There is no resisting the chicken at Manchu Chicken, officially the Manchu Food Store. Nobody calls it that.

Yats stop at Manchu Chicken on their way home. Most Yats work in the city and live in da Parish. They are Chalmations.

It is always busy at the Manchu Chicken on North Claiborne Avenue. Especially at night. I have never seen a line out the door, but the inside gets crowded. You have to order through a little window.

There is one kind of chicken at Manchu Chicken: wings. The chicken is Vietnamese. The chicken comes with shrimp-fried rice. All you need to go along with it is an appetite.

The Manchu Chicken on O’Reilly Street and North Dorgenois Street is not as busy as the one on Claiborne. Most people call it the St. Bernard Manchu because nobody takes O’Reilly Street to get there. It is just the tail end. Most people think it is St. Bernard Avenue but it isn’t. You can walk there through the 7th Ward.

Men sit on milk crates out front.

Both Manchu Chicken shops are painted K&B Purple.

On North Broad Street is McHardy’s Chicken & Fixin’. It never terribly busy. Its understated chicken is well-regarded. During Saints games, local tap rooms serve McHardy’s chicken by the platterful.

I am sure other places do, too. Though Orleanians cannot live off wings alone, everybody has their best fried chicken kitchen. Each is different. Each is best. Through trial-and-error, every Orleanian finds their fried chicken sweet spot. Everybody finds their tastes satiated until any more would be too much of a good things.

McHardy’s is where you go for your fried turkey at Thanksgiving. You have to order ahead. It is totally worth it. It is a neighborhood tradition. McHardy’s turkeys are succulent right down to the marrow.