If you can’t stand the heat, get out of Super Chicken.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of Super Chicken.
In the coming weeks, the Falls Church area will turn from a lovely spring paradise into a seemingly-endless sauna that Lucifer himself would be unable to cope with. Many will be unable to leave their air-conditioned sanctuaries for any reason other than to go to the pool or take a flight to visit their long-lost cousin in Antarctica. But those who can manage to leave their frosty abodes and endure the brutal lack of air-conditioning at Super Chicken will be rewarded with some of the best Peruvian chicken in the Northern Virginia area.
There are things on the menu besides chicken, such as burgers and salads and whatnot, but going to a place called Super Chicken for something other than chicken is downright silly. And given how perfectly moist and flavorful the chicken is, it could be considered almost treasonous to order something else. The chicken itself, ordered in sizes ranging from a quarter-chicken to a whole chicken, is slow roasted over a charcoal oven with enough spices to keep the meal interesting but not enough to make the chicken painful. The whole chickens, after being cooked to perfection and retaining enough moisture to keep it juicy without allowing the meat to become soupy, are then hacked into whatever size you order. Watching the employees quickly chop a chicken into fourths with a meat cleaver makes them seem almost like culinary lumberjacks.
But let’s say you hate eating chicken but your friend dragged you into a place called Super Chicken because they’re sadistic. The massive helpings of the two side dishes that come with any order of chicken should fill you up just fine. Particularly delicious are the crispy yuca fries that come with the outrageously addictive green chile sauce and the divine spicy mayonnaise-like sauce, and the sweet plantains, which are definitely worth the extra dollar. However, the plantains are almost scalding-hot when a fresh batch has been cooked up, so let them cool while you devour your chicken and yuca like there’s no tomorrow.
But what to wash down that heavenly chicken with? While traditionalists may go for the standard Coke, Super Chicken offers a couple of Central and South American brands that more adventurous diners should go for, like the painfully-sweet Inca Cola and chicha morada, a sweet purple soda derived from corn. One diner even had a Mexican beer, although it was not clear whether Super Chicken sells alcohol (which would be awesome and would go perfectly with their heavenly fowl) or lets customers bring their own alcohol. Either way, be bold and drink something different for once in your life.
Super Chicken has a cult following for a reason, which would explain why there was a line stretching out the door on a Thursday evening, and while there have been great improvements to its once-dilapidated interior, it nevertheless remains very cramped and take-out is definitely recommended. Furthermore, any discrepancies with the bill, such as having parts of your order left off and then being asked to pay for them upfront with cash, are difficult to fix if you are not a fluent Spanish speaker, so be sure to get everything confirmed before you pay, especially if you are getting sides that cost extra or you are paying with a card. However, given that you get two huge helpings of incredibly sides in addition to a quarter of a sublime chicken for the pittance of $5.49, these are issues that can be easily overlooked. Go get some right now.
Super Chicken
422 South Washington Street
Falls Church • 703-538-5366Hours:
Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
