Hot Chix

Crowning the Rotisserie King

By Warren Rojas / Photography by Jonathan Timmes

El Pollo Rico
931 N. Kenmore St., Arlington; 703-552-3220; www.ilovethischicken.com
Average entree: Under $12 ($). Open for lunch and dinner daily

The standard bearer for skewered birds in the minds of many, El Pollo Rico rubs an equally large number of the populace the wrong way because of its unwavering allegiance to steak fries.

But no matter what the yucca-craving masses tell you, EPR co-owner Italo Solano swears they’re the only ones keeping it REALLY real.

“In Peru, no one eats chicken with yucca. You get potatoes,” maintains the scion to what is arguably the busiest rotisserie chicken operation around (Solano says they serve approximately 300 to 400 chickens per day).

The much-lauded chicken hut has racked up awards like so many discarded bones since debuting in 1988, garnering attention from fiercely loyal locals and wandering cheflebrities (Anthony Bourdain popped by earlier this year) alike.

According to Italo, mom and co-founder Nelida Solano is the keeper of the closely guarded chicken marinade that is applied to every bird 24 hours prior to their date with the four massive ovens that keep the populace in flame-licked poultry.

Cooked birds virtually glow, their slow-roasted flesh saturated with concentrated juices (a reservoir of seasoned au jus formed in the well of my Styrofoam plate before I could even take my first bite). The meat proves supremely moist (it’s gotta be brined), delivering parting shots of salt, pepper, cumin and paprika.

A homemade jalapeno sauce fizzles out fairly quickly (provides a slow burn, but nothing in the magnitude of fresh habaneros or ground rocoto), while the updated mayonnaise hangs tough (thick, clinging sauce).

Whereas sides are few, outsourced dessert options abound, including: decent alfajores (sturdy biscuits pressed around blobs of creamy dulce de leche, produced by a Peruvian baker in Silver Spring), assorted cakes (from My Bakery & Café, Inc.) and ice creams (courtesy of Carvel).

Edy’s Chicken & Steak
5240 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church; 703-820-5508; www.edyschicken.com
Average entree: $13 to $20 ($$). Open for lunch and dinner daily, late-night dining, Thursday through Saturday

Don’t let the sign fool you: I’ve never seen anyone at Edy’s lift so much as a single morsel of steak to their lips.

The widely loved chicken joint certainly has steak on the menu. But the steady trickle of rotisserie chicken-toting customers—a constituency which ranges from extended Peruvian families to armies of famished contruction workers—confirms that founder Edy Dernovsek’s bread and butter is spice-rubbed bird.

The modish diner the restaurant currently calls home boasts a quartet of rotisserie ovens devoted to turning out their secretly spiced poultry (only Dernovsek and her son are privy to the rub recipe). The other half of the establishment serves as a coffee shop/bakery counter stocked with global treats brought in from My Bakery & Café, Inc. and Clement’s Pastry Shops in Hyattsville, Md.

The signature bird wears spice-stained skin infused with woodsy overtones. Rough patches can display an almost jerky-like tenacity, but the herb-infused meat usually leans toward the tender side.

Fried yucca is crunchy, blond and lightly seasoned (perhaps my favorite of the bunch).

The spice-infused mayonnaise is frothy and vaguely sweet. Meanwhile, an oily hot sauce performs like pesto cut with nitro glycerin (pureed hot peppers grab your throat from the get-go and never ease up).

When I ask about the dueling alfajores displayed on the front counter of the in-house sweet shop, a kindly bakery attendant explains that the smaller, flatter versions track the traditional Peruvian style (classic sugar cookie hugging dulce de leche) while the plumper, golden versions are Columbian (rolled coconut is a dead giveaway).

Chicken Out Rotisserie
Multiple NoVA locations; www.chickenout.com
Average entree: Under $12 ($). Open for lunch and dinner daily

Those who believe calorie-counting means giving up the things you love—particularly when it comes to rotisserie chicken—should consider joining the cult of Chicken Out.

The Gaithersburg-based chainlet, founded in 1991 and currently operating over a dozen quick service locations throughout the Metro-D.C. area, has gone to great lengths to brand itself as a heart-healthy alternative to fast food.

They tout low-fat meals (anything with under 4.5 grams of saturated fat qualifies) on their menu, trumpet wholesome ingredients (their free-range birds are 4 pounds and preservative-free) wherever possible and pride themselves on their home-style preparations (“Our restaurants don’t have fryers or microwave ovens”).

Their business model, however, has evolved a bit with the inclusion of their specialty Cabõs bird—a Latin-style chicken robustly seasoned with seven secret spices.

The Cabõs chicken is caked with baked-in rub (likely suspects include cumin, rosemary, red pepper and lemon), which shrouds the darkened fowl in an earthy aroma adeptly highlighted by just a whisper of zest.

The slow-cooked meat is mostly juicy (we encountered a few dry spots) and leaves a buttery richness lingering on the palate.

A buttermilk biscuit, on the other hand, was stiff, dry and utterly disappointing.

The Chicken Place
5519 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church; 703-931-3090
Average entree: $13 to $20 ($$). Open for lunch, dinner and late-night dining daily

After collecting my order from the front counter, I scan the main dining room for any clearings amid the tightly packed communal tables.

With a vacant seat locked in my sights, I navigate the sea of humanity (my dining compatriots are a regular Rainbow Coalition of rotisserie chicken connoisseurs) and join the masses in savoring the mound of still-steaming poultry before me.

Welcome to another feeding frenzy at The Chicken Place.

Manager Jose Marquina says the 11-year-old establishment remains steadily busy throughout the day, doling out around 800 to 900 of their signature birds weekly.

According to Marquina, each chicken is marinated for 24 hours in a secret family recipe and cooked for anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour over all-natural lump charcoal.

Their bird looks somewhat plainer than its regional counterparts, eschewing showy herbs or prominent scorching in lieu of a glistening but greaseless copper sheen. The meat is well seasoned and unquestionably juicy, but oddly nondescript (no one spice jumped out at me).

Pallid-looking yucca proves disastrously dry and receives little resuscitation from its watery mayonnaise accompaniment. A minced green chilies preparation looks somewhat diluted but ultimately brings the heat.

Sweets are merely satisfactory.

I felt like there was too much pseudo-generic shortbread cookie left at the end of my alfajor (centralized coin of dulce de leche dissapears much too quickly), while a mismatched pionono wrapped tragically dull cake around layers of ultra rich manjar blanco.

Crisp & Juicy
Multiple NoVA locations; www.crispjuicy.com
Average entree: Under $12 ($). Open for lunch and dinner daily

What should a pollo a la brasa specialist do when word of his bird spreads beyond the Beltway? Expand, of course.

Hence the reason Crisp & Juicy founder Jorge Perez—who put down roots in Northern Virginia over 20-odd years ago—has worked so hard to cobble together a burgeoning network of quick-service chicken joints (staff say they currently operate eight stores across the Metro-D.C. area).

According to a Crisp & Juicy manager, Perez’s immediate family are the only ones privy to the recipe for the secret rub they apply to each bird mere moments before they go on the spit.

Finished birds are most often golden brown, with trace bits of blackened herbs still peeking out from the well-lubricated skin (C&J consistently turned out perhaps the oiliest birds of the bunch, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing).

I was most surprised to find that the infused spices almost seemed secondary, allowing the simple pleasures of unblemished chicken to reign supreme instead.

Of course, those who prefer some pizzazz with their poultry are likely to enjoy the steady burn of the homemade rocoto sauce, a blaze-orange fire starter powered by pureed Peruvian peppers.

Fried yucca delivers plenty of crisp, but is too often sidelined by lingering dryness.

Alfajores are rolled in shredded coconut, adding another agent of chewiness to the pillowy biscuit and teeth-binding dulce de leche at the heart of the dessert sandwich.

Plaka Grill
110 Lawyers Road N.W., Vienna; 703-319-3131; www.plakagrill.com
Average entree: Under $12 ($). Open for lunch and dinner daily

Ground lamb and shaved beef may be their lifeblood. But Plaka Grill manager Michael Manetti says their chickens do pretty well for themselves.

“It’s one of the top three sellers for lunch and dinner,” he says of the signature birds.

But just because they don’t do anywhere near the volume of competing full-time chicken joints—Manetti estimates they serve up 10 to 20 rotisserie chickens per day (just over a dozen per day during the workweek, closer to two dozen on weekends)—doesn’t mean the Plaka team takes their chicken any less seriously.

Each bird is prepped with Greek rub, wrapped and refrigerated while marinating, cooked rotisserie-style in a convection oven, flash-grilled to seal in some smokiness and then drizzled with a homemade dressing of lemon, olive oil, garlic and more signature seasonings.

Each well-bronzed bird smacks of citrus, salt and rosemary, the exposed meat still perspiring from the quickie grill treatment. The house rub seeps down into the bone, while the comingling olive oil and lemon juice produce an intoxicating scent and eye-catching shimmer. The meat is moist and delectable, readily lending itself to dipping in the tangy hummus or gyro-style wrapping in the herb-flecked pitas that accompany every meal.

Pollos Inka
656 Elden St., Herndon; 703-481-9090; www.pollosinka.com
Average entree: Under $12 ($). Open for lunch and dinner daily

It would appear Pollos Inka founder Jorge Pedemonte has rotisserie chicken in his blood.

The Peruvian expat claims his family has tended to spice-rubbed birds for over half a century in South America. And he’s been the keeper of the wood-fired flame at his patriotically dubbed Herndon eatery since 1991.

But after closing on nearly 20 years in business, Pedemonte insists they still do things the old-fashioned way.

He says they marinate every one of the nearly 1,000 birds they hawk per week for approximately 24 hours in a homemade mojo consisting of, among other things, fresh garlic and vinegar.

The flavor-sealed birds are then cooked over all-natural lump charcoal in a rotisserie lugged all the way up from Peru (Pedemonte is a strong believer in tradition).

The resulting bird arrives scorched in places and caked with their proprietary rub (we picked up on salt, pepper and oregano). The uniformly juicy meat is impregnated with a smokiness that teeters between mildly sweet and seriously woody (a complex signature worth savoring).

A slew of house sauces vie for your attention here, including: a generic Italian (tangy, herby), a jalapeno-based scorcher (creamier than expected) and the blood-boiling rocoto-habanero blend (pepper-packed medley delivers immediate heat, smoky undertones and a lingering burn).

Stalks of fried yucca arrive pleasantly tanned and well crisped.

Formidable alfajor produces flaky cookies (doughier than most, with an almost cakey consistency) covered in powdered sugar, only to falter due to dried-out dulce de leche (que pena).

Super Chicken
422 S. Washington St., Falls Church; 703-538-5366
Average entree: Under $12 ($). Open for lunch and dinner daily

Super Chicken’s seductive birds are often stacked pyramid-style in the main warming case—a monument to deliciousness that has beckoned to poultry-loving pilgrims since 1999.

Co-owner Ravind Aggarwal estimates the original Falls Church location (they also have a branch in Maryland and sold a spinoff still operating in Manassas) turns out around 100 rotisserie birds per day. He says each chicken is marinated for approximately 24 to 36 hours in his partner’s secret family recipe, of which he notes only that they traffic highly in cumin seed and black pepper.

Staff feed the industrial rotisseries—tasked with handling the from-open-to-close roasting duties—a steady diet of all-natural lump charcoal (the sooty sacks are piled high in the already-claustrophobia-inducing back hallway).

“That’s the thing that makes it so special,” Aggarwal says of the unadulterated woodiness that permeates the glistening chickens.

Each bird is, indeed, enrobed in smoke.

The deep bronze crust of each spun-till-just-perfect specimen is studded with charred hints at the secret rub within (we detected salt, pepper, cumin and perhaps just a hint of curry). The perfume of consumed hardwoods plugs your nostrils each time a juice-laden piece meets your lips. Meanwhile, house sauces—white dipping sauce yields mayo doctored with herbs and lemon; homemade hot sauce is a chunky-style, green chili paste that sparks a flavor explosion across the taste buds—bolster birds and sides alike.

Fried yucca is extra crispy on the outside but still warm/fleshy on the inside (quite tasty, even sans sauce). Fried plantains are sugary slices of tender fruit (terrifically sweet).

Sugar-dusted alfajores reveal remarkably moist biscuits (don’t break or split so much as bend) wrapped around gooey-rich dulce de leche (a satisfying send-off).

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Northern Virginia Magazine Rotisserie Chicken Tasting
For our debut chicken tasting panel, we asked the judges to grade each bird based on: appearance, texture and flavor. Judges were instructed to rate each bird from 1-10 in each category, for a maximum composite score of 30 per competitor.

	Courtney Hayden Tasting credentials: Rotisserie chicken aficionado Favorite Chicken Hut (pre-tasting): Homemade (parents spin a mean bird) Chicken Out rotisserie: Top Pick “So delicious! Even a little spicy … very juicy” The Chicken Place: “Skin is very chewy. A little drier than my preference” Crisp & Juicy: “Juicy and very taste, but a little too oily” Edy’s Chicken & Steak: “Juicy skin. Moist chicken. Interesting flavor” El Pollo Rico: “Tastes smoky. Not very tender or juicy” Plaka Grill: “A little dry. Has a smoky flavor” Pollos Inka: “Dry, chewy skin. Meat is good, but was hard to remove from the bone” Super Chicken: Runner-Up “Juicy! I really like the spices all throughout!”
	Tyler Cowen Tasting credentials: Food blogger/ethnic dining hound Favorite Chicken Hut (pre-tasting): Wild Chicken (Fairfax) Chicken Out rotisserie: “Dull” The Chicken Place: Runner-Up “Good chicken. Salty. Crispy skin” Crisp & Juicy: “Bad marinade. A little dry.” Edy’s Chicken & Steak: “Bad marinade” El Pollo Rico: “Eh. Bland. Skin too chewy” Plaka Grill: “Okay, but too charcoal-y” Pollos Inka:“Bad marinade. Boring” Super Chicken: Top Pick “Juicy. Smoky flavor.”
	Susan Anspach Tasting credentials: Rotisserie chicken virgin Favorite Chicken Hut (pre-tasting): N/A Chicken Out rotisserie: “Flavor did nothing for me. I had higher hopes because it was a nice, plump bird” The Chicken Place: “I was looking for something more on the flavor front” Crisp & Juicy: “There’s a lot of grease packed into this bird” Edy’s Chicken & Steak: “Skin was limp and the flavor on the bland side” El Pollo Rico: Top Pick “Moist, succulent, well spiced. Peels apart beautifully” Plaka Grill: Runner-Up “Picked up on the rosemary, but the actual taste of the bird was pretty gray” Pollos Inka:“Shriveled-looking … [but] this bird was flavor-packed beneath the surface” Super Chicken: “There are subtleties here that were lacking in the others”
	Michele Kayal Tasting credentials: Freelance food writer Favorite Chicken Hut (pre-tasting): Super Pollo (Falls Church) Chicken Out rotisserie: “Slightly stringy and dry. No spice or complexity at all” The Chicken Place: “Deep chicken flavor. Lot of salt” Crisp & Juicy: Runner-Up “Strong pepper. Would like more subtlety” Edy’s Chicken & Steak: “Plump and juicy. Smoky, almost bacon-like, but not very complex” El Pollo Rico: “Firm, slightly greasy (very nice) … but spices don’t permeate the meat” Plaka Grill: “Yikes! Dry and naked looking” Pollos Inka: “This bird tastes like it’s been over the coals. Would like more spices though” Super Chicken: Top Pick “That’s what I’m talking about. Bring on the cumin”
	Warren Rojas Tasting credentials: Northern Virginia Magazine dining editor Favorite Chicken Hut (pre-tasting): Super Chicken (Falls Church) Chicken Out rotisserie: For final score and full review, see the review above The Chicken Place: For final score and full review, see pg. 102 Crisp & Juicy: Runner-Up “Very juicy, salty (brined?)” Edy’s Chicken & Steak: Top Pick “Very juicy, enjoyed the residual smoke” El Pollo Rico: For final score and full review, see the review above Plaka Grill: “Earthy notes. Remarkably tender” Pollos Inka: “Golden skin, faint smoke” Super Chicken: “Good salt, pepper, cumin; attractive char. A little dry”

(December 2009)