“The smashed fried chicken goes back to my childhood,” says Chef Juan Stevenson. In the South, “we are very well known for fried chicken,” he says, “but there is an Indonesian dish—two dishes actually—of fried chicken: ayam penyet and ayam geprek. The last means crushed chicken.” While putting together the menu for his pop-up, JuJu’s Street Eats, Stevenson drew from his childhood memories of these Indonesian classics, as well as his experiences in American, Thai, and Korean kitchens, to create his ideal fried chicken. Boneless skinless chicken thighs are pounded until tender before they are brined overnight and marinated in oyster sauce, fish sauce, aromatics, and a mixture of toasted spices including white and black pepper, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, and turmeric; what Stevenson calls, “chicken dust.” On pick-up, Stevenson coats the thighs in a mixture of cornstarch, rice flour, and more “chicken dust” to create “that crispy outer skin” and give the meat “those crackles and ridges.” After it’s fried, the chicken is sprinkled with one last bit of “chicken dust” before it’s served with Bibb lettuce, tiger salad, and a tomato sambal-nước chấm chay dipping sauce. “It's who I am as a chef. I'm not afraid to bring cultures together because I am a product of colonization and globalization.” says Stevenson. “These experiences are something worth sharing, something I know hasn't been offered yet in Savannah.”