Mouth numb and salt high.
After a little period of absence, it seems that pop-ups are once again the flavour of the month. In the last year, you could find street food vendors popping up in doughnut shops, clothing brands peddling toasties in department stores, and here, breakfast cafes frying chicken.
Aidan’s Kitchen has been a breakie mainstay in the heartland of Sandyford for a while now, and as well as monthly weekend small plates, they do a first Friday night of the month fried chicken popup. Because why not?
Drum & Thigh (note: no drumsticks are actually even available so 🤷🏻♂️) allows the chefs a night off from making eggs benny and full English to dredge and fry some white meat. We’ve been down a few times and there is just something compelling about the scarcity of it, and well, fried chicken has helped address more than a few of my hangovers of late.
The single page menu comprises of chicken in various configurations: sandwiches, tenders, wings, and a few sides. Have had them all and they’re all pretty solid — with some caveats.
The house fry is by far best of the bunch, actual bone-in fried chicken. Annoyingly when we went in December it seemed to have fallen off the menu which would be a real shame as it was by far the most interesting and legit thing here. I guess the market is for tenders and boneless, but this was superlative.
It’s absolutely rammed with szechuan pepper, sending my mouth almost immediately numb. And was super juicy and fried 👌🏼 just so. Hot sauce, mayo, it was what I’d want to order time and time again and I really hope there’s an appetite for this again. Makes you wonder what they could do with some drumsticks as well.
Tenders are the chicken of the moment, and I can see why but they’re just a bit one-dimensional aren’t they? Here they’re just as you’d expect, crispy and succulent inside, good hunks of white bird. They come (£9.50) in a range of guises, from hot honey & sriracha (top), buffalo sauce and ranch, or just hot sauce. I really dig them, even if they’re more about what’s on them than any real flavour of chicken.
Wings have been a mixed bag – these Korean style were just as well fried as their breast-based friends, but as seems to be the theme, they were way over-sauced. With something like hot sauce it isn’t so much of an issue but here buckets of sweet Korean BBQ and mayo made them quite unpalatable after a while. Same fate for these parmesan & truffle fries drowned in garlic mayo. It’s nice for the first few (the Koffman fries used BTW are superb), but by the end they’re soggy as hell and, just not that pleasant.
I’m quite against the ‘stuff on fries’ trend so, perhaps it’s just me. But stick with the plain and you’ve got a fabulously salty friend for your fowl.
Last but certainly not least, these are chicken sandwiches of the kind you always want them to be. Far too often disappointing alternatives to beef-related things in bread, the chicken burgers here are chonky and well put together. Largely the same toppings/sauces as the wings and tenders, but all very reliable if you prefer your chicken in bun format. Juicy, crunchy, soft, sweet, salty, it’s a Good Thing In A Bun.
There’s just one dessert and it’s super sweeeeeet, but I really liked it. Essentially a pain perdu, it’s a good counter balance to what can be a quite salty beige buffet. The honey butter toast is akin to a pretty good soft brioche, and comes sauced up with Chantilly and salted caramel (yawn) sauces. It’s simple but good stuff. Or check out the cake counter which usually has some alluring treats for later.
Drum & Thigh isn’t the pinnacle of perfect chicken pop-ups — recently Peckin’ Order has done a good job of that, or for on-the-bone goodness, and in a world where tenders still seem to be king, I still don’t think FEDs can be beaten. Stixs’ chicken is also a good shout. But Drum & Thigh more than justifies itself as a worthy night out for any chicken fan, and if pop-ups like this are a way for chefs to experiment and offer unique revenue streams beyond the norm, then count me in 🍗
Contact: aidanskitchen.co.uk/drum-n-thigh
Info: First Friday of every month
Address: 11 Starbeck Ave, Sandyford, NE2 1RH
What I’d order again: House fry, hot honey tenders, honey butter toast