Renton Cheap Eats : Heaven Sent Fried Chicken

        At Heaven Sent Fried Chicken in Renton you can meet the man who makes the world's best fried chicken. Just ask Oprah.
     "Oh yeah man!" says Ezell Stephens. "She had my chicken two night in a row... and once she got back to Chicago, she wanted it again for her birthday so she flew me out. And it's been Oprah's fried chicken ever since.

   The chicken may be Oprah's but the recipe belongs to Ezell Stephens. And even though he's been frying chicken for 40 years, Ezell is still having fun.

  "When you're the best at what you do, it's never boring. Never."

The past few years have actually been anything but boring.

 After legal battles with his former business partners and his ex-wife, Ezell had to give up the name of his famed Seattle chicken chain: Ezell's. So this high priest of poultry came up with a new name.

"It's a true name." says Ezell, who is wearing his "God is Good All the Time" t-shirt and a cross around his neck.. "It's not a made up name."

The name is Heaven Sent.

" Did you notice it's just got baptized?" Ezell says as we watch him soaking the chicken."Just baptized that chicken man. Heaven Sent: you gotta baptize it" Ezell laughs. ( And it's an infectious laugh).

The name has changed. The recipe has not. That's what draws regular customers like James Pryor who knows all about what went down between Ezell the chicken chain and Ezell the man.

"Since the whole thing went down I kinda picked a side and came here for the original." Pryor says.
"And any regrets?" I ask
 "Absolutely not. That's why I'm here today."

  We were kind of surprised Ezell let us into the kitchen where we could see him seasoning the spicy chicken with flour and what was probably cayenne. Wasn't he worried somebody who knows a lot about food would be able to figure out what his ingredients were?

"Some of the people will know WHAT it is,  but not what it IS." Ezell laughs.

I don't know if this is a secret but Ezell deep fries dark meat for 19 minutes and white meat for just 16. I would have thought it was the other way around.

"Everyone comes in here saying 'Wow your white meat is not dry like everywhere else where it's dry."

 So here's what the world's best fried chicken looks like. It's incredibly crunchy on the outside but when you peel away the top what you get is  succulent on the inside. If it's not the best chicken in the world, it's at least the best chicken in MY world. Bread rolls are light and tasty. The Sweet Potato Pie is another Oprah favorite. You can also get the award winning Faygo soda here. You'll probably want your order to go but there's a nice park across the street.


Extra hint: You want a fresh batch if possible. Check to see what Ezell's doing in the kitchen.

Heaven Sent Fried Chicken
509 S 3rd St Renton, WA 98057
(425) 917-3000
7 days a week, 10 AM to 9 PM

There are also locations in the Lake City neighborhood of Seattle, Rainier Avenue in Columbia City and in Everett but every time I visit the Renton eatery Ezell is there.

Heaven Sent Fried Chicken.com
Evening Magazine story