I haven't had fried chicken in a while now mind you, but both when I was a kid and my family would have leftover KFC, and as an adult in the rare occasion I do get fried chicken, I have always loved it more after it's been sitting overnight in the fridge.
Won't heat that shit in the microwave or nuthin, just eat it straight cold and love it like that.
Your last sentence makes it a bit tough. I want to upvote as I think the fresh hot chicken is better but cold is not bad to the point I would rather do cold than microwave it.
I think how good cold fried chicken tastes depends very much on the type of oil it was fried in, and whether it's been overcooked and/or has sat under a heat lamp for too long. Under the right circumstances cold fried chicken can be fantastic. But it's pretty easy to make it bad.
The problem isn't flavor, imo. Cold chicken is really good, in different ways from warm and hot. Dunno if I'd say better, but good in its own way.
It's texture. Doesn't matter what the temp is if the breading isn't good, and cold breading might taste fine, but the texture is crap. Might as well not have fried chicken at that point, just pick up a rotisserie chicken instead, and go to town with it cold.
For me fresh fried chicken is better than cold, but cold fried chicken is better than microwaved. In the rare event that I have left overs sometime I put it in friend rice lol
I've done that often, and it's pretty good. French fries too, you can get one adequate reheat in an air fryer, but it's touchy... a couple of minutes at the temp that works best in your fryer, and nothing more, or they turn into garbage twigs. Still don't finish them and try it again? Garbage twigs. The line between ever so slightly overcrisped, yet still solid, leftover fries and garbage twigs is rather thin.
Cold fried chicken alone is not my preferred way of eating it; I love to use it in a salad! As it hits the spot only then for me, otherwise I gently reheat before eating. Cold pizza, that rates way higher for me.
Dude. Core memory unlocked. I’ve been vegetarian for 20 years and vegan for 5ish…but cold fried chicken was the shit of my childhood. Maybe that explains a lot lol. But I’m with you brother/sister/other
I personally don't like it cold but I'm not surprised that you do - it gives seasoning more time to penetrate into the meat, and the texture gets really different.