Unidentified Flying Chickens is Cluckin' Good!

When a Bronx boy needs to travel all the way to Queens for his Korean Fried Chicken fix, you know it's serious. I dined at Unidentified Flying Chickens (UFC) at the Jackson Heights location once before and that was my first foray into chicken prepared Korean Style. I was bowled over by the outer crunchy shell of chicken burnished to a high gloss with their signature soy garlic glaze. After the initial crackling bite, it gave way to the most tender and flavorful morsels of chicken on the bone.

I recently re-visited UFC for the second time and between then, I'd become a bit of a Korean fried chicken connoisseur. Since my last visit, I had sampled the double fried Korean-style chicken from Kyochon, Bon Chon and Mad For Chicken (recently renamed Mono + Mono). With this new perspective, I found UFC not to to be as impressive as I had remembered the first time. Let me be clear: it had less to do with a decline in quality, and more to do with tempered expectations from a more experienced palate. UFC still serves up some amazing Korean fried chicken.

My second visit to UFC came a few weeks ago with some friends. Meaning business, we headed straight downstairs to the dining area, and ordered two large orders of the chicken and wings combo.

You don't have Korean fried chicken without the traditional soy garlic glaze, but we also tried the other flavors, namely the barbecue mustard and sweet and spicy. While these flavors were merely adequate, they didn't hold a candle to the all time traditional favorite, soy garlic. The chicken was impeccably prepared with a thin crackled veneer of skin shellacked to a glossy perfection with the flavored glaze. The meat was hot, fresh, tender, juicy and melded perfectly with their respective flavors.

You have to wait some time for your order, but the appetizer of sweet potato fries held us over and the accompanying creamy honey dijon dip was thoroughly amazing. The white pickled Korean radish is the usual complimentary side that comes with the chicken and it provided a cool and crunchy counterpoint to the hot and crunchy chicken.

If I had to rank my Korean fried chicken experience, Unidentified Flying Chickens would rank just below the Bon Chon in Manhattan (their soy garlic chicken is hands down crispy, crunchy, meaty crack on a bone), but definitely above the Kyochon on 5th Avenue (small pieces, inconsistent texture and too much of the soy garlic flavoring actually leaves an acid burn on my tongue).

Unidentified Flying Chickens

71-22 Roosevelt Ave

Queens, NY 11372

(718) 205-6662

http://www.ufchicken.com/