Summer of Lunch: El Pollo Rico

Although I’ve lived in Wheaton for a year, I’ve fallen back into familiar eating patterns and haven’t scratched the surface of the wide world of food options in town. This summer, at lunchtime, I’ll be seeking out a place that I haven’t stepped into at all, and trying their signature items

For my final Summer of Lunch column, I gotten it in my mind that I wanted to go to a Peruvian chicken place. What could be more Wheaton-y? I randomly chose a "pollo" restaurant, but as I pulled my car into the parking lot, I realized that's not where my Peruvian Chicken lunch should come from. The answer was so obvious, it had been staring at me in the face every time I walked or drove down University Boulevard: El Pollo Rico.

While restaurants in Wheaton tend to be fairly empty around the lunch hour, Pollo Rico is the exception. There was line for food - something that hadn't happened in all my lunch going expeditions. 

That's probably a good sign. 

The two hungry lunch-goers in front of me had ordered half-chickens, so I got a good sense of the size of what I was dealing with. I ordered a quarter chicken, which came with two sides (I chose beans and tortillas) and two sauces, and a can of peach nectar. The total came to about seven and a half dollars. 

Now, when the menu says a quarter chicken, that is no turn of phrase. The main serving style at El Pollo Rico is opening up a rotisserie where plenty of whole chicken, spiced and cooked, are waiting, then putting that chicken onto a cutting board and with a scary looking knife and two quick cuts, breaking that whole chicken into quarters.

Delcious, greasy quarters, that is.

As with most roasted chicken, the skin is the real treat, but unlike many chicken places, the inner meat was especially juicy, making me not mind when I was inevitably finished with the skin. Of course, I tried out both sauces. Both were good, but I enjoyed the mild sauce, a sort of flavorful mayonnaise, much better.

The beans were decent and the tortillas, I realized too late, were not the best combination side, especially when there were no readily available taco bases to use them with (that's a lunch for another day). 

So the sides were an added bonus, but as promised, the Peruvian chicken was what drew everyone in to a crowded lunch hour line at El Pollo Rico.