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June 11, 2025 11 mins
We are live at the SD County Fair and had the honor of having Chicken Charlie join us and talk all things FRIED!
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Go. It's the show. It's Rock one Fried three broadcasting
live from the San Diego County Fair, and then we
were very thrilled to be back at the fair. We've
been a minute since we broadcasted from the opening day
of the fair. When they said, hey, do you guys
want to come back and broadcast from the fair? I said, well,
there's only one way I'll do it is if we

(00:20):
get to talk to the legend. I love it the fair, God, Fry,
God himself, Chicken, Charlie is in the house.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Charlie, dude, I'm so hones.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Oh man, I love it.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Man to turn.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
We were just talking how long woul we go back?
I mean decades?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Decades? Yeah, nineteen eighty four was my first year when
I first walked through the O'Brien gate asked for a job.
But I'm so happy you guys are back. We are
last years.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Stop doing this, but we're thrilled to be back.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
You thank you for being here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Where did you go from eighty four just working at
the fair to now being the fair?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
My family and I grew up in South Park. We
called it Golden Hills then, but not so. But anyway,
I saw an ad for the fair. And it's like
I saw the little kid throwing a little dot at
the balloon and I said, Dad, Dad, can I go
get a job at the fair. I walked through the
ol'brian gate. The first man I see, I said, Hey,
give me a job. Turns out to be mister Jackson
with the charboal corn. Work for him for twelve summers.

(01:22):
One of my favorites. It's the best. His corn is
the best. And you can have that. I mean, look,
I can make you that corn from the same guy
that sells the corn using the same grill at your house.
My house. It doesn't taste the same. Yeah, it's just
so much better at the fair.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
There was a year where I was working in our
promotions department and my job was to work at the fair.
We broadcasted every day, so I was here at the
fair every day for the run of it. I ate
that corn, I swear every single day. Every once I
had it, I was like, this is the best corn.
I've ever had a.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Corn.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Every for you. It's vegetable.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
His you know, mister Jackson, his corn is amazing. Eighty
nine sunny days. For every sunny day you lose, you
have to add a sunny day to get the corn
to the right. That's right, eighty nine days. Wow. And
their little kernels, you know, I don't know if I
could say this, but they are twenty four to forty
eight hours. They lose their little nipple on each kernel.
I mean, it's not fresh anymore. A good corn you
can eat it raw, ice cold. Why you take a bite?

(02:21):
It's nice and sweet. That's how you know when it's good. Wow.
And mister Jackson taught me all that. It's a great deal. Yeah.
And Sanego County Fair with the corn in the sky.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
So how did you go from working there to getting
your own sea?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah? I mean Roosevelt Junior High, San Diego, Hi, Mira
mar Sanego Stay. I got through all that and then
one day I was going to be a cop, and
I thought, let me just try this cooking thing at
the fair and I opened up Chicken Charlie's nineteen ninety
six when I graduated. Wow, thirty years later, what did
that look like?

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Because it's a massive stand now, But that first year
was it just like a table like them?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Were you? Just? I thank God for America. It's the
American dream. Yeah, Like seriously, seriously, it's the American dream.
I'm so blessed, so honored opportunities here when doors open,
you could do it. If you're not lazy, you could
do it.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's so true.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
And I like to get up early and go to work.
Are you frying corn? Now? I fried corn about a
decade ago. We didn't definitely years, Yeah, I didn't. You know,
I thought about that. It did not turn into a popcorn. Okay,
I have to figure out maybe if I threw vodka
on I don't know. Charlie can fry anything. He did
fry corn, though. It's funny you asked that we did

(03:27):
do it. So what everybody wants to know? I'm coming
to the fair this year. I'm going to go to chicken.
Charlie's going through the gates. What's new? What is go
going on?

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Ball?

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Mozzarella on a stick? Why? It's a twelve inch stick.
It's got beautiful three the best meat balls money could buy.
Mozzarella cheese in the middle, or it's like a kebab.
It's like a kebab, so me by myself, and then
you dip it in batter. It's a corn dot batter.
Of course, I'm sorry. I love it. Sorry, baby, these.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
That's interesting because I saw it and it looked like
a corn dog and I'm like, oh.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, it looks like a coin dog, but it sounds
like a coin dog. But it's nothing like a coin dog.
It's got me bad cheese. Yeah. And and of course
we're bringing uh, you know the TikTok craze of a
year ago, the doctor Pepper pickle drink we have that
I want. When I first try that, that's not my invention.
But when I first try that, I was like, that
is so cool. I got to bring it. And we're

(04:30):
bringing it San Diego. If you haven't had it at
In and Out or what's the other place, at Sonic
or some one of those famous places in and Out
like Secremin. I think you can go anywhere and say,
throw pickles in my Dodor Pepper, but if you come
to the fair, I'll make it special and throw pickle
juice along with it. Very and that's good. It's it's
so good. Really, it's never good. Yeah, it sounds crazy.
It sounds crazy, it's crazy, but it's amazing. Yeah. We

(04:53):
we we did it at the La County Fair where
we just came from. And we so we it was
so good. People loved it.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Okay, what about sweet anything sweet?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
You don't have a funnel cake trailer that's brand new.
Last year was the first year you can get, so
check this out. We're all used to, like, you know,
strawberry funnel cake cake, so we have all that, but
what else we have is caviar and cream funnel cake.
What is caviar? It's cap got an else a caviar.
We take a ten cent funnel cake with a fifty

(05:24):
dollars caviar. The sky was just eating cavea the other day.
So this is insane. Buffalo chicken, mac and cheese, funnel cake,
pickles and funnel cake. It's it's like half the mebu
is savory, half a sweet. We have a hard choppeda
chiro funnel cake that is out of this world. So

(05:45):
you said sweet, and all I can think about was
our new funnel cake trader. It's it's awesome, sounds incredible,
it is, it's so good. You said you do the
La County Fairs. Did you do other fares? Yeah, I
do Orange County Fair, Fresnel Fair, La County.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Fair was almost on a TV show you shot like
that pilot I remember we did fried. Yeah, it was
crazy like ye see they almost did like a reality
show following.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
But he was on Guys Grocery Games. I was. I
got my butt kicked. I lost. I was the first
one that got kicked off. The guy goes it was
it was the pickled egg. And the guy goes, listen
to what the producer says and don't like go against
what he says, and he said, don't slice dice the egg.
So I didn't. I made an I fried the egg

(06:32):
and I made an egg nest out of onion. Everybody
else diced and sliced and I got Yeah, they strewed me.
I loved it. No, no, but I was on the.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Grocery Yeah, that's unbelievable. But I did get kicked out quick.
So Thor brought up something yesterday off the air that
we were talking about, and I honestly don't know how
you're gonna feel about this. You want to ask me
your question?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Where do you think about air fryers? Do you hate it?

Speaker 1 (07:04):
You love them?

Speaker 2 (07:05):
I love them. It's kind of like, how do I
say this? Like what? Okay? You know, having a corn
dog at the fair, you know, it's like it just
doesn't get any better, right, Yeah, having a corn dog
in an air fryer is like the next best thing.
So there's nothing wrong with an air fire. My wife
has an air fryer. She us it all the time.
I walk by in the kitchen. I see her, I
see the air fier. I'm like, you're gonna not alcoholics?

(07:30):
Alcoholic yet the nail on the head, right, they need
the juice, man, you got to go the juice. I mean,
we can't be eating fry food every day, right, I'm saying, Charlie,
we can't be doing you don't recommend that, have I
recommend it having the air fryer like four days a
week and a real deal three days a week.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Got'll kill you. I don't know that that's balanced, but
you know whatever, whatever.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Nothing wrong with an air fryer.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Is there a food out there that you go? I
just that's not friable. I can't do it.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
You know what. Yesterday, Okay, I'm gonna share this. I
haven't told anyone about this. Yesterday, get the moves over here.
You know cotton candy, like, right, we have all kinds
of cotton candy. So yesterday I found a pickled cotton candy.
It was pickled flavored. So I bought it and it
was in one of those like home Goood type stars. Okay,
so I bought it. It was delicious, it was great. So

(08:22):
the first thought came was, I want a burger, but
I don't want the hamburger bun. I want pickled cotton
candy as the bun. And I did it yesterday and
it failed. But I think that's because yeah, I think
that's because heat. Yeah, because the burger was so hot
and I didn't do anything else, was just the cotton
candy and the burger. I'm yeah, I'm gonna put on
the burger like cheese on both sides, let us tomatoes

(08:44):
all that. I'm gonna try that today and have the
cotton candy, pickled cotton candy as the bun.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
This is wild.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
I gotta do this, Cindy a video. I mean, it
was great, but it was melting and it made a man. Yeah,
so that was a fail.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
That's crazy. I remember, I love you. I don't know
if you were the first, but I remember you brought
over one time the donut as the and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Thousand and six, I was on the You've tried all
kinds of chicken. Inside that donut is Thanksgiving on steroids.
Oh it's awesome. It's a shame there wasn't like TikTok
in mid two thousands.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
I know, honestly. Yeah, all that, even the fails are interesting.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, I like you, just yeah. I mean so, I
love to cook and I love to create, and my
I gotta make this work. I want because pickle right now, pickle.
Everybody's having a moment, having a moment, that's having its
moment right and I want to I want to pickle
con candy. Why does it always have to be strawberry
and blueberries? Now?

Speaker 1 (09:42):
I want to pickle. Hell, yeah, do you ever wake
up and out of a deep sleep and just go
I gotta fry that that you have that thought?

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, my wife hates me. I'm always thinking what can
I fry? I walk through the grocery store thinking can
I fry that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (09:58):
This is what he does.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Even my kids think I'm weird.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
No, you're a genius, Charlie.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
You mentioned your kids, I may, no judgment be part
of a family of picky eaters.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
You're not a part of a family picker. You and
your daughter are.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Picky t picky eaters exist and are they accepted in
the family of Chicken Charlie.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yes, I wow, bigiest eaters. My thirteen year old Abbey,
Oh my god, She's like, do you have to fry that?
And I'm like, Daddy, you don't understand.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
What do you mean?

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Like, what do you mean?

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (10:29):
You have to? Of course I have to fry. You know,
I'm looking. Here's the here's the truth. I'm three hundred pounds.
My wife is one hundred pounds. I let her do
her thing. I want the kids to go, you know.
But there's nothing seningle fair. We can just get I say,
always when you walk through that gate, the calorie counter breaks.
This is a one day come here cheat, Yes, come
how fun? Eat every darn thing fried in the fair.

(10:52):
That's what it's all about the best. The kids are
going to remember this forever. Oh yeah, it's going to
be the bull and want to come back every year.
Do I want you to eat this every day? No?
I'm want to be honest, you know, but the next
twenty five days, twenty days, yes, eat it every day after.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
He is the king, He's a god. He is the
San Diego County Fair Charlie, you're the man. Buddy goodness
so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Love you. I'm a big fan. Oh we love you man.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yes, we are broadcasting live from the San Diego I
can go home now, I'm done, I'm gone. Yes, it's
the show on Rocket A five three

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