If you want to rank the foods that can bring the most happiness, fried chicken can definitely enter the top three. A crisp bite, full of meat, and endless aftertaste. There are often such social news: "Pregnant women fall out with their mother-in-law for stealing a piece of fried chicken", "Players are disqualified from eating fried chicken at halftime" … Even though it is called junk food by their mothers and teachers, fried chicken is still a delicious food that many people can’t give up.
As a fried chicken lover, DT Jun has never understood why no one has scientifically studied how much Chinese people love fried chicken. With the attitude of strictness (dou) and sincerity (bi), we decided to use data to find the fried chicken capital of China. By the way, a "chicken king" was also selected.
▍ Panorama of "Fried Chicken Jiangshan" in China: Is there a difference in the taste of fried chicken between North and South?
First of all, when cleaning the data, DT Jun found that some fried chicken shops are not "exclusive": they can sell pancake fruit, or even focus on stinky tofu … For the purity of chicken shop data, we gave up hamburgers, bibimbap, hot pot, pancake fruit and other shops that mainly sell fried chicken. Therefore, fast food chains such as McDonald’s and KFC, as well as Korean restaurants with fried chicken as their signature, are temporarily excluded from this analysis.
Next, let’s reveal the national map of fried chicken.
There are more than 20,000 "pure" fried chicken shops in the country included in the map of Gaode. From the map, these fried chicken shops are concentrated in the southeast and central parts, especially some coastal cities are densely covered, and there are not many fried chicken shops in the western region. Pay attention to those areas with dense fried chicken shops and dark colors, mainly including Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. These are the seeds of the "fried chicken capital" to be mentioned later!
Tofu pudding can be divided into sweet and salty, and fried chicken, which is also a national snack, will there be differences between North and South? Yes!
According to the classification method recognized by a fried chicken post bar, we temporarily divide these fried chicken shops into four schools:
Image source: Internet. From left to right are chicken chops, chicken wings mixed with Korean sauce and fried whole chicken.
DT Jun chose the cities with the total number of fried chicken shops in the top 40 in China, and calculated the proportions of three kinds of fried chicken shops, namely desktop, Korean and whole chicken, and found that the proportion of desktop fried chicken was as high as 56%!
This result may not surprise you. After all, if you look around the food city, you can name the fried chicken shops, such as Zhengxin chicken chops that appeared in Extreme Challenge, the huge number of "knockoffs" and the super chicken carts, all of which are desktop fried chicken.
Although the most mainstream desktop fried chicken is popular among the people of the whole country, there are still differences between the north and the south when you look closely. According to the number of fried chicken shops per capita in each region, southerners love desktop fried chicken more deeply, especially in Dongguan, Sanya and Xiamen. In Dongguan, there is a desktop fried chicken shop for an average of 14,000 people. The people in the north, on the other hand, seem to be really less interested in table fried chicken. In the top ten per capita, Taiyuan is the only northern city.
Since I don’t like table fried chicken, what do northerners like? The answer is to fry the whole chicken.
Even though desktop fried chicken almost dominates the country, there are seven cities with more whole chicken shops than desktop fried chicken, all of which come from the north. In Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, 75% of fried chicken shops sell whole chickens. For example, online celebrity Broiler, who was fined 500,000 yuan for advertising slogans related to pornography, "ordered fried chicken" (this is the name of some stores after they changed their names, what was it called before ….. Baidu itself), although it originated in Shanghai, but from the point of view of the distribution of stores, it mainly expanded to Chengdu and several northern cities.

Finally, let’s take a look at the windy Korean fried chicken in the past two years. In recent years, because of the joke of fried chicken+beer in You from the Stars and the fried chicken broadcast by various South Korean up owners in bilibili, Korean fried chicken has become a force to be reckoned with in fried chicken rivers and lakes.
After all, it is a newly-emerged fried chicken sect. Compared with the Jianghu elders such as table fried chicken, Korean fried chicken is still much less powerful. The fried chicken shops specializing in Korean flavor only account for about 5% in the country, and it is also a minority in cities.
However, one city’s love for Korean fried chicken stands out from the crowd. This city is Mudanjiang City. In this city, desktop, Korean and whole chicken are almost three points in the world. Korean fried chicken also beat desktop fried chicken with a slight advantage of 3.4%.
▍ "Chicken King" Championship: National Overlord VS "Local Snakehead"
There are so many schools of fried chicken, which school can be the "Wulin League Leader"? The data shows that the fried chicken brand with the largest number of stores in China is Zhengxin Chicken Chop.
I believe that you have actively or passively accepted its various advertisements: strongly implanted in "Extreme Challenge", Brother Hong Lei recorded the program while eating, and could not stop; Bo Huang personally endorsed the call for him … The propaganda offensive was in place, and the expansion speed was also beyond the reach of other fried chicken shops. On September 4th, Zhengxin Chicken Chop announced that there were 15,000 stores nationwide, compared with 800 stores six years ago.
Image source: screenshot of "Extreme Challenge" program
This "Zhengxin Snack Bar", which originated in Wenzhou, landed in Shanghai immediately after it became popular in the local area, and took the "postal area" as its base camp, and began the nationwide expansion of Zhang Zhilu. However, although Zhengxin’s expansion is fast, it has made slow progress in the Northeast. It’s not that the Northeast doesn’t love fried chicken. There are actually many local fried chicken shops. As a "fried chicken tycoon", did Zhengxin encounter any strong opponents?
Once again, with the store data, DT Jun found out that online celebrity, the brand that defeated Zhengxin Chicken Chop in Northeast China and succeeded in defending it, "called a fried chicken". Perhaps, the bold Northeasters don’t like to eat chicken fillet with bamboo sticks, but prefer to tear the whole chicken leg by hand, so this fried chicken brand, which focuses on frying the whole chicken, firmly holds the fertile market in Northeast China.
It is not surprising that Zhengxin has not been able to dominate the Northeast for the time being. In fact, in addition to ordering a fried chicken, other large chain fried chicken brands have not caused any storm in the local area. There are more than 20 large chain stores with more than 100 stores nationwide, such as the first best chicken chops endorsed by Du Haitao and the big-faced chicken chops that dominate Henan Province. There are not many stores in Northeast China.
▍ "fried chicken capital": a nostalgic person in the imperial city
After combing the national fried chicken preferences, DT Jun also found the "fried chicken capital". Although Dongguan ranks first in the country in terms of the data of fried chicken shops owned by per capita, Beijing is the well-deserved "fried chicken capital" in terms of the total number of fried chicken shops in the city. Moreover, when it comes to eating fried chicken, Beijing pays special attention to tradition and is a "fried chicken capital" with stories.
Then, let’s take a closer look at the detailed "fried chicken power map" in Beijing to see which residents of the imperial city have propped up the heat of "fried chicken capital".
First of all, I have a rough look at the number of fried chicken shops in each district. Chaoyang people are far ahead in the number of fried chicken shops, followed by Haidian and Changping District.
However, the area of each district and county is different, and one Changping district is almost equal to 16 Shijingshan districts. Moreover, the population density in each district is also different. In order to be fair, DT Jun calculated the supply and demand of fried chicken shops in each district with the number of permanent residents in each district and county.
As a result, Chaoyang people never let people down. With an average of one fried chicken shop for every 22,200 people, it has secured the title of "the strongest fried chicken fan in the Imperial City".
After talking about who loves fried chicken in Beijing, let’s talk about what kind of fried chicken the "fried chicken capital" likes best.
As mentioned earlier, in the current fried chicken rivers and lakes, there are Korean fried chicken, desktop fried chicken and other major sects. But in the eyes of old Beijing, American fried chicken is synonymous with fried chicken.
According to the data of Gaode Map, among the 569 fried chicken shops in Beijing, there are 49 with the word "American" in their names.
When it comes to American fried chicken, don’t think of McDonald’s, KFC, and Kalexing at the first time. What Beijingers say about American fried chicken is not these, but the following:
This most authentic American fried chicken in the eyes of old Beijing is an improved version.
According to legend, American fried chicken originated in South America. It is said that during the American Civil War in the 19th century, chicken was the only food allowed to enter the table of black slaves. Most black slaves engaged in manual labor, which consumed a lot of energy. Fried chicken supplemented their nutrition. In the 1990s, American fried chicken was introduced into Beijing, and the streets and alleys were full of American fried chicken shops. Although fried chicken is good, people in old Beijing always think it tastes good when they eat it, but … what seems to be the disadvantage? As a result, the people of Beijing who are rich in life (chi), life (huo), wisdom (jing) and wisdom (shen) began to improve.
Authentic American fried chicken is to fry the salted chicken in an oil pan without any seasoning powder when eating; Although Jingweier fried chicken is salted before frying, the store will stubbornly give you a packet of cumin and Chili noodles, which can be said to be the collective memory of the post-80 s generation.
Finally, rank the fried chicken brands in Beijing according to the number of stores. The top five are all "local brands" based on the Beijing market, except Zhengxin Chicken Chop and the first best chicken chop, which are strongly expanded by the franchise model. And "American fried chicken", a local brand with strong Beijing characteristics, has also successfully entered the top five.
On the dragon and tiger list, there is also a brand "old Beijing American fried chicken" ranked ninth. It is the same as "American fried chicken", although its name is particularly simple, but it is an old brand with many years of history. Together, these two brands have 22 stores in Beijing, supporting half of the American fried chicken in Beijing.
It seems that even in today’s strong expansion of chain brands relying on the advantages of business model, Beijingers still love the most authentic "old Beijing flavor" in their minds.
▍ Fried chicken is not just a snack.
Hard-boiled chicken, three cups of chicken, steamed chicken, saliva chicken … There are 10,000 ways to cook chicken in Chinese, but the fried chicken simply rolled with oil has been popular for decades. When KFC came to China for the first time in 1987, DT Jun remembered that when I was a child, my classmates had to go to KFC to celebrate their birthdays. After getting good grades, my parents rewarded KFC, which is also a childhood memory for many people.
This kind of food is bright in color and smells wonderful. When you take a mouthful of fresh chicken juice, you will feel "indulgent" instantly. It is really a good thing to relieve stress and satisfy your appetite. Moreover, even if the brands of fried chicken emerge one after another, the positioning of being close to the people has not changed. A fried chicken won’t add much to the meal, but it can make your fingers taste happy for most of the day.
Everyone likes fried chicken. DT Jun selected "Fried Chicken Capital" and fried chicken brand No.1 with data. Where is the best fried chicken in your mind? Leave a message and tell us!
Text | Qi Chen: chenqi@dtcj.com
Guo Guo: guowanjing@dtcj.com.
Figure | Zou Lei Zhao Wei