When you go to school in the south, you eat like s***. I'm not talking like pizza and ramen at 3 a.m. because you're a college student (and that's a given); I'm talking about the sheer abundance of fried food, Tex Mex, and barbecue. I come from New York City, the land of all health trends — avocado toast, green juices, and acai bowls. So the freshman 15 hit me hard and I'm forever a changed person, hence, why I am devoting an entire article to something that, I think, deserves its own food group: fried chicken and donuts.
You've definitely had fried chicken (if you haven't, you have no taste buds and are not an American) before and you've definitely had donuts before (Krispy Kreme, anyone?), but have you ever had them together?
To quote Nelly Furtado, "Nope, didn't think so."
Because why would you? Each is so delicious on its own. One is savory and one is sweet, one is a protein, and the other is a dessert or a breakfast or both.
The other day, I was scrolling through Houston Eater when I noticed an article with the top restaurants to go to right now, and on that list was a little fried chicken and donut shop called Lee's. Owned and operated by the same people who own Liberty Kitchen, Lee's serves only fried chicken (which takes three days to prepare), donuts, cookies, kolaches, and a number of southern sides like creamed spinach and mac n' cheese. So, as a lover of all things unhealthy, I decided I had to go. And the perfect excuse would be to take the kids I babysit because all middle school-aged children love fried food (and then we could order more and they won't judge).
When we got there, we ordered everything. From Mexican chocolate donuts to blueberry donuts to praline bacon donuts to a fried chicken salad sandwich on brioche to a fried chicken sandwich with two glazed donuts as bread to just simple strips of fried chicken. We even got a seasonal jam and a bacon jam (which is literal crack). It was a motherf*cking feast.
The donuts were the perfect ratio of fluffiness to cakey. The glazed were fully glazed and not just the top and the praline bacon donut was like nothing I've ever tasted before. (Well, that's a lie — it was similar to Gourdoughs but way more manageable and honestly better because instead of whole strips of bacon there were bacon bits.) The fried chicken was also perfectly tender on the inside and perfectly crispy on the outside.
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Step Four:
What I'm telling you to do right now is, even if you don't live in Houston and cannot get yourself to Lee's for some fried chicken and donuts, head to your closest fast food chain, get some chicken, then get some donuts, and just DIY. Because if no one saw you do it, the calories don't count.
BRB while I go run my butt off and starve myself for two weeks.
