And assembled with local ingredients - Forte actually grabs heads of lettuce and other veggies from a produce stand across the narrow street as he needs them. Forte pinches some maple-sugar mix between his fingers and lets it loose onto the golden skin.Įach waffle is pressed to order. “You ready for this,” he says, as he pulls a batch from the fryer. And the bonus: it’s also gluten free, he says, which Forte and King believe is an asset these days. First, it’s dredged in rice flour - a trick Forte says he learned from the Asian tradition of deep frying chicken, which makes it crispier and less oily than traditionally wheat-breaded chicken. The chicken, which is marinated in a special and secret spice blend for 36 hours, is made to order. On any given day, the small eatery is rammed the music blares and staff smile and bend to the rhythm, even though sweat rains from their brows as they speed to keep up demand. Within months, Forte, on a stroll through Kensington, spotted a vacant storefront. “We can’t continue!” she remembers thinking. When the truck broke down during the 2013 ice storm (that Saturday night, they actually served Kanye West, via his bodyguard), King had enough. Then the catering, pop-up and food-truck adventures began. The building landlord tried it and proclaimed “this is a dirty bird!” Forte says. Forte, former executive chef at Rock Lobster, and his business partner and Dirty Bird co-executive chef Brian Butler, were experimenting with fried chicken recipes on (Forte recalls the date with ease, clarity and a distant smile) when this sweet, savoury dish was born.

Devour fried chicken and waffles