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After earning their frying stripes at Kerb, Hawker House and Flat Iron Square, the Mother Clucker team have come to roost by the restaurant-heavy Exmouth Market. Bar the wall of flashing LED signs, its black frontage doesn’t look like much, but the inside is dotted with ferns and walls are adorned with more stickers than a Panini World Cup collection. A mix of irreverent poultry-based catchphrases (‘Who got the key to the cluck truck’) and dude-ish illustrations, they’re worth gawping at while you wait for your grub.
Brined in sweet tea for 24 hours, soaked in buttermilk and double-fried, MC’s delicious (halal) chook has a dark-brown peppery crumb – think Southern-style with half the grease and double the crunch. Wings were slightly lacking that finger-lickin’ juice, but the fried chicken burger was packed with tang (lime mayo) and crunch (lettuce leaf, plus that killer batter). Our dream combo, though? Four hefty ‘strips’ – which were basically fillets – (£5.50) with crispy cayenne-dusted skin-on ‘cajun’ fries (£3), dunked in homemade hot sauce and washed down with an ice-cold Tang – all with change from a tenner. There’s no table service and the food comes quick, so it’s not somewhere you’d linger long, but if you’re peckish and in the area, it’s pure poultry in motion.