I tried the chicken by itself first, and I found that the flavor was simple and subtle.
The author presents her pieces of chicken before and after taking bites.
Joey Hadden/Insider
The chicken could have done with slightly less breading, in my opinion, but I was thrilled with how crispy and juicy the meat was.
In terms of flavor, the chicken tasted a bit bland to me on its own, even though, according to a representative for Yardbird, the chicken is soaked in a sugar-salt brine with paprika and cayenne pepper for 27 hours before being fried in lard.
If I didn’t have sauces to hand, I would have added salt and pepper to give the chicken a bit more flavor. And as I soon found, adding Yardbird’s sauces to the chicken changed everything.