Must-try dish: Tennessee Hot fried chicken at Revival - Best of MN 2016

Fried chicken — everyone can prepare it well, right? Wrong. Revival chef Thomas Boemer's fidelity to Southern traditions is so strong that the recipe could be ripped from the tattered pages of a vintage cookbook from a Southern Baptist ladies auxiliary: Amish-raised birds tenderized in a buttermilk marinade and fried in lard, yielding a nutmeg-browned coating that is prodigiously crispy yet miraculously doesn't fall away from the juice-laden, flavor-rich meat. Boemer's Tennessee Hot rendition improves upon perfection, generously brushed with an incendiary cayenne-heavy spice blend. Revival's signature dish also constitutes what is easily the year's best leftovers. 4257 Nicollet Av. S., Mpls., 612-345-4516, revivalmpls.com

Best of Minnesota 2016

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