Chicken Sandwich Wars now waged at Berks farmers market

(Originally published Aug. 26, 2021 for the Reading Eagle) — Watch out, fast-food establishments — there’s another new entrant into the Chicken Sandwich Wars here in Berks County.

Matt’s Chicken opened inside the Shillington Farmers Market in July with a menu that bears more than a cursory resemblance to the popular chains.

Nuggets, fries and fresh-squeezed lemonade are all represented, but in an elevated form, says Matt’s Chicken proprietor Matt Schatzman.

Seemingly everywhere you go these days, though, it’s all about the fried chicken sandwich — both classic and spicy varieties — and Schatzman believes his recipe gives him a leg up on the competition.

“I use thighs in the sandwiches,” Schatzman said, noting it’s a more succulent cut of chicken than the breast. “Almost all of the restaurants doing the Chicken Wars thing are using chicken breast.

“I make homemade brioche (bread), cornstarch rice flour batter that has no gluten and no actual flour — and that’s just sort of a side effect to what I found to be the best coating for breading. I’ve tried God knows how many different kinds of paprika to get the exact spice I want in my spicy chicken sandwich.

“It’s a details thing.”

The science behind fried chicken

A Wilson High School alumnus, Schatzman learned all about details at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., earning his bachelor’s degree in culinary science.

After an externship at Stoneburner, an upscale pizza and Mediterranean restaurant in Seattle, he graduated and pursued the science aspect of his degree in a lab job at Sun Rich Fresh Foods in Reading.

“My whole job was to weigh little bags of apples to make sure they weigh 86 grams, all day, or take swab samples from people’s hands and read them,” Schatzman said. “That’s not for me.”

The next phase of his education came from Cornerstone Bistro & Artisanal Market in Wayne, Delaware County.

Schatzman had worked in restaurants and managed kitchens in nursing homes before deciding to go back to school at age 23, but it was his stint at Cornerstone that finally prepared him to start Matt’s Chicken.

“I worked in real restaurants before, but that was the realest it got for me being in the restaurant industry,” Schatzman said, recalling that he was involved in everything from brunch, to pastries and ice cream, to curing entire salmons. “It got me to a place where I was comfortable that I understand this now, and I’m gonna throw an idea together and sit on it.”

The inspiration for Matt’s Chicken

One day during the quarantine period of the COVID-19 pandemic, it came to him.

“I’m pulling up to Chick-fil-A in Exeter and there’s a triple line of cars wrapped around the building,” Schatzman said. “I was like, ‘This is madness. These guys are making billions of dollars.’

“All of these fast food restaurants had lines I’ve never in my life seen before. The line at Dunkin’ Donuts is stopping my route to work anymore.”

Schatzman also studied under chefs at The Culinary Institute who pointed to trends showing a shift in consumer preferences away from fine dining and toward fast casual restaurants.

It all influenced Matt’s Chicken, a concept that can perhaps best be described as the menus from Chick-fil-A and Popeyes meets Five Guys presentation, and held to what Schatzman referred to as the gold standard model.

“I love fried chicken sandwiches and always have,” he said. “And if I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna study it to the point of exhaustion and until I find the best possible model of that idea.

“So I was like, ‘I can do that, but elevated a little bit so that it’s not fine dining, but food done right.”

Shots fired

In seeking a location for Matt’s Chicken, Schatzman found the Shillington Farmers Market afforded him the most flexibility.

“I thought about doing a food truck, but there’s a lot of red tape and hidden costs,” he said. “Too much government for me, and the up-front cost of opening a restaurant is wild.

“This was a nice sort of middle ground to pitch an idea I thought people would want and see how far I could run with it.”

Not only does Schatzman enjoy the idea of running “a weird sort of stand” in a community-driven farmers market, but it gives him a space to explore expanding on his concept.

It’s Matt’s Chicken now, but the food industry can change on a dime, and a ceasefire in the Chicken Sandwich Wars might mean slightly altering the menu.

“I’m trying to be on DoorDash reasonably soon, and I’m thinking about doing something where I open an additional day a week,” Schatzman said.

“But I could see myself being here for a very long time. I could also see myself picking it up and changing it, turning it into something new.”