Today, it’s the top-selling item on the truck’s menu.
“I was like, really, the chicken?,” Carroll said. “I’ve been making that chicken forever. I thought people would like it but I didn’t think it would be the No. 1 grossing thing on the truck. I got an, ‘I told you so,’ from my daughter. She wasn’t surprised. She thought she was right all along.”
Her fried chicken has taken off so much, Carroll has fully embraced the “chicken lady” moniker she gained from early customers in Alpharetta. The second most popular item she sells is a recently introduced fried chicken sandwich.
Maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising. Chicken is having a year, with nearly every fast food chain imaginable jumping on the craze. It’s a huge business here in Georgia, frequently recognized as the world’s poultry capital. The state produces more than 31 million pounds of chicken per year.
For Carroll, it’s a dish that reminds her of the south and her childhood.
“It was one of the first things that my mom taught me how to cook when I was 8 and my grandma made fried chicken with everything,” she said. “She’d make a roast or some other protein and she’d always have fried chicken, too. It was just a staple.”
Carroll’s technique includes soaking the chicken in buttermilk, which she said helps the batter adhere to the meat, filling in all the flavor once it gets fried. She doesn’t use salt when seasoning as part of her mission to make southern favorites a little healthier.
“I think that makes it very different for most people,” she said. “It has to be semi-healthy. The buttermilk gives it this, not really a tang, but it adds a lot of flavor.”
Want to see for yourself? Catch Carroll and the GAF truck this Friday from 3 to 9 p.m. at Arches Brewing in Hapeville.
Coffees of the World
Got a favorite coffee region? Heather Summerlin, who runs Hapeville’s Drip Coffee Shop, said she leans more toward the darker blends from Central America that you can get at Drip.
“We use it for our espresso and dark roast drip coffee,” she said. “We use Batdorf and Bronson roasters here in Atlanta. They are a fair trade roaster that does business with small families and helps them keep their farms. I also really enjoyed this year's Sumatra and always always love their whirling dervish blend.”
A Community Brew
Drink to a good cause this weekend at Beer Girl Growlers and Bottleshop. The Hapeville shop has an Idaho 7 IPA from Creature Comforts, Brew for One, in stock. This special program from the Athens brewery identifies a beneficiary in the community each year and uses the profits from the special release to help meet their pressing needs. Pretty cool stuff.
This year’s brew is a single-hop IPA featuring Idaho 7 hops.