Dave’s Hot Chicken

In short, 3/5 for spicy fried chicken. That’s average. Howlin’ Rays wins in the seasoning department. This review is to have on Reddit’s servers to explain why Howlin’ Ray’s is a well rated place for spicy fried chicken.

I ordered a chicken sandwich with no slaw lite mild. On purpose for comparison. The chicken itself was slightly on the dry side. Some retained moisture in the meat. Not dry to the extent it’s chewy. Flavor, I’m getting hints of sweetness or maybe honey. The lightly seasoned fries are okay. I ordered to go, but I had chicken with more retained moisture.

This is compared to my past trip to Howlin’s months ago as to go. You order Howlin’ Ray’s. You can smell the heavy seasoning on the fried chicken without opening the bag. The fries are seasoned well and slightly spicy. It’s juicy fried chicken eaten cooked. As take out eaten 30 minutes later. Okay, but well seasoned. It’s 4/5 on my scale and good fried chicken even with basic seasonings. It’s a 5/5 for take out American fried chicken.

Among places for fried chicken. Howlin’ Ray’s is top when you want seasoned crunchy fried chicken with plenty of flavor. Much more flavoring than KFC’s original recipe. However, spiciness is competition versus Korean fried chicken utilizing flavor filled sauces with ability to mellow out the heat instead of pure pain of the Carolina Reaper pepper. Popeyes doesn’t come close to spicy level of Howlin’ Ray’s.

I’m rating Dave’s Hot Chicken a 3/5 for average because it reminds me of Popeyes Fried Chicken Sandwiches as being on the dry side. Less compared to Chick-fil-A’s chicken sandwiches with retained moisture a few hours later. The reason for not rating Howlin’ Ray’s a 5/5 is wanting chicken with the highest percentage of retained moisture. Wanting that kind of fried chicken runs against 165F internal versus pasteurization.