Krispy Krunchy Chicken in Bayview

I’m back! And yet, I never really left. Mandated sheltering will do that to a person. Though, mine was slightly different as it turns out I was an “essential” employee so I actually got up and went to work each day. What constituted my weekend was spent inside my room trying to give my roommates space since they didn’t go out at all! Of course, as things went on, we were treated more as “essentially replaceable” and should be “happy you have a job” BS which made things so much fun. Meanwhile, life went from zero to scary quickly and then devolved into confusing, messy and stupid ridiculousness. When that many people are pent up seemingly interminably, things are bound to explode in some form. To say the lockdowns exacerbated things would be an understatement. All that sitting and stewing and surfing the internet will do that to anyone. A spark (or many) to a flame that will hopefully bring about some real change for once.

Much of this indoor time also drove me more into food since binging TV also means binging food. It is amazing how doing nothing just makes one want to snack and gorge. Thus in full circle it has also brought me back to writing about food since I kind of missed it. I think I’ve said before, the writing is a creative outlet and food really is about so much more than just the food and whether it is good or bad. Nothing is ever that simple. Okay, sometimes, but not always.

So here I am. I didn’t stop getting food from restaurants, well for a bit, but once they sort of figured out stuff and delivery/take out was available I utilized several of those delivery services (not fans of any of them) and, since I was already walking back and forth to work (that essential worker badge came in handy!) I could swing by and get some take out. Thus why not make a return with all the food I was somehow able to get. What better way to kick it off than some comfort food—good ‘ol fried chicken.

Krispy Krunchy Chicken has a bit of rep around SF as a those in the know place to get some affordable and tasty fried chicken. Part of that stems from the fact they are usually found inside of other places like gas stations, or like the one I hit up, the Super Save Supermarket in Bayview. By virtue of it being a grocery store and therefore essential, it was open and well, why not.

The store itself is….interesting and reminds of the many of the mom and pops groceries you find in the Mission. Tucked off to the left back corner as you walk in. I decided to pop in before my work shift and they weren’t busy, duh, most folks still home, but a few people were hanging around. The menu is very busy with a lot of combo variations so it took me awhile to kind of figure out which would be a bang for the buck kind of thing. After too much pondering I settled on a two piece combo with biscuit and one side and then had them add an extra side just to give it a try. After getting my order I headed towards work and found a wide open space with no people around to sit down and see what all the fuss was about.

I actually specifically asked for a leg and breast just get one dark and one white. To be honest, at fast food places it is hard to tell just when something was cooked and placed in the bin under the heat lamps (I know, having worked as multiple places like this) but all said, the outside of the chicken was still crispy and pulls off easily in flakes to munch on because, be honest, that is the best part and we’d all eat just that if we could. The leg was tender, juicy and plump. I’ve also been a leg fan. I will say the batter had some copious amounts of black pepper in it which you can see in the pic. Not terribly overwhelming, but most definitely noticeable. Sadly, while the outside of the breast was krispy krunchy, the inside was dry. Enough that a side of bbq sauce or ranch to dip it in would have been nice. While I finished off the leg, after a couple of bites, I just contented myself with pulling as much of the outside krispy skin/batter as possible.

This comes with something they call a honey biscuit and I had high hopes for it but those were pretty dashed when he was making up my combo. The ones on tray all looked like they had been there since the morning shift. All a little too brown and the “honey” is really something brushed on top after cooking. It didn’t help, just made it sticky on top and not in a good way. Plus, they didn’t have any butter packets they could give me which would have been only a marginal help as the biscuit pretty much crumbled apart on me after a couple bites. Biscuits shouldn’t do that. They should be light and fluffy inside. Add in it was small and fit in the palm of my hand and this was a complete bust for me. I’ve said it before, I’m from the South, I know a biscuit and this wasn’t it. But what about the sides?

Yeah, I thought I’d try mac and cheese even though I’m usually useless carb averse unless it involves dessert. Looks wise it was fine. It still steamed a little bit and the cheese was soft and creamy without being sticky. The macaroni was slightly overdone and as far as the cheese went, oddly, it didn’t have a lot of flavor. It desperately needed some kind of pick me up like pepper or you know, salt. I will say it was okay, but we’ve all had better. (Sometimes even out of a box!)

My add on side caught my interest just from the description on the menu. Plus, it didn’t look too bad on the hot bar heat lamp he was scooping out of. It is white rice with bits of chicken, (supposedly) andouille sausage, red and green peppers, paprika, and other spices, kind of. The rice was overdone, but at least it wasn’t krunchy. Though, for sometime listed as jambalaya, I was thinking it would have all kinds of spicy flavor but in truth, not so much. I mean it was okay, just not an exciting kick in the tastebuds they make it out to be. But there was quite of bit of sausage in there if you need a positive. Otherwise, meh, I wasn’t getting any New Orleans flashes out of this take on low country cajun.

Honestly, I think some of the appeal of this place is convenience and price. It is centrally located in a main neighborhood and all in, the whole meal was around $9. About $5.50 for the two piece combo and $2.99 for the added small side. Who knows, maybe one of the other locations serves it up better (they are at a gas station in the Mission and somewhere down near Pier 39—places I’m not exactly frequenting) or maybe I needed to time it when all the batches were fresh—but who can figure out when that is! I mean those biscuits were really bad. And seriously? NO BUTTER?!! This is the unjoy of fast food sometimes, sure, it is cheap and easy (that is why all of us growing up in the South were big ‘uns), but sometimes you get what you pay for. Not sure I’d find my way back to them but they did at least live up to their name for the skin/batter of the chicken as it was krispy krunchy. Just the rest was kind of dry bland, though that in your company’s name is not as double k katchy.