Thanksgiving in April: Zankou Chicken
The gay boyfriend and I hung out with a friend on Saturday. We watched Date Night (very funny) and after some discussion, we decided to just pick up food for dinner rather than go out somewhere. After running through our options, we decided to go with Zankou Chicken.
After setting the table, it very much reminded us of Thanksgiving. For those unfamiliar with Zankou, it’s Armenian rotisserie chicken. But that is not what drives me there. It’s their amazing garlic sauce. My friends and I would talk about this garlic spread and think there’s some sort of lard or butter in it. Years ago, I found a recipe on Chowhound that said it was actually pureed potatoes. Egads, really? That rich, buttery, fatty, seemingly unwholesome garlic product was actually relatively healthy (that is, unless you put it on everything).
For years, I’ve heard rumors of family tragedy. It really is a sad case. After reading the LA Times article, I came to find out the families aren’t really speaking to each other and two of the Zankou locations aren’t even on the website. There’s one in Montebello? Oh wow, I never knew that. I usually go to the one in Pasadena though the food pictured above comes from the North Hollywood location.
What to get: chicken. Garlic sauce. Lots of it. That’s about it. Yes, I like the salad but some might find the tahini salad slightly overdressed. And the hummus is generally pretty good. I have found the quality of the complimentary pickled beets to have gone down over the years though. I so very rarely order the shwaarma but I remember people who don’t like dealing with bones to like it.
I am somewhat bummed the garlic sauce seems mass produced (see the foil lidded tubs in first picture) but one taste and I know I’m still in love.
Again- potatoes? Well, I could try the recipe but I rather just go to any of the Zankous and ask for extra sauce.
The Zankou on Sunset and Normandie makes their own garlic paste, not the pre-packaged stuff like the others. Check out the Burbank location which is much, much nicer than the other locations as far as dining in goes.
Jon’s Marketplace, at least the one on Fountain/La Brea, sells huge jars of the pickled beets (actually, not to nitpick, like Zankou they are actually turnips. Beets are only used to dye them that magenta color). Anyway, the pickled turnips/beets taste as good if not better than the Zankou version, are bottled locally in Glendale, and cost around $4 for a half gallon.
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Yep! The Hollywood one (and I assume the Montebello one) make their garlic sauce still. While the others are mass produced since they are a mini-chain.
I have bought a huge jar of the turnips dyed by beets from Super King. I haven’t broken into the jar yet because I tend to buy jars and jars of pickled things and eat them when I am in the mood.
That Burbank one is also known as the Toluca Lake/ North Hollywood location. I’ve eaten there and that is where the food is from in the post.
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Are we talking about the same location? The one I’m thinking of is by Ikea near downtown Burbank.
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