Wild Chicken, Fairfax, VA

Wild Chicken is a relatively new Pollo a la Brasa house on Pickett Street near Fair City Mall, owned by Rosa and Wilder (hence the name?) Sanchez.  (There’s also a second Fairfax location near West Fair Center.) Once inside, you’ll see that it’s generic and nondescript, with a single television set – when I went, it was showing a world cup match. It was early in the day, and the chickens in the roaster were still roasting, so I didn’t get a good look at the finished product.

Everything looks pretty nondescript – until you notice the sign that says ‘Anticuchos – Fri, Sat, Sun $10′.

Wanting to make sure I knew what I was getting into, I asked a very friendly (non English-speaking) gentleman at the register what, exactly, these anticuchos were. He smiled, pounded his heart, and said, “corazón.”

I got an order to go, spicy, which came with fries (I upgraded to yuca), salad, a cob of maize (large, chewy kernels, not sweet), and a few tubs of aji verde, the fiery Peruvian green chili sauce. There were four huge skewers of the corazon, really enough for an entire family to eat, and they, themselves, were spicy, with overtones of Sriracha in the marinade. Combined with the aji verde, it was enough to make me thankful for my can of Diet Coke (99 cents) which I drank gratefully, wishing I had a big glass of water to go along with it.

By the time I’d finished half the order, I was stuffed, and could eat no more. If you’ve never had anticuchos (or, even if you have), I’ve done enough research to know that this was the real product – as authentic as it can be in these parts. A remarkable bargain for $10, but I can’t imagine they always dole out four skewers (it could be dependent on how much they have in stock, what time of day it is, etc.)

If you’re an adventurous eater, here’s your adventure.

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