Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Top 10 Chicken Dishes Served in Los Angeles







I'm pretty sure you have seen tons of lists for places to go and reality just hit you. Majority of them are in part of the town you hated to go for various reasons? Parking maybe? Way out of the way for one meal? What's worse?... it catered to a segment of crowd you don't fit in.

Honestly, I can compile so many lists with a whole bunch of places to eat. The main reason for this list was that I don't feel like doing a review for every one of the place. It's a bit time consuming to try every thing. Instead I'll highlight the specialties for the places I had visited. So once in a blue moon, you'll see a list pop up for specialty dish or a particular fun fact.

For this segment, I'll do places I go for chicken. Maybe I'll do more lists in the future if I had enough contents for it. 

No ranking or are in any particular order. I'll list the places for their awesome skills in doing chicken justice. Area of local suburbia will be given special treatment here. Best Chicken in Los Angeles or OC? Maybe. You can decide.




Higo Chicken
722 Whittier Blvd
La Habra, CA 90631

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This was one of my favorite find recently. It's a hybrid of Peruvian cuisine with a hint of Japanese subtlety. There's a wok in the kitchen for tallarin (think of chow mein, but pasta) and the decor of the place somewhat fits more in line of an Asian cafe than a la polla brasa places you are accustomed to.

The big attraction given by the name is the Peruvian Rotisserie chicken that are served here. Juicy and tender. Can be combo with their basil spinach spaghetti or basil rice. Must get their spicy cheese potato as well. A true find in a hidden strip mall.



Chicago's Pizza With A Twist
11767 South Street
Artesia, CA 90701

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I am thinking this place was more than just a normal pizza shack. It's regional chain for their mix of Indian cuisine on to pizzas. My review can be found here. What attract me is their flavored wings. Obviously you can get buffalo sauce or some sweet sauce elsewhere, but have you ever heard of had their Tandoori spiced wings?

Don't knock until you get it. This is just totally out of this world.




Tokyo Fried Chicken Co.
122 S Atlantic Blvd
Monterrey Park, CA 91754

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This weirdly get a ton of love early on, but was able to sustain after all these years (more than 5 to be exact). I always was meant to do a review of this place after few visits, but never got around. It's a good time to add in this perennial favorite. Think of karaage chicken you would have ordered from Japanese restaurants, then imagine when it's southern deep fried with the batter and kept its essence of flavor of ginger, garlic and soy.

Voila! A cosmic creation. Oh, don't skimp on the creamy corn if you get a chance to get in to this place. Popular with the young hip foodie crowd.



Phat Birds
4701 E 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90022

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If there is ever a discussion about just "Best Fried Chicken", this place will always be on the top any of my list. I can't do a list of this magnitude without including this place. Seriously, it would do an injustice. Check out my love affair with this place in this review.



Dino's Chickens and Burgers
843 W Arrow Highway
Azusa, CA 91702

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The charbroiled chicken in here always exploded with a mixture of lemon and pepper with a bag of tricks in their other spices. Their fries are also drenched with juices from their chicken and sauces are sure to delight the senses. Not going to lie, your clothes might smelled like the chicken after a while. Also, don't be alarmed if you need to take it to dry cleaning afterwards.



Tasty Food
8150 Garvey Ave Suite 117C
Rosemead, CA 91170

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You know it was coming. We can't leaved off any list without mentioning the steamed chicken variety of Hainan Chicken. It needs to be perfect and balance in 4 essential categories. The chicken itself needs to be juicy and plump with flavors. The skins itself needs to retain that unmistakable texture. Then you got the dipping sauces that can add another element in the taste without losing the essence of that original flavor. Oh, what else we're missing that is probably the most important about this dish?

The rice. Yup, that needs to be infuse with the stock of the chicken broth and immerse it hours after. It's like sushi, you don't serve it plain. That's just wrong and criminally insane if you just accepted as such.

Speaking of which, the best Hainan Chicken (Thai, Singapore, Malaysia, or any southeast Asian variety) that can be found is in inside of a rundown supermarket in Rosemead on a nondescript food court. Check them out, it's never on Eater LA's list for some reason.



Honey Kettle
9537 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

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We already did a Fried Chicken place above with Phat Bird. I made some weird promises on not looking for places in locations people loathed to travel to. Yes, Culver City will be one of them with paid parking meters in abundances. So why here?

I can't let anyone leaved without getting their honey infused chicken sandwich. That's why. Phat Bird and Tokyo Fried Chicken Co. has something in that variety, but Honey Kettle can parallel them in their offering of this sandwich that is solo in their menu. Strangely they don't offered any other sandwiches, other than just this one standalone. Take it for what its worth. A must ordered item if you happened to hit this part of the area in the uber trendy zone.



Toko Rame
17155 Bellflower Blvd
Bellflower, CA 90706

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I'm pretty sure everyone is thinking a Tokyo Rome, a hybrid version of the Tokyo Italian variety. Reading the name closely will give you a misspelled combination of international city. This Indonesian restaurant has been a mainstay in downtown Bellflower. With the expansion of many hype restaurants moving towards southeast LA area in Gateway cities, a new food hall will be building close to this popular Indonesian bistro that serves some of the most authentic southeast Asian fare.

One of which is this buttered chicken that just melt in your mouth. Love it when it's bone in, as the skin and meat literally comes off the bone quick. Side note: It's a bit hard to get in to the parking lot. Almost required stunt drivers to maneuver into a parking space. Trust me it's not easy, but when you do get in... you might just want to stay there the whole day because it will take more effort to get out.




New Golden City
1015 Nogales Street
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

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This is a bit off the beaten path on the east side. New Golden City attracts a lot of family crowd for the easy comfort food of dumplings, beef roll cakes and noodles dishes. One of the more understated items tends to be the poultry dishes. In the alternative universe, a lot of people often surmise in Chinese restaurants in that you can't eff'd up a chicken dish.

That's easy to do if you over cooked it or over sauced it (aka Kung Pao Chicken). This variety of their "House Chicken" is not only seasoned with the right amount of sauce, but it's also tender and juicy in its own right. It's a perfect a compliment to a bowl of steamed rice.




Chef Kang Food Rehab
401 S Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90020

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Let's not forget about what's popular in southern California... Korean Fried Chicken (the real KFC). One of my favorite type is the soy garlic wings that many restaurants have tried to fashion. Some are very successful in adapting this, while others failed miserably. Needless to say, I will only showcased the best ones and Chef Kang's version is one of the best I have encountered in Koreatown.

After his many ventures in catering side of the business, it was great to see that a brick and mortar restaurant is set up on a busy traffic side of Vermont Avenue in Koreatown. There are many dish to try from Crab Curry rice to his stewed ribs, but it's the soy garlic wings or Honey wings that are needed to be had in this fusion restaurant in this chicken tastings.




Harissa
8914 Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

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Harissa is a Kosher restaurant that serves Tunisian cuisine that has a hint of American and European influences on its dishes. Situated at the southeast side of Beverly Hills, it offers some of the finest Tunisian couscous feast, such as this Lemon Raisin Chicken dish. If there's a chance a joyous occasions can be found, this would be a good place to start.

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