Once upon a time, Santa Feans in the know could get fried chicken from a local woman named Shontez “Taz” Morris. And it was amazing. Like, it was so so so so so so good. You’d call her up and be like, “Taz, I could really use some fried chicken!” And she’d be all like, “For sure.” Then you’d pick it up and eat it alone because it was too good to share.
Sadly, however, Morris died in 2022—not that her only value as a person was her fried chicken or anything; because she had so many excellent qualities (including hugs). We’re just saying that that was roughly the last time we remember having a really killer piece of fried chicken around here. So we’re on a quest to find and sample the best stuff available in town. Some ground rules real quick? We’re absolutely interested in hearing from folks about what fried chicken they like best. We’ve compiled our own little list so far, but we’re open to ideas. We’re less open to letters bemoaning how this very first edition didn’t include the place they love. This is the very first edition; we’re going to try to go to literally every place that has fried chicken; you need to relax. OK? OK.
So where did we start? Santa Fe Bite. Oh, it’ll always be Bobcat Bite to us, baby, but we begrudgingly accept that things change. Side note? And true story? One time we drove all the way out to the original Bobcat Bite (now Jambo Bobcat Bite under the auspices of Jambo chef Ahmed Obo) to realize we’d forgotten our wallet. “Just come back and pay tomorrow,” then-owner Bonnie Eckre told us. “We trust you.” We’ll forever love her for it. And for the record, we did go back and pay, because when a burger goddess does you a solid, you don’t tarry. Anyway, Bobcat moved into downtown Santa Fe and became Santa Fe Bite, then it moved into the old Yummy Café/Tecolote spot in Midtown; then Bonnie and her husband John sold the biz to Angela Mason and Armando Rivas; now it’s still pretty OK as restaurants go, but will still never be as good as the old days (which is actually true of pretty much anything you’ve ever experienced). Even so, we had high hopes for the fried chicken.
The Fork
Santa Fe Bite only offers fried chicken on Saturdays, which kind of leads one to believe they’ve set aside some specific time to really focus up and make something special. We’ve had it once or twice before (it used to be served in a skillet, even!), but since we realized it had been years since we’d bitten into the crisp (which is a cool slogan we just coined for eating fried chicken), we grabbed certified burger lover Le Forkette and headed into the fray.
Straight up, though? The chicken ($22) was not good. As you can see from the photo up there, it was beautiful, though. According to the Santa Fe Bite menu, the chicken is “buttermilk-steeped and coated,” which sounds so good. Tragically, however, it arrived under-fried, lacking in crisp and not nearly breaded enough. Look, we’re not saying we need to bite into six inches of breading, but the name of the game when it comes to fried chicken is texture varieties. We all love crispy, man. This breading was borderline soggy and certainly didn’t pack much of a taste.
Beyond taste, the hard part is keeping the chicken from drying out during the frying process. Santa Fe Bite’s fried chicken dish comes with a breast and a thigh, and while the breast itself was borderline perfection in its juiciness and savory flavor, the thigh was a disappointingly bony affair. Hats off to the ol’ SFB for having legitimate mashed potatoes, though. So many restaurants use a pre-made sort of thing (and yes, restaurants, people can taste that), but Santa Fe Bite’s were full of Russet-y goodness, and the accompanying brown gravy became the one way we managed to save the dish for ourselves. As for the included mixed veggies? Well, the less said, the better, but readers should at least know they came over salty and kind of wilty and listless. The biscuit that accompanied the chicken was a triumph, however, so at least there was that.
In summation, our fried chicken quest is not off to a great start, and we re-learned that all-too-valuable lesson: Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight; which is to say you shouldn't look for chicken in a place famous for its burgers. Le Forkette loved her burger, though, because of course she did.
Where should we go next?
Cab Calloway loved chicken and you can, too.
Also
- You’re probably way too late to make Valentine’s Day reservations at this point, Santa Fe, but all kinds of local restaurants have been releasing their V-Day menus, and a lot of them look AMAZING. Terra Cotta Wine Bistro and Ortiz both sound killer to us, but we’re sure all the fine dining places have pretty good this n’ that. Better luck next year?
- Santa Fe Restaurant Week starts next week. It’s a week wherein local restaurants do special things. The list is big. Just know that. There are details right here for you detail folks.
- Wolf & Mermaid Enchanted Coffee Roasters has opened its new location downtown at 239 Johnson Street. We’d tell you more about what it is, but we figure the name of the place is enough for you to go on. Ugggggggh, do you need more info? Click this link for an SFR story from 2023 that gets into the whos and hows and whys of the coffee shop.
- There’s a pupusa truck called Pupeseria Chalateca rocking pupusas on Siler Road and we weren’t informed?!?! We here at The Fork adore a pupusa (shout-out to The Red Enchilada and Torogoz, where you can totally find those bad boys), which is kind of like a quesadilla meets a thicker sort of pancake sort of thing, but it’s crispy in the right places and can be stuffed with pretty much anything; but we like it with gooey cheese and also cabbage on top. Anyway, the point is that we’ve just found out about Pupuseria Chalateca, and we want to go to there.
- SFR’s new sister paper The Paper. (yes, it’s really called that; and yes, the period is part of the name—we didn’t come up with it, don’t yell at us!) has a rather interesting piece about Eating History: A Taste of New Mexico, a new PBS documentary about food in New Mexico. We’ve not seen the film yet, but it’s streaming via the PBS app right now, and we hear there are some familiar faces in there for Santa Fe folk, New Mexico folk and food folk.
- Word on the street is that The Teahouse has re-added gluten-free strawberry shortcake scones to their menu, and we’re just here for that and thought you should know.
- Speaking of gluten-free, we looked down into the Design Center from our second-story offices the other day and realized, “Holy shit—the gluten-free bakery called Revolution Bakery has a whole-ass classroom going to teach people how to make gluten-free sweets!” Now, we know a lot of people are too cool to believe in celiac or, like, that sometimes certain foods make people feel certain ways (we recall a friend’s mother calling us a “pussy” when we were a vegetarian), but we think that’s really cool. Owner Dionne Christian is all about spreading the gluten-free love, and we see on the Revolution website that there are online courses available, too. If you’d like to learn more about the bakery or the classes, give ‘em a call at (505) 346-2669. Word.
Who among us hasn’t felt like a gluten-free and operatic singing puppet from time to time?
More Tidbits
- As the world burns around us, Costco (a store you might know because that asshole “chocolate chunk cookie!” guy and his asshole kid who is all like, “BOOOOM!” hang out there) has announced it’ll raise its hourly wages to $30 per hour. Wow! That’s more than most people you know, probably. You’ve likely heard of how happy their employees are, because it turns out that when you value your workers and pay them well, they’ll do their very best for you. Learn more here.
- DJ/producer Mustard has partnered with Heinz to make a special release mustard for your hot dogs and sandwiches and whatnot. We wish we’d had the foresight to name our DJ project something like “DJ Coca-Lover,” rather than the route we took, which was to name ourselves DJ Tanner and solely create remixes of the Jesse & The Rippers song “Forever.” If that joke didn’t work for you, don’t sweat it. If it did, you might be Dave Coulier. We hope you’re Dave Coulier. #CutItOut
- Lastly in not-just-local food news, the aptly named Food Business News-dot-com reports that with cocoa products projected to rise astronomically in price this year, brands like Hershey Co. are already strategizing how best to proceed, and they might even have to start charging more for chocolate treats. We’d point out that Hershey bars fucking suck so goddamn much, but we’ll also point out that numerous other candy bars exist, so, like, it’s up to you. We like those Mayana ones.
A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence
We couldn’t make food coverage work this week in the print edition of SFR, but our annual Love & Sex issue is back in a big way, so maybe check that you? Like, maybe spend a little less time worried about what you don’t get and a little more focused on what you DO get. JEEZE!
Number of Letters Received
7
*We really truly hope that something weird isn’t still happening.
Most Helpful Tip (A Barely Edited Comment From a Reader)
*No one said anything mean for the second week in a row, which is really freaking us out. It’s like…freaky.
Actually Helpful Tip
Just some logistical stuff, really.
*We’re aware of the logistic stuff, dear readers, and we thank you for bearing with us. We love Fork Frenz more than anyone ever loved anything in the history of love.
Happy Valentimes/ISO: Fried Chicken,
The Fork
