Where can you get the best hot chicken sandwich in Sacramento? A new competition will settle it
Want more food news? Sign up for the Food & Drink newsletter at sacbee.com/foodnews to get your weekly fill.
Burgers are so 2016. Sacramento’s spiciest new competition is the first Sac Hot Chicken Battle, debuting June 16 at Southside Park.
Organized by Beers in Sac and local marketing manager Lorenzo Garcia, who runs the popular Instagram account @sacfoodandbooze, the Sac Hot Chicken Battle will pit 14 local hot chicken sandwich makers against each other, with two winners decided by a panel of judges and crowd voting.
A final list of participating restaurants and food trucks will be published on the Sac Hot Chicken Battle’s Instagram page, @sachotchickenbattle, May 13. Applicants so far include Skip’s Fish & Chicken, Nash + Tender, Pangaea Bier Cafe and Bawk, Garcia said.
The Nashville-style hot chicken craze swept through the country over the last five or so years. It doesn’t show any sign of slowing down in Sacramento. Three restaurants focusing on fried chicken opened around the region in March alone, and droves of others have added hot chicken sandwiches to their menus.
It was only a matter of time, then, before someone organized a competition to answer a common question: Who makes the region’s best hot chicken sandwich? Just as the Sacramento Burger Battle drew big crowds and big-name chefs from 2012-2019, so too will the Sac Hot Chicken Battle crown a champion — while raising money for charity.
“I think we really picked up on trend of hot chicken a little late, but I think we’re getting up there with the quality and spice levels and all that,” Garcia said. “So many restaurants here focus on hot chicken sandwiches, or it’s normal restaurants getting in the game. It’s a trend, but I think it’s a trend that’s going to be here for a while.”
General admission tickets are $75 and VIP are $95, with proceeds going toward City of Refuge, an Oak Park nonprofit offering services for trafficking victims, unhoused people and other marginalized individuals. Tickets can be purchased online at https://hotchickenbattle.com/.
That cost covers all the quarter-sandwiches customers can eat from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. (6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for VIPs) as well as doughnuts from Doughbot, ice cream from Devil May Care and cookies from Sara’s Custom Treats. Attendees will be treated to complimentary cocktails or nonalcoholic beverages from Bawk sister bar The Roost as they enter the festival, then unlimited lagers, ciders and kombucha throughout from a dozen local breweries and cideries.
What I’m Eating
A few local gems poke out through Natomas Marketplace’s sprawling kingdom of chain restaurants. Residential neighbors are particularly partial to Koshi Ramen Bar, John Tran’s Japanese spot at 3581 Truxel Road, Suite 2. (A sister restaurant with sushi and bento boxes, Koshi Eats, can be found in South Sacramento’s Delta Shores shopping center.)
I went for the chicken tan tan ramen ($13), with its milky red broth, mild spice and baby bok choy poking through a sea of ground meat. It was pleasant and filling, slightly better than the classic tonkotsu ramen ($13), with wood ear mushrooms giving the broth lots of flavor but coming out slightly rubbery on their own.
Ramen is in the name, but a simple unagi rice bowl ($11) stood out as much as anything at Koshi. The teriyaki glaze over a super-tender grilled eel filet mixed with cabbage and white rice to create well-executed comfort food on a windy May evening. The succulent meat in Koshi’s chicken karaage ($10) made for a nice appetizer as well, with a mayonnaise-based orange sauce for dipping.
Openings & Closings
The Sacramento region’s first hard kombucha brewery and taproom, Shorebirds Brewing Co., is in its soft opening stage at 11327 Trade Center Drive., Suite 355 in Rancho Cordova. It’s the latest addition to the city’s burgeoning Barrel District, which also includes a meadery, a distillery and five beer breweries.
Opened Friday at 22 Main St. in Winters, L’Apero les Trois is the rare tasting room to focus on apertifs, with French-inspired small plates such as black olive tapenade or gougères. It’s backed by Berryessa Gap Vineyards owners Corinne Martinez and Nicole Salengo as well as James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Georgeanne Brennan, and received a full write-up from the San Francisco Chronicle.
After nearly 15 years at 6504 Lonetreee Blvd. in Rocklin, Turkish restaurant Anatolian Table closed on Sunday. Owner Erol Hazar is planning to relocate it to a yet-to-be-announced location, he said in a Facebook post.
This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.