Batter up

LITTLE ROCK — This cover story tastes like, well, chicken.

That's because this month we flocked to restaurants in search of the finest of fried fowl that central Arkansas has to offer.

Our list is not all-inclusive. If we're dumb clucks who missed your favorite, drop an e-mail to jchristman@arkansasonline.com. Maybe we'll include it in a future Dining Out issue.

Now, in no particular pecking order (just alphabetical order), here is what we found: BEST FISH & CHICKEN

5213 W. 65th St., Little Rock, (501) 562-8400

Clucks: Whenever we can tear ourselves away from the fried tilapia here, we opt for the Eight-Piece Hot Wings, which come "wet" (barbecued) or "dry" (fried). Cooked to order, the fried wing pieces come out hot, fat, succulent, and worth any extra workout that is necessary to burn them off. The same can be said for the Best Chicken Sandwich, which consists of fried chicken breast loaded up with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and, for an extra fee, cheese. Even a hearty eater will find it a challenge to finish off. (If you must save a few calories, get the grilled version.)

Bucks: The wings: $5.99; $6.99 if fries are added. The sandwich: $5.25; an extra 50 cents is charged for cheese.

- Helaine R. Williams

BOBBY'S COUNTRY COOKIN'

301 N. Shackleford Road (in the West Chase Plaza, northeast corner of Shackleford Road and West Markham Street.), Little Rock, (501) 224-9500

Clucks: Bobby's takes such pride in its fried chicken that it's the one entree that's available each day the restaurant is open, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. The menu says "Award Winning Fried Chicken" without specifying whohanded out the award, but at least I did not doubt the claim. Although I am no wild-eyed devotee of the fried bird and I do run from oily stuff, this is no greasy fowl. Instead, it's cooked just right and waiting as you go through the cafeteria-style line. Business is so brisk that the fried chicken seems to keep on a-comin', just like Grandma was in the kitchen, all hopped up on sweet tea.

Bucks: Pricing is simple at Bobby's, and all prices include tax. The daily plate lunch, $7, includes a piece of chicken of your choice, two vegetables and a homemade roll or corn bread. If you only want the bird, it's $3.50, or $3.75 for it with roll or corn bread. For the bird, bread and one veggie, it's $6.

- Jack W. Hill

CATFISH HOLE

603 Spriggs Road, North Little Rock, (501) 758-3516

Clucks: You might not expect fried chicken to be a specialty at a place called the Catfish Hole, but it is. There's one catch if you want a hot, fresh (they don't make it any other way) plate of the Catfish Hole's lesser-known talent: You've got to be willing to wait a while for it to cook. And not everyone is. Like the couple at the table next to us, who snarled at our sweet waitress that they'd waited 40 minutes and still had no food (aside from fixings of coleslaw, pickles, onions and lemons) before storming out of the aged, laid-back eatery. It's not that the chicken isn't worth the wait, so much as we're not sure it really requires such a long wait. The chicken we were served, in addition to some hushpuppies and fries, was a bit too dark, dry and overdone. A slightly shorter cooking time would have satisfied our hunger a bit better and sooner.

Bucks: A half dinner of two pieces costs $7.99, an adult dinner of four pieces costs $10.99 and an all-you-can-eat dinner costs $13.99. All white meat for any dinner costs $1 extra.

- Jennifer Christman

CHICKEN COUNTRY

1922 W. Main St., Jacksonville, (501) 982-2424

Clucks: If you're yearning for the taste of down-home, Southern-fried chicken and want it served up at the speed of a fast-food place, you may want to check out Chicken Country in Jacksonville. The restaurant is located in a homey-looking yellow building off West Main Street, and it's got a definite country flair to it. Inside, you'll find a modestly decorated dining room, and a cafeteria-style steam table setup where customers stand to peruse the menu, check out the array of food, and place an order. The restaurant's delicious chicken is covered with a golden-brown crust that's a perfect showcase for the moist meat inside. It's not too spicy, too greasy or bland. It's just right.

Bucks: Chicken Country offers two- or three-piece meals with a roll or corn bread and two sides (cabbage, fried okra, potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, corn or beans) for $4.99 and $5.99. If you want just chicken and rolls, prices range from $2.89 for two pieces and a roll, to $21.49 for 20 pieces and 12 rolls. And if you need to feed the whole family, the restaurant offers eight-, 15- and 20-piece family packs with rolls and veggies for $15.49 to $32.49.

- Rosemary Boggs

COCK OF THE WALK

7103 Cock of the Walk Drive, Maumelle, (501) 758-7182

Clucks: What sound does a peacock make? Even the quacking ducks in the pond outside get more respect than the chicken at this Gold Rush-styled dining hall, famous for its catfish. But the fowl on the menu shouldn't be tossed aside as mere fool's gold for fish-averse adolescents. The saddleleather-colored coating is darker, denser and clingier than most restaurant chicken breadings, and the well-spiced flavor is intense. We flipped for it like corn bread somersault-ing from a skillet.

Bucks: Go for the Keelboat combo - a generous blend of catfish and chicken - for $10.95, with a choice of fries or baked potato and reliables like pickled onions and creamy coleslaw.

- Kyle Brazzel

DAVID FAMILY KITCHEN

2301 Broadway, Little Rock, (501) 371-0141

Clucks: No, really - Ms. Pearl, head cook at this soulfood spot just south of downtown - really did cluck at us once. Not like a chicken but a mother hen. We had folded down a corner of a tin-foil tub of carryout fried chicken that she had purposefully vented so the pieces would stay crisp. And she's right to mind the gap. The kitchen's whole-bird finesse shows, both in what should be called breading, not coating - besides just a little spice, there's the nuttiness of a flour base browned just right - and in the juicy saber-tooth spears of meat lying there on the bone. Don't second-guess: Ms. Pearl knows how to prepare and package it.

Bucks: Plate lunches with two sides (tangy cabbage, delectable yams, pepper-pot pintos) come with either a breast and a piece of dark meat ($5.99) or, for the finicky, two breasts ($6.99). Apprised of the size of a gathering, the kitchen can also assemble togo tubs for picnics or reunions, and with their Broadway home base, it's on the way or not much out of it.

- Kyle Brazzel

FISHER'S RICK & D'S CAFE

1919 E. Broadway, North Little Rock, (501) 374-5661

Clucks: Homemade Fried Chicken Tenders are available every day at this cheerful working folks' breakfast and lunch stop, either as an entree or as the chompy part of a sandwich, but if you want the Fried Chicken Special, come Wednesday. The special involves flour-battered whole parts - a thigh, say, attached to a juicy leg - in your choice of light meat or dark and served (sometimes on chipped china) with rolls or corn bread and two or three sides. Tug at the fried topping and the skin slips off, too; so don't expect to nibble the fry batter while discarding the sinful skin. The everyday finger-length tenders are strips of filleted breast, skinless but moist under crunchy batter jackets. The chicken's filling and not too salty - ask the big lunch crowd that rushed loyally back after Fisher'sclosed voluntarily for a day and a half in June to correct healthsafety violations.

Bucks: Wednesday's Fried Chicken Special is $6.49 with two sides, $6.99 with three. The daily Fried Chicken Tenders Dinner is $7.59 with your choice of two of nine available sides and white rolls or sturdy corn bread. Side orders vary with the specials but include a memorable homemade potato salad, cornmealbattered summer squash with tangy dressing, finely chopped and sometimes creamy coleslaw, black-eyed peas loaded with ham, broccoli with cheese sauce, green beans, corn and lima beans.

- Celia Storey

FRANKE'S

Regions Bank Building, 400 Broadway, Little Rock, (501) 372-1919; Market Place, 11121 Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock, (501) 225-4487; University Mall, 300 S. University Ave., (501) 666-1941

Clucks: On Franke's menu a couple of days each week, this fried fowl doesn't qualify as "extra crispy," but it can pass muster as "reasonably crispy." The quarterchicken portion is fried with skin on and generously coated with a batter that holds a bit more grease than might be desired by fat-phobic customers. The chicken itself is juicy and flavorful, and it's easy to peel off the skin. There's a choice between breast and wing or thigh and drumstick.

Bucks: The fried quarter-chicken, either white meat or dark meat, costs $3.39.

- Jack Schnedler

HOMER'S RESTAURANT

2001 E. Roosevelt Road, Little Rock, (501) 374-1400

Clucks: If you want fried chicken for cheap, this is the place. But only from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, when it's the daily special. The casual joint by the airport will be packed, but service is quick and you won'twait long. While the place is overridden with the male species, the gentler sex is absolutely welcome, it's just in the extreme minority. As far as the chicken, it's tasty, but simple. Nothing out of the ordinary, little seasoning and not overly greasy.

Bucks: Choice of two largerthan-usual pieces of white- or dark-meat fried chicken lunches served with choice of two sides (mashed potatoes with gravy, potato salad, fried potatoes with onions, coleslaw, spinach, rice and gravy, smothered cabbage, pinto beans, whole kernel corn, purple-hull peas, Italian green beans, whole pickled okra, tossed salad or turnip greens) and a homemade roll or a regular or jalapeno corn bread muffin, all for $5.89. Entrees can be doubled for an extra $3.29, and each additional side is 99 cents.

- Samantha Friedman

KIERRE'S KOUNTRY KITCHEN

6 Collins Industrial Place, Maumelle, (501) 758-0903

Clucks: If the only fried chicken you're accustomed to goes by the name of wings or chicken tenders, then genuine bone-in, skin-on fried chicken can be a shock to the taste buds. The presence of the bone makes for a richer, meatier flavor, and the skin holds in that taste, as well as moisture. The chicken here fits the bill, as it is moist and tender in a peppery batter cooked to a brown crisp. Kierre's, which is open only for breakfast and lunch, serves fried chicken on Thursday's. The staff advises arriving at the restaurant before 1 p.m. if you want to make sure you get some.

Bucks: At $6.25, the fried chicken plate includes three side orders selected from mashed potatoes and gravy, boiled cabbage, macaroni-andcheese and black-eyed peas. You also have a choice of ayeast roll or corn bread.

- Rhonda Owen

LUBY'S

3929 McCain Blvd., North Little Rock, (501) 771-4911 ; 12501 W. Markham St., Little Rock, (501) 219-1567

Clucks: A recent fried chicken quarter at the Mc-Cain Mall Luby's didn't live up to our childhood memories of dining at the cafeteria after church. Maybe we went on a bad day, or maybe we just weren't picky eaters as kids. But the tough chicken with brittle coating had little flavor and held no heat by the time it reached the table.

Bucks: At the mall, a Lu Ann Platter, featuring fried chicken, two sides (everything from mashed potatoes, to carrot salad, to fried okra) and bread, costs $6.59.

- Jennifer Christman

PAUL'S RESTAURANT

3700 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock, (501) 753-8833

Clucks: If the cartoonish fowl illustrated on the restaurant's front window didn't make you aware that Paul's, a simple eatery with wood paneling, wildlife paintings and varied furnishings, is proud of its chicken, the many asterisks around "This is a House Specialty" on the chicken portion of the menu would. Keep reading if you plan to order one of Paul's fried chicken baskets, which in our experience come served not in baskets but on dinner plates with two sides (from baked beans, to potato salad, to corn) and a sweet roll: "We start cooking your chicken when you place your order, so please allow a minimum of 20 minutes for your meal to be served." A recent full-figured fried chicken breast was cooked just long enough for the meat to be juicy and the subtly seasoned coating to become properly firm.

Bucks: Basket prices begin at $4.49 for a one-piece leg or thigh meal and stop at $7.99 for an all-white basket with two breasts and one wing. A whole chicken (eight pieces) costs $13.99.

- Jennifer Christman

STICKY FINGERZ ROCK 'N' ROLL CHICKEN SHACK

107 S. Commerce St., Little Rock, (501) 372-7707

Clucks: Be prepared for a hot time when you champ down on the chicken-fried chicken with cream gravy at Sticky Fingerz. The butterflied chicken breast is battered and fried crispy brown on the outside, succulent and white on the inside, and flies straight from the fryer to you while it's tongue-searing hot (that's because the chicken is cooked to order). If the meat doesn't provide enough heat, the peppery-and-spicy cream gravy will awaken all your senses. But take a bite of the soft homestyle biscuit - just a little greasy, as biscuits should be - and it's, oh yeah, all cool.

Bucks: The Dixie Chicken dinner with a salad, biscuit and a choice of one side (fried jalapenos, a garlicky hash-brown casserole, mashed potatoes, fries, onion rings, fried okra, chips or coleslaw) is $10.99.

- Rhonda Owen

WALKER'S SOUL FOOD HEAVEN

1700 Main St., North Little Rock, (501) 812-5904

Clucks: Walker's keeps fried chicken as a daily selection on its plate-lunch menu. That's good to know, because on those days you just don't feel like eating "cute," eating "lite," or eating chi-chi gourmet, this is what you want. Just go into the dimly lit, cavern-like, cozy place, line up at the window and wait for caring servers to dish you out a generous helping that would make the Colonel weep - if you're lucky, you'll get a breast and a drumstick. The sneakup-on-you seasoning on this non-greasy chicken will have you picking the bones.

Bucks: A plate lunch featuring fried chicken, two veggies and a roll or corn bread will set you back $6.

- Helaine R. Williams

YOUR MAMA'S GOOD FOOD

220 W. Fourth St., Little Rock, (501) 372-1811

Clucks: Your Mama's deep-fried chicken, served at Wednesday lunch only, is a paragon of exterior crispness and interior moistness with a minimum of grease. Cook Brian Davis soaks skinless breasts overnight in salt water, then breads them with flour, Cavender's Greek seasoning and black pepper. They go back into the refrigerator, then are battered a second time before being fried about 12 minutes at 350 degrees. The double batter helps hold in the juice, says Davis, while the absence of skin cuts down on the fat.

Bucks: A deep-fried chicken breast plus a roll or corn bread is $4.75 with one vegetable, $5.50 with two vegetables, $6.75 with three veggies.

- Jack Schnedler