I've been wanting to try the distinctly red, Chick...

I've been wanting to try the distinctly red, Chicken Adobado at Pollo Express for the last few months. The reviews looked promising, so mom and I finally drove down from the Irving Park neighborhood and arrived at the post lunch hour, 2pm.

We ordered the whole chicken adobado with rice, refried beans, corn tortillas, a roasted jalapeno, and two salsas. The portions were ample, the chicken was tender and quite tasty, plus, the refried beans was spot on. I have my own recipe for Pollo Adobado and make it often on my charcoal fired Big Green Egg. The Adobo chicken at Pollo Express was perfectly cooked, nicely seasoned and perfectly salted, but not juicy....this was probably due to the fact that our batch was made at around 11 am for the lunch crowd, which meant that ours sat around for 2-3 hours...no biggie. Again the beans were spot on, the rice was pretty good, the tortillas were super fresh, albeit, not handmade. We enjoyed everything but the salsas, as they lacked character. We also felt that both the chicken and rice needed just a little more zing.

Lastly, we were super impressed with the all female staff and owner. They really take pride in what they do and keep the place clean and vibrant. Everyone was friendly and helpful. Oh, and one last suggestion; you should bill ahead of time or at the table. We were told to pay at the table when we placed our order, however, we waited around for a while waiting on our bill...only to be told later to pay at the register.

See you again Pollo Express! We will be back!