BIG’S CHICKEN
Longtime Portland chef (and winner of Food Network’s “Chopped”) Ben Bettinger’s Alabama-style chicken shack is back up and running after a devastating fire took the original Glisan location offline in 2017. There is also now a Beaverton outpost, dishing up the same hearty fare as the original—plump, moist smoked birds served grilled or fried, alongside heaps of homemade coleslaw, crispy jojos, black-eyed pea salad, and mashed potatoes. Dirty up your order with chopped smoked chicken, Creole gravy, cotija cheese, green onions, and housemade Fresno pepper and tangy mayonnaise-based “white gold” sauces.
4570 SW WATSON AVE.
BEAVERTON
HAT YAI BELMONT
Whether your standing order at the original North Killings-worth location is the hallowed Hat Yai fried chicken combo or a bowl of the terrifically rich brisket curry, James Beard Award-nominated restaurateur Earl Ninsom’s new inner Southeast Portland shop has you covered. Slurp the shrimp and clam curry with tender young bamboo and spinach, or the crab noodles with chanterelle mushrooms, or, if you don’t believe in messing with a good thing, the infallible Hat Yai Combo.
605 SE BELMONT ST.
PORTLAND
BIRD & RYE
Uniting whiskey and fried chicken, chef Neil Clooney’s cozy brick-walled downtown Ashland pub—formerly Smithfields Pub & Pies—promises plates of crispy fried chicken (buttermilk-soaked or Nashville Hot), fried chicken wings, fried chicken thigh sandwiches and popcorn chicken with Sriracha ranch, plus a slew of stick-to-your-ribs snacks and sides like pimento cheese hush puppies with charred green onion aioli.
23 S 2ND ST.
ASHLAND
SIDE A BREWING
This former firehouse turned brewpub—brainchild of childhood friends Nicholas Fairbanks, Scott McConnell and Travis Hansen—doesn’t disappoint on the pub grub front. Sourcing from Eastern Oregon ranchers and farmers such as 6 Ranch and Jen’s Garden, the internationally influenced menu includes Korean-braised pork and kimchi tacos, chimichurri mayo-slathered burgers and a formidable fried chicken sandwich stacked with pickled fennel, spicy arugula, and chili mayonnaise, on a pillowy potato bun from nearby Kneads Bakery.
1219 WASHINGTON AVE.
LA GRANDE
