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A Recession Obsession is, 1) a meal so great that it sticks 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 Yuca's x2 In Los Feliz, and Dumplings. Today we obsess...
South Bay eats can be tricky. I once heard someone describe a Hermosa Beach restaurant as “like what you would find in LA.” That made me scratch my head and walk away from it -- right to Hermosa’s The Chicken Shack, which boasts claims “the best chicken around.” (They do have the best car around.) While they may not have the best chicken in LA, they do have some of the best around... the South Bay. This is a good thing.
The Chicken Shack is LAist’s latest Recession Obsession. Their website describes the fare as Peruvian chicken with a Californian twist. Regular readers of this column know: Peruvian chicken is wonderfully delicious, and sometimes shockingly cheap.
The Chicken Shack’s dishes can get pricey (some are $13.99) but the rotisserie basics are plentiful and under $10: 1/4 chicken with two sides is $6.75; and a 1/2 chicken with two side is $8.75.
The best chicken around practically jumps from the bone onto your plate. It's tender though not especially juicy -- dry, smokey, wonderful. This bird's skin is almost a separate dish. It's spiced ten ways 'til Tuesday, and packs a dense wallop.
I don't like their aji sauce as much as I do Pollo A La Brasa's, but the green aji gets the spicy job done enjoyably. Their yellow aji sauce, while novel and new to me, doesn't compliment the chicken enough to be worth your palate's while.
