By Abigael T. Sidi

The man once anointed “Fried-Chicken King of Harlem” by the New Yorker was born in 1940s North Carolina, one of 20 siblings. He worked on a plantation during the day and helped his mother in the kitchen at night, until he turned 17 and sailed off to New York City.

Once here, Charles Gabriel started as a cook at soul-food icon Copeland’s , where he spent 22 years. At some point, he started selling his own fried chicken by the pop on a picnic table in front of his apartment building. He fried the bird the only way he knew, as his mother did back in the family kitchen: in a large cast iron skillet.

“Cooking the chicken in a frying pan is better than cooking in the deep fryer because the chicken is more crispy, more juicy and not oily,” Gabriel said in a recent inter

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