Southern fried chicken is perhaps the best known dish of the area, and it, too, is a legacy of African cooks in plantation kitchens. A recipe appears in the 1828 edition of The Virginia House-Wife; The Carolina Housewife, published in Charleston in 1847, includes several. Most of the pan-fried versions are succulent homemade dishes made to be served hot, but many southern cooks now leave the deep-fried versions, which remain crispy longer, to the many fast-food franchises that were begun, naturally, in the South, among them, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeye’s (New Orleans), Church’s (San Antonio), Bojangles’ (Charlotte, North Carolina), and Hardee’s (originally based in Greenville, North Carolina).
