Off Menu: Heading to South L.A. for chicken sausage, a staple of Los Angeles’ black community

Some things immediately come to mind when you think about food in Los Angeles: tacos, sushi and grain bowls, to name a few. But chicken sausage, long a staple in L.A.’s black community, doesn’t always receive proper recognition. This piece from Garrett Snyder explores how chicken sausage found its way onto so many L.A. menus, and why it flourished.

During this week’s episode of “Off Menu,” Food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson goes to South L.A. to visit two black-owned businesses that focus on chicken sausage, Mama’s Chicken on Slauson Avenue and Best Buy Meat on Crenshaw Boulevard. At Mama’s, Lucas talks with Karen Whitman, longtime proprietor who has worked at Mama’s for 50 years. At Best Buy Meat, owned by father-and-son duo Walter Hart Sr. and Walter Hart Jr., Lucas learns more about the history of their business and how chicken sausage became such a beloved food in the community.