Hill Country Chicken

Recently, after the press event at SD26, a bunch of us wandered a few blocks over to Hill Country Chicken (fried).  Among the five of us, I think we ordered nearly the entire menu…

I wanted a thigh each of Mama El’s & original, though I’d certainly liked the original better last time.  Here’s Mama El’s.   

Slightly closer up.  I have to say again that I’m not really a fan of this – it’s bready on the outside, and has a coating that just doesn’t jibe well with me.  Though the coating is flavorful and well-seasoned, I prefer having skin on my fried chicken (I’m a health nut, you see).  And I just think it could be better. 

Here is my original thigh.  Yum.  Fried properly, crispy on the outside while maintaining a juicy inside, I enjoy this fried chicken well enough to return. 

However – and I noted this last time – I definitely am coming around to the camp that better fried chicken can be made at home, and I’m working on a final recipe to share with everyone… for those of us who are afraid to deep fry at home (there’s more people like that than you might imagine), or who don’t own and don’t want to own deep fryers, well, Hill Country suits perfectly fine.

And there are no innards shots because I was using a camera that makes it incredibly difficult to shoot one-handed, and it was difficult to eat and then take more pictures with greasy hands.  Sorry!

The biscuit I decided to order was woefully dry, and could have used some honey butter or some other such condiment to increase the tastiness.  As it stood, this was not fluffy, hot, and wonderful, the standards I’ve come to expect from biscuits at fried chicken joints.  Pass.  Even if I’d gone upstairs to retrieve some butter and honey and mixed them together, pass! 

For our first side, we have… blistered corn salad.  Quite refreshing and exceptionally healthy with regard to the other offerings, though judging by the picture, there’s not really all that much blistering going on.  I liked this well enough, finding it bright and nice to cut through the grease of the chicken, but perhaps a bit more vinegar, a bit more bite to it would have been nice.  Tasty… enough.  I might order this for a side again, given the other options. 

What is this?  It’s what they called ‘cheesy fried mashed potatoes’.  Really, it’s fries mashed potatoes, as in, there are French fries dumped on top with cheese and then baked.  Maybe this would be good freshly made, piping hot from the oven, but given the cafeteria-style set-up at Hill Country Chicken – one of its greatest drawbacks – the fries were strangely textured – not crispy, but hard chunks within trying-to-be-pillowy mashed potatoes – and I just felt heavy and gross after eating a few bites.  Pass again. 

Fire & Ice Pickles – at 50c for the cup – are quite a steal, as Beer Boor suggested that may mean only one pickle.  Nope, it’s a small cup of pickle chips, and while they might look fairly standard, they’re actually really good.  Why?  Because the ‘fire’ part comes from the red pepper flakes soaking alongside the chips, which give them an occasional kick that shows up unannounced on your tongue.  I enjoyed these, even given my sensitivity to spiciness, and had a fun time trying not to kill myself while eating them.  Sometimes just sour, sometimes also spicy.  Yum!

Nommables ordered carrot & raisin slaw, which I did not sample, but looked positively glutted with watery mayo.  I’ll have to ask him to chime in with his two cents, though I do recall he wasn’t that pleased with the meal overall, so I imagine this did nothing to help. 

He also ordered fries, which he deemed way too salty, and a mini butterscotch pie, which he refused to finish after a few bites.  Yikes. 

CT & TT shared a cowboy pie, which would have been my order had there not been listed “coconut” as an ingredient.  Neither of them enjoyed it, and tried to pass it off around the table… too sweet was the verdict. 

Unable to order the above pie, I chose the Texas Billionaire which boasted salted caramel, bittersweet chocolate, pecans and mini-marshmallows.  The pie was so dense, my fork hardly could make its way through, and the sugar so strong that my teeth ached when the fork was only placed near my mouth, before entering.  I had about two bites before I gave up in sugary shock and disgust. 

The only winner of the night for pie was Beer Boor, who wisely chose banana cream pie.  I swiped a bite and was pleased enough that someone showed much more restraint with regard to the addition of sugar than with the other pies, but I couldn’t say this was the best banana pudding I’ve ever had.  Perhaps I was just relieved at it NOT sucking. 

Here is another angle on my pie.  Doesn’t it look like dog poo?  Isn’t that an appetizing thought with which I leave you?  You’re welcome.

Yvo says: As you can see, though the fried chicken is enjoyable enough, all of the other additions leave me underwhelmed enough that it just doesn’t seem justifiable to return.  The prices aren’t cheap, either – we had a BlackBoard Eats coupon that knocked 30% off our bill and it was still just OK in terms of price – such that with mediocre to bad sides, good/decent fried chicken, it really seems more worth it to keep looking for a better fried chicken joint.  Pretty disappointing, given that the location is convenient to many things…  Oh, and regarding the cafeteria-style set-up I alluded to earlier; they pre-fry the chicken and keep it warm in warming ovens, which certainly should lower the cost premium, and definitely deteriorates the quality of the fried chicken.  Bah.
not recommended