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Chicken on the Run - Peruvian Pollo a la Brasa on St. Elmo Avenue in Downtown Bethesda


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Please feel free to merge if there is an existing thread (I could not find it).

Chicken on the Run...is it a micro-local chain or a stand alone joint? I really don't care. I'm now working in Bethesda again (woo-hoo!) and I noticed this place even before my first day yesterday and I knew I needed to try it. Wow.

This is possibly the best peruvian chicken I have tasted, with Que Rico fighting for the title but losing by a hair (and it is way up in Owings Mills, MD). I think it must be the charcoal flavor/wood flavor I am tasting that makes me giddy. The mild sauce is very good, and the green hot sauce is nice, better than just pure pureed jalapenos, but still not up to the level of Que Rico in Owings Mills -- not 'creamy' enough while retaining heat (too watery).

The rice is good, but not what I ordered but it was so busy I did not bother to try to get it fixed. The yuca was really nice and lightly treated in the fryer. I hope to go back and try the fries and salad next time. While I did not try the corn, it looked weak.

My only real complaint about the place is that their chickens are, um, small. Or maybe that is just how they cut them. My quarter dark meat section was pretty small by my standard, which is OK since I am on a diet and this was and never will be diet food, but I thought I'd mention it for those who might care (like me when I really want to fall off the wagon, hard.)...

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This is our go-to place for take-out. The chicken, rice and beans, yuca and plantains are almost always excellent. I think this is becoming a micro-chain -- the same folks are opening Don Pollo on Wisconsin in Bethesda (the old Chesapeake Chicken and Rib place), and I believe, the Don Pollo on Veirs Mill in Aspen Hill/Rockville is part of the group.

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This is our go-to place for take-out. The chicken, rice and beans, yuca and plantains are almost always excellent. I think this is becoming a micro-chain -- the same folks are opening Don Pollo on Wisconsin in Bethesda (the old Chesapeake Chicken and Rib place), and I believe, the Don Pollo on Veirs Mill in Aspen Hill/Rockville is part of the group.

My coworker is addicted to this place. I like it but I prefer e pollo rico an tiny bit more.

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I found myself here for lunch. Hungrier than a 1/4 dark meal, I opted for half. Bad idea. Why is it that most Peruvian chicken joints can never quite keep the breast meat juicy? Do they not brine the chicken before roasting? I was upset with myself for not ordering 1/2 chicken dark, as the guy right after me did. Live and learn. The rest of the meal was great.

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They do a really good job when you buy two chickens to go -- it stays quite hot/warm in the container you take it home in. Took me 30 minutes to drive home and it was still very warm.

I do not care for their green sauce really at all, but the mild sauce is delicious FWIW. The chicken is still quite, quite good. Still recommended.

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Indulged again. They do not have uniform control over their chicken breast sections. Too uneven. The delicious moist parts are not enough to make up for the too dry parts.

Can you get a checken with 4 legs? Maybe next time that is what I ask for. ;-)

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Still my standard for this style cicken - they seem to be getting the breasts done more correctly of late, too, when I get two chickens to go to bring home for dinner. Leftovers make an odd but inspired base for chicken salad, too.

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Got this for carryout. They really hit this one out of the park. Got two full chickens that they quartered and gave 2 each of a much larger tub of their two sauces. The purreed jalapenos are kind of stupid, but I guess some people must like it. Anyway, they nailed the execution this time, even the quarters with the breast meat were uniformly good and juicy.

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No longer working in Bethesda makes getting their chicken somewhat difficult. I half jokingly mentioned to my wife that sometimes Waze takes me up through the city almost due north and that I could stop by Chicken on the Run - and she latched on to that like a great white shark does on some big prey. So let it be written, so let it be done.

It is as good as a I remember - so juicy and so woodsy/charcoaly. Just fantastic. Recommended.

Somewhat shocking, as I drove around Bethesda looking for parking and so on, was that the pace of tear downs, and more specifically, urban towers replacing old 1-3 story buildings has increased in speed. Time marches on for sure, and it's probably not all bad. Just fascinating.

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