Avondale’s SAW’s Soul Kitchen wins MADE SOUTH’s The Great Slider Showdown

Last week, Avondale’s SAW’s Soul Kitchen, along with a restaurant from Atlanta, won  MADE SOUTH’s The Great Slider Showdown in Franklin, Tennessee.

The competition featured 10 chefs from  around the South creating their best slider.

A description of the event was broadcast this past week on Potluck: a podcast about Southern Cuisine.  The show’s host, Chris Thomas of MADE SOUTH was one of the organizers of the event.

During the weekly show, Chris along with his fellow podcast host Will from the PodCask, described the winning slider by SAW’s chef Matthew Statham and how the competition ended up in a tie because the organizers had 4 judges who each chose SAW’s and Atlanta’s Fred’s Meat and Bread as the winner.

Saw’s Soul Kitchen’s winning slider

MADE SOUTH tasked 10 chefs to come up with a winning slider.  The winner of the competition was to be awarded $3000 and additional prizes.

“All 10 of these chefs brought their A game. It was incredible. I would have hated to be in the judge’s seat,” said Thomas from MADE SOUTH on the podcast.

Bham Now Facebook Live broadcast of Matthew Statham describing SAW’s Soul Kitchen’s winning slider

SAW’s Soul Kitchen’s slider was a sweet tea brined fried chicken slider. As described by Thomas in the broadcast, SAW’s Statham takes the chicken breast, he brines it in a combination of sweet tea and pickle juice, the majority of the brine being sweet tea. Then, they add their house made pimento cheese , pickles and Saw’s famous white sauce.

The co-winner along with SAW’s Statham was John Williams, the chef of Fred’s Meat and Bread in Atlanta. His creation was a made a hot Korean cheesesteak.

Because there was a tie the winning check will be split between the two winners.

According to Statham, they really don’t have a name for the new sandwich, but over the next few days if you ask for the MADE SOUTH winning slider at SAW’s Soul Kitchen, they will make one up for you.