FOOD REVIEW; Raising Cane’s Chicken
(Old Friends - Darrin Korb)
Chicken is, by default, the ‘other’ thing you can buy at a fast food joint. You can get a truck-load of things, or you can buy a chicken sandwich. There are exceptions, of course. Chicken Joints like KFC, Popeyes, Go Chicken Go, and Church’s can be found just about anywhere. For an ‘other’, it certainly seems to be ubiquitous.
Lately though, several people have tried to elevate ‘other’ into something more mainstream on the menu. Chicken Strip places like Zaxby’s, Strips, and Slim Chicken’s seem to be popping up everywhere. There’s one name that’s spoken with reverence though. It’s a name that’s polarizing, and it represents a chicken joint that you either absolutely love or have no idea what the fuss is about.
Cane’s.
Is it truly a cut above?
THE SHORT VERSION:
Well...yes, but I’m not really sure how they’ve pulled it off.
THE LONG VERSION:
If you want gizzards, you go to GoChickenGo and get gizzards. With G-Sauce. If you want spicy chicken strips, you go to Popeye’s. Those aren’t questions, they’re facts. Because I KNOW they’re facts, I was a little worried when I walked into Cane’s for the first time. That’s when I discovered the first rather odd thing about their menu:
There’s really...only one thing on it. Chicken strips. No pieces, no gizzards, no spicy, no nuggets. Just...strips. Oh, sure, you can get sides, but those are limited to fries, toast, and slaw, but that’s really it. I found this to be ballsy of them. That ONE THING on the menu better be damn good if it’s all you’re serving. Turns out, they sort of are. Which is a little odd, because I can’t really figure out why.
Cane’s chicken strips are different right out of the chute, and they don’t stop being different until they’re all gone. For starterss, the pieces of chicken that they bread are HUGE. You don’t really appreciate how big they are at first glance either, because of another thing about Cane’s strips that’s odd: The breading.
Chicken strips are heavily breaded. This is a true-ism of fast food. I’ve worked in fast food and I’ve eaten my share of chicken strips over the years — hell, I’ve probably eaten YOUR fair share too. Cane’s strips aren’t heavily breaded at all. It’s only a light coating of breading, thin and crisp, except for the last one at the bottom of the basket. It’s a little moist on one side, which would be gross, except that somehow, they don’t feel...oily either. Sure, you’re going to end up with grease on your hands, but not overwhelmingly so. I’m not sure how they do that and still end up with a finished product like the one they serve, but...there you go. Take your first bite of chicken and you’ll notice that it’s moist and tender, and HOT. None of this Luke-warm stuff that you usually get. That aside, you won’t taste much beyond...chicken. And that’s when the worry will start to set in. Is Cane’s just another generic chicken place with a ton of Louisiana fanboys following in its wake?
Maybe? See, Cane’s got its start down in Louisiana, which explains their purportedly famous Cane’s Sauce, which is...really the next really odd thing about the whole experience. See, if you taste the Cane’s sauce, it will only confuse you. Your tongue is telling you that the sauce has wonderful, complex flavors, but you can’t hear any of that over the roaring voice in your mind screaming, “BLACK PEPPER!!!!!” There’s clearly more to the sauce, but the only thing you’ll ever come away from a taste being able to identify is the damn pepper. Lovely. The Cajuns have managed to create a liquid form of pepper. Huzzah. And that’s when you really start to get worried, because the two biggest things that people harp about at Cane’s are the chicken tenders and the sauce, and they’re both kind of... off.
Then one of the employees politely reminds you to dip the chicken INTO the Cane’s sauce. So you do, and you take a bite, and it blows the back of your fucking head off.
It’s equal parts amazing and frightening when you recover enough of your mental facilities to contemplate it. Cane’s has somehow taken two very one-dimensional foods and figured out how to combine them to form the culinary equivalent of an Yngwie Malmsteen solo. That’s like combining two forms of plain yogurt and ending up with C4. It shouldn’t be possible, but it is, and like any kind of explosive, you just want more of it in your life.
Yes, yes, the toast is also absolutely incredible, and the fries aren’t bad either, and it’s also startlingly affordable next to some of the other Strip joints out there — I’m looking at you Zaxby’s. Coleslaw is the devil’s condiment, and I didn’t try it. Their tea is also some of the best tea I’ve ever had at a restaurant, sit-down or otherwise.
So there you have it. Cane’s Chicken. It’s good. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I should want to know why. I should want to know what dark, eldritch horror they prayed to in order to accomplish what they have. Unfortunately, the part of my brain responsible for such contemplation was a casualty of the first bite, and I sort of...never looked back after that.
You’ve been warned, Mitch. You’ve been warned.
Chicken is, by default, the ‘other’ thing you can buy at a fast food joint. You can get a truck-load of things, or you can buy a chicken sandwich. There are exceptions, of course. Chicken Joints like KFC, Popeyes, Go Chicken Go, and Church’s can be found just about anywhere. For an ‘other’, it certainly seems to be ubiquitous.
Lately though, several people have tried to elevate ‘other’ into something more mainstream on the menu. Chicken Strip places like Zaxby’s, Strips, and Slim Chicken’s seem to be popping up everywhere. There’s one name that’s spoken with reverence though. It’s a name that’s polarizing, and it represents a chicken joint that you either absolutely love or have no idea what the fuss is about.
Cane’s.
Is it truly a cut above?
THE SHORT VERSION:
Well...yes, but I’m not really sure how they’ve pulled it off.
THE LONG VERSION:
If you want gizzards, you go to GoChickenGo and get gizzards. With G-Sauce. If you want spicy chicken strips, you go to Popeye’s. Those aren’t questions, they’re facts. Because I KNOW they’re facts, I was a little worried when I walked into Cane’s for the first time. That’s when I discovered the first rather odd thing about their menu:
There’s really...only one thing on it. Chicken strips. No pieces, no gizzards, no spicy, no nuggets. Just...strips. Oh, sure, you can get sides, but those are limited to fries, toast, and slaw, but that’s really it. I found this to be ballsy of them. That ONE THING on the menu better be damn good if it’s all you’re serving. Turns out, they sort of are. Which is a little odd, because I can’t really figure out why.
Cane’s chicken strips are different right out of the chute, and they don’t stop being different until they’re all gone. For starterss, the pieces of chicken that they bread are HUGE. You don’t really appreciate how big they are at first glance either, because of another thing about Cane’s strips that’s odd: The breading.
Chicken strips are heavily breaded. This is a true-ism of fast food. I’ve worked in fast food and I’ve eaten my share of chicken strips over the years — hell, I’ve probably eaten YOUR fair share too. Cane’s strips aren’t heavily breaded at all. It’s only a light coating of breading, thin and crisp, except for the last one at the bottom of the basket. It’s a little moist on one side, which would be gross, except that somehow, they don’t feel...oily either. Sure, you’re going to end up with grease on your hands, but not overwhelmingly so. I’m not sure how they do that and still end up with a finished product like the one they serve, but...there you go. Take your first bite of chicken and you’ll notice that it’s moist and tender, and HOT. None of this Luke-warm stuff that you usually get. That aside, you won’t taste much beyond...chicken. And that’s when the worry will start to set in. Is Cane’s just another generic chicken place with a ton of Louisiana fanboys following in its wake?
Maybe? See, Cane’s got its start down in Louisiana, which explains their purportedly famous Cane’s Sauce, which is...really the next really odd thing about the whole experience. See, if you taste the Cane’s sauce, it will only confuse you. Your tongue is telling you that the sauce has wonderful, complex flavors, but you can’t hear any of that over the roaring voice in your mind screaming, “BLACK PEPPER!!!!!” There’s clearly more to the sauce, but the only thing you’ll ever come away from a taste being able to identify is the damn pepper. Lovely. The Cajuns have managed to create a liquid form of pepper. Huzzah. And that’s when you really start to get worried, because the two biggest things that people harp about at Cane’s are the chicken tenders and the sauce, and they’re both kind of... off.
Then one of the employees politely reminds you to dip the chicken INTO the Cane’s sauce. So you do, and you take a bite, and it blows the back of your fucking head off.
It’s equal parts amazing and frightening when you recover enough of your mental facilities to contemplate it. Cane’s has somehow taken two very one-dimensional foods and figured out how to combine them to form the culinary equivalent of an Yngwie Malmsteen solo. That’s like combining two forms of plain yogurt and ending up with C4. It shouldn’t be possible, but it is, and like any kind of explosive, you just want more of it in your life.
Yes, yes, the toast is also absolutely incredible, and the fries aren’t bad either, and it’s also startlingly affordable next to some of the other Strip joints out there — I’m looking at you Zaxby’s. Coleslaw is the devil’s condiment, and I didn’t try it. Their tea is also some of the best tea I’ve ever had at a restaurant, sit-down or otherwise.
So there you have it. Cane’s Chicken. It’s good. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I should want to know why. I should want to know what dark, eldritch horror they prayed to in order to accomplish what they have. Unfortunately, the part of my brain responsible for such contemplation was a casualty of the first bite, and I sort of...never looked back after that.
You’ve been warned, Mitch. You’ve been warned.
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