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A Recession Obsession is, 1) a meal so great that it stays in your mind long after digestion's end, and, 2) plays nice with your sensitive wallet. Is there a better place than Los Angeles to eat a wide variety of amazing food that so happens to be inexpensive? Probably not. We're as lucky as we are well fed. We last obsessed over some organic Asian at Green Zone, and Mercado La Paloma near USC. Today, we obsess...
In Recession Obsession -- a weekly guide on how one can inexpensively achieve a beer gut during The Recession without beer -- we’ve obsessed over Guatemalan, and we’ve obsessed over chicken. But not yet Guatemalan chicken. (No, not GFC.)
Pollo Campero’s great eats and fast food-prices (it is fast-food) cater favorably to families on a budget, and sitcom writers with discerning palates. One such food-centric scribe is Emmy winner, and KCRW's Martini Shot man, Rob Long (LAist Interview.)
“What I love about Pollo Campero is just how perfectly it mimics a typical American fast-food restaurant -- silly cartoon spokeschicken, bright orange and yellow logo, idiotic uniforms, paper hats,” he said. Pollo Campero is not only LAist’s latest Recession Obsession, but Long’s as well.
The Long Guide to Pollo Campero
Whether grilled, fried, or in finger-form, "the focus is on the chicken,” he said. It's "crispy and deliciously greasy and smells like it should, like a hint of spiciness. It gets on your fingers and stains the wax paper and leaves a peppery tingle on your lips."
It's “ridiculously tasty,” he said. In that thought, Long's certainly not alone. According to their website, “Campero has achieved many successes such as serving more than 75 million customers a year.”
“The secret to eating at Pollo Campero is to forget about everything but the chicken and the plantains,” he said. “There's rice, of course -- which is awfully clumpy and tasteless -- and french fries -- sad, doughy. Ignore them.”
Got Sides?
The plantains are “deeply brown and caramelized -- sticky, rich, barely sweet,” he said. While this author has enjoyed Campero’s unadorned plantains many times, there is something wonderfully indulgent about their suggested lubricant.
They’re “presented with the single greatest condiment ever found in a fast-food establishment: a fat pyramid wedge of sour cream,” he said. “You squirt the sour cream onto the wax paper, scoop it up with the gooey plantain, and then go ask the girl at the counter for more sour cream, which she'll give you, reluctantly.”
Long admitted his chicken-and-plantain tunnel-vision has kept him from their yuca fries. “ Everybody always talks about sweet potato this and yucca that, but it's hard to improve on the crispy regular potato, with salt, and grease."
This writer assures both Long and yourself that the yuca fries are wonderful. When fresh out of the grease vat, during their precious, newborn moments, their outsides are firm and salty, with inside like slightly sweet mashed potatoes. Though it's doubtful that Long will find out for himself.
“I like to leave room for more sour cream,” he said.
- Pollo Campero Hollywood | 5555 Sunset Boulevard | Los Angeles 90028
- Pollo Campero Pico-Union | 1605 W. Olympic Boulevard | Los Angeles 90015
- They have locations in most corner of Los Angeles. Find out here.
Pollo Campero Photos by Caleb Bacon (Twitter) for LAist | Rob Long Photo by Marc Goldstein / used with permission
Where do you get your Central American chicken? Comment Below!
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He's so right about the sides. The mashed potatoes are horrible. They're literally clumps of boiled potatoes with some sort of yellowish fat on top. Not good.
Go, Rob Long!
I think the only thing I like about this place is the smell, and not necessarily because it smells good, but more so, because it reminds me of El Salvador.
I don't remember ever trying it back in El Salvador when I was kid, but I have done so as an adult, only here. The chicken is super salty and greasier/fattier than even KFC. I don't know why so many people like this place, especially my fellow Salvadoreans, and to the point of bringing stashes of it back from El Salvador whenever they visit.
Angel, like you I kept wondering why so many Salvadoreans did like this place. I kept hearing stories from family members of the plane trip back from El Salvador smelling like Pollo Campero (pre-USA stores opening).
Recently, at a family gathering family members reminisced about Pollo Campero (btw in El Salvador the uniform used to be blue). This made me realize that in the same vein that McDonald's is such a huge part of many of our young lives, Pollo Campero must be that for young Salvadoreans.
Good point. I know that to me, the smell is very much along those lines (reminiscing).
..and the planes do smell like the chicken. It is crazy. Pollo Campero even picked up on this some years back and opened a restaurant at the airport for last minute pick ups. People here swear that the one from El Salvador tastes better/different than the one here.
I can only attribute that to 1 of 2 things: the Salvadorean version uses an ingredient which is banned here (not entirely out of the realm of possibilities) and at the same time, possibly addictive, or letting the chicken sit for 6+ hours makes it taste better.
LOL
Whenever my ex-bf wanted "fast food" the first place he would take me to was the Pollo Campero inside La Curacao. This was a few years ago, before it started popping up everywhere. Now it's even in the Glendale Gallera. But kudos to anywhere where I can get fried chicken and horchata in the same place.
Whenever I'm in Guatemala I get the breakfast at my local P.C. (Antigua). Not sure if they serve breakfast here in L.A., but the platanos/sour cream go so well with eggs, black beans, corn tortillas and salsa ranchera in the breakfast combo.
The "spokeschicken" might as well be a Q100 bill (Guatemalan currency) with wings, since Pollo Campero is where many Guatemalans spend their disposible income.