BROCKTON — Debatably the signature dish of the TikTok era of American pop cuisine, the fried chicken sandwich exists without bounds. Sure, it can be dressed up and served on a house-made potato bun with a dash of chili oil and an impossible to pronounce slice of cheese, but it can also be handed through a drive through window, smushed down into a paper sack riddled with grease and yesterday’s leftover pickles.
In Brockton, the reader-decided best fried chicken sandwich spot is a combination of these two extremes: while it’s humble in price ($6.95 with tax), the sandwich’s quality and attention to detail elevates it to the very top of the list. Despite only opening its doors last summer, Enterprise readers named Yas Chicken as the restaurant with the best fried chicken sandwich in the Brockton area.
Yas won the public poll with 48.86% of the vote. Birdies Hot Chicken finished second with 34.09%, and 2 Jerks BBQ in Raynham finished third with 10.23%.
‘The seasoning!’
Yas is located at 645 Crescent St. in Brockton, just across the street from a Popeyes and a McDonald’s — two of the neon names in the fried chicken sandwich business. Meaning, anyone that walks into Yas is making an active decision to forgo two of its strongest competitors.
On Wednesday, July 30, Norwood Pearson was eating at Yas for lunch. He’d ordered the establishment’s signature sandwich, the Yas O.G’. It was Pearson’s first time at Yas and after just one bite of the sandwich, here’s what he had to say: “This blows Popeyes out of the water. Why would you go to Popeyes when you can just come here?”
Stephenie Pearson, with whom he ate, shared the sentiment. “It all works together,” she said, before continuing to list the different pieces of the sandwich that worked well for her. When she mentioned the seasoning on the fried chicken itself, Norwood jumped in. “The seasoning!” he exclaimed, pointing his finger at the sandwich in his other hand. “The seasoning!”
On the Yas O.G’ sandwich, the chicken is the clear star of the show. It’s fried to order — proven by its piping hot temperature as it sits in between two buns. “You can tell it’s made fresh,” Scott Morrison, another customer, said. “It’s not sitting in a rack.”
But if the chicken is the star, the rest of its supporting cast is well designed to accent it’s strengths. A single piece of lettuce adds a subtle crunch. Dill pickle chips provide something sour, and house-made sweet mayo provides not just a sweet touch but some guaranteed moisture in each bite.
But everyone the Enterprise spoke with at Yas talked first about the same thing: the chicken. Folks lauded the ratio between the amount of breading and the amount of chicken itself. The Pearsons were blown away by the chicken’s flavor, and another customer, Mike Secour was mainly impressed by the crispiness of the breading.
For a fried chicken sandwich, it’s probably a good sign that its the chicken that stands out.
What’s on the menu?
Along with the Yas O.G’, the Yas menu boasts a slew of fried chicken sandwich options. Theres’s the Yasville Hot — a play on the Nashville hot sandwich, and the Yas Supreme — a glammed up version of the O.G’. There’s one called The Suffering that is the spiciest of the lot and another one with mac and cheese between the chicken and the top bun.
Other than that, the Yas menu also boasts tater tots, Korean corn dogs, chicken wings and tenders, crab rangoon and even chicken and waffles.
Yas Chicken is located at 645 Crescent St. in Brockton. It’s open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and closes an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights. Other Yas locations exist in Lynn, Lawrence and Burlington. Their only location outside of Massachusetts is in Providence, R.I.
