The cooking technique was brought to America by enslaved persons from coastal West Africa. Applied to chicken, it became the cornerstone of the cuisine called Southern cooking. When African Americans, principally from Georgia and the Carolinas, streamed into New York City in the 1920s, fleeing lynch mobs and other forms of state-sanctioned racism, fried chicken came along with them. And the crisp well-browned bird quickly became an important feature of the dining landscape in neighborhoods like Harlem, Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene, and Prospect Heights. But now accelerating gentrification and misplaced health concerns have shuttered many of the old fried-chicken joints. The chains have taken their terrible toll too, with KFC and its ilk driving the authentic product to the verge of extinction. Here are three overlooked places that still... More >>>