Taqueria Tour 2008: El Rey del Pollo

Stop #3: The King of Chicken

Joe spotted these guys grilling outside along Vernor Hwy, and said "we've got to check this out." It turns out that they were grilling chicken, and selling it by the half or whole chicken. Since eating half a chicken would have (a) been a departure from our taco theme, and (b) taken us out of the game for the rest of the day, we took the griller's advice and went into the attached restaurant for some tacos de pollo made with the pollo they were cooking on the grill.

A word of warning here:  yes, the restaurant is kind of run down. There's broken stuff, it's dark, and the tables don't match. The booth where we were sitting used to be a hood; we realized after a few minutes that we were surrounded by stainless steel and had fire suppression nozzles pointing down at us. This is not a tourist spot like Xochimilco's or Los Galanes, or even a more upscale authentic place like El Comal or Arandas. But it's clean (even the bathroom was immaculate), and when the tacos came out, we were stunned:

Huge, gorgeous, loaded with juicy red-sauced hunks of that grilled chicken, and so hot we couldn't even pick them up at first. The salsa was great too — spicy and way better than the table salsa they gave us — but the chicken!  The chicken was the real star. Moist, flavorful, not as spicy as it looks by a long shot (some of that red color is achiote, not chilies). We also had a chorizo taco:  equally huge, with a lot of spicy chorizo, and the same sauce.

While we were eating it, the guy on the grill (who may well have been Armando himself) leaned through the sliding window beside our table and asked what we thought. When Joe told him (in Spanish) how good it was, he passed us some chicken pieces straight from the grill as a free sample.  Heaven!

Highly, highly recommended. We'd also recommend you park your car where the grill guys (or you) can keep an eye on it, because there were some folks hanging out in the area drinking.

Armando, the king of chicken, is out there grilling most (all?) of the year. Just drive along Vernor Hwy and look his roadside tents between Lansing and Ferdinand St. in the Mexican Town.

Comments

[j]

Hey! next time you guys go on a taqueria tour, count us in!!! looks and sounds fantastic!!

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

Sure! Um, who are you?

[j]

Joe,

Fed you your first taco....south of the border..

[Kitchen Chick]

Sheesh. I knew. I can't believe you couldn't figure it out. :-)

[Joe]

Hey, none of us signed anything "j" when I was growing up! It wouldn't have been helpful!

[Daniel]

I've been to Armando before... and totally agree with you. He has something very special there. I used to swing down to this stand on my lunch hour when I worked in the city. I was so happy to see it make a feature on your blog, but it makes me sad because I can't have any!

Great post.

[Joe]

He really was the standout of the day, I think. I normally don't order tacos de pollo because they're generally bland -- but they sure weren't at Armando's!

[David A. Spitzley]

Speaking as an Ann Arbor/Detroit bi-regional with some involvement in economic development, it seems like a crime that somebody this talented in cooking hasn't gotten some help from the development community or the city to upgrade his business.

[df]

http://www.kitchenchick.com/

[Crunky]

A bunch of us from Ann Arbor did your Taco Tour! Two of the places you'd hit were closed, so we had to deviate a little bit, but El Rey de Pollo was the best, hands down. The al pastor meat was beautifully seasoned, and the salsa had just enough bite to augment the grilled meat without overwhelming it. I didn't order the chicken tacos, but my friend said they were incredibly good, and she went back for seconds. I'd recommend this place for sure, and it's well worth a trip from Ann Arbor.

We told Armando about your blog report, and he was psyched, if a little confused. Thanks so much for your taco tour post!

[Kitchen Chick]

He's still there? That's awesome! It looked like it had changed ownership when we went by.

Or hang on -- where did you find him exactly?

[Crunky]

Well, now that I think of it, I didn't ask his name. He and his wife were the owners, but maybe they recently took the place over. At any rate, the tacos were awesome!

[Kelly A.]

What is the name of the attached restaurant? Those tacos look awesome!

[Lorna]

The place is El Rey, and it has indeed changed hands from 2008-- back to the previous owners. Address is 4730 W Vernor, Detroit 48209. They're open 10-10 every day.

[Kelly A.]

Thanks Lorna!