Our Story
We love great food, great company and putting a smile on someones face.
Empire Chicken has grown, quite substantially we might add, from a small idea in the head of a young chef. It was a simple idea;
"Create delicious fried chicken, from locally sourced ingredients, that lights up your face when you take the first bite."
We literally just want to see people smile. It's that simple.
We source local free range chicken from Bird & Barrow a free range producer that is 100% antibiotic and hormone free (go check them out!)
As well as our chicken, we source as much locally made produce as possible, our buttermilk from Rangiora, our A2 milk and A2 ice cream from Nelson, our cheese from Oamaru, our potatoes from South Canterbury, our hot sauce from Christchurch, even our sodas are made in New Zealand, by a kiwi company and are organic too! The list goes on and on.
Do you want to know our secret to delicious fried chicken? We marinate it for days, and we cook it fresh to order. No warming drawers and 2 hour old chicken to dry out your mouth. Chicken done right is fresh.
Do you wanna go right back to the start?
The story of Empire Chicken began its life as a tiny idea in 2016 when Jay's barber Benny asked him if I knew how to make fried chicken. Word on the street was, ol' mate Jay, told him he did, but truth be told, his craft was definitely not as refined as it is today.
In the middle of 2017 that tiny idea resurfaced and it got him fizzing once again.
Fried chicken is amazing, why was no-one in Christchurch doing amazing fried chicken...
You know the chicken he was talking about right?! A crisp crack on the outside, a juicy burst of flavour and that tender chicken with a flavour punch that could knock you into next week. It was then and there that he decided..
"Enough is enough! I'm going to unlock the secret science of fried chicken or die trying."
His wife Mon began to suspect something when fried chicken kept turning up on the table and the crew at work suspected something funny when all his staff meals contained fried chicken in them too.
After approximately six months of obsessive research he found himself ready to tell the world about the little something, something that now had a special place deep in his heart.
Empire Chicken was born.
Local. Happy. Sustainable. Delicious.
Local. We make a habit of sourcing as much as possible from local farmers and suppliers.
Happy. The chickens, our staff, our customers. We want a good experience all around.
Sustainable. We buy the whole chicken and use it all too. All of our packaging is biodegradable or compostable and we do our bit to minimise our waste.
Delicious. It goes without saying. We make the best fried chicken in town, heck, maybe even the world.