Joe Dodd’s Nashville-style hot chicken has been a fixture in the bellies of Tampa’s hungriest foodies since the spring of 2019, and a recent tweak to the recipe just made King of the Coop’s fried chicken more accessible to even more eaters.
Last Thursday, Dec. 17, Dodd put into action a plan that hatched weeks ago by making his signature tenders gluten-friendly. You read that right: gluten-friendly fried chicken.
“A regular of ours reached out and noticed,” Dodd told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay on Dec. 18, a day after the gluten-friendly tendys showed up, “said it's definitely better.”
That should come as no surprise. At a private tasting on Nov. 9—as the team at King of the Coop put the final tweaks on the recipe twist—Dodd told a handful of taste testers that he agonized over the change until it was perfect. And he’s not calling the chicken “gluten-free” either because the kitchen still uses flour in some aspects.
“You can’t have our fries if you’re truly gluten-free or avoiding gluten… you can’t have the mac ‘n cheese, we’re not switching to a gluten-free pasta—that’s gross. And you can’t have the buns because gluten-free bread is terrible as well,” Dodd said with a chuckle. “You can, however, have the collard greens, the coleslaw, and you can have fried chicken.”
Dodd said that motivation for a move to a gluten-friendly recipe was two-fold. For one, it’s healthier, but the new chicken also stays crispier in to-go boxes that have become the norm in pandemic-era eating.
“Flour holds moisture. At home, if you don’t seal your flour, it gets hard and it becomes stale. I can’t stand that,” Dodd explained, adding the King of the Coop’s new recipe uses just two starches in a ratio that Dodd is keeping secret. “So this new recipe doesn’t hold any of the moisture from the oil. We’ve left it covered for an hour, and it was as crispy as when it came out of the fryer.”
The chicken—which is being fried, along with the now gluten-friendly catfish, in a separate fryer from the fries and hush puppies—is definitely crispier; 30 minutes later from the comfort of my office chair, the tender was as crispy as when it came to me at the restaurant. And to be clear, gluten is no longer used in the King of the Coop fried chicken recipe.
Dodd joked that he decided to just go through with it while he was high one day, but the move sets King of the Coop—which is opening new locations—up to be able to serve more people. Once Dodd gets through the gluten-friendly hurdle, he plans on implementing a vegetarian option.
King of the Coop is located at 6607 N Florida Ave. in Seminole Heights, and opens at 11 a.m. every day.
Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you up to the minute news on how Coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.
Want to know everything going on with Tampa Bay's food and drink scene? Sign up for our Bites newsletter.
