What do you look for when deciding on fried chicken? Is it crispy skin? Is it the juicy meat? Does it to have it boneless?
If yes to all of the above, then my question for you is, is all fried chicken made equally?
Not when it comes to Zhengxin, a Chinese fried chicken chain, originating out of China. We entered at 12pm just before the lunch rush. And after us, came a continuous flood of people, and soon the small shop was flooded. Groups and individuals dining in as well as drivers taking out.
It is cafeteria style seating with each setting equipped with a caddy of napkins, a box of thin plastic gloves, and a collection of sauces and seasonings.
Their menu is extensive and includes their fried chicken in a variety of ways as well as other fried parts of the chicken, like gizzards or ribs. They even have pork belly. And to go with it a slew of sides like sweet plum yam potato fries, New Orleans style grilled chicken wing, spicy pork bites, and a mushroom chicken salad.
We decide to make the ordering easy on ourselves by grabbing one of their combos. This was a good way to try a little bit of everything, which gave us a great first impression of the restaurant.
Admittedly, their chicken recipe as is, isn’t all that memorable. You can get it traditionally breaded or with the addition of seaweed flakes or as a thicker puffed rice coating. Original seems to be the popular choice, as it makes the best base for all the sauces and powders that you will soon season it with.
What sets them apart is the ability to customize your deep fried meal with the above mentioned sauces and seasonings, available at each individual table. Choose between a Korean style barbeque sauce, a plum and cumin sauce, or a mystery rose sauce. Then top it with a shaker of black pepper, cumin, or chili. I experimented and found my preferred combo was a mix of the plum and chilli. I did not like the rose, which was rose water.
Without the above, this was just heavily breaded, dry and thick crusted pieces of dark meat chicken. But with my generous coating of sauce the chicken quickly became a more juicy and flavourful bite. Of the cuts I prefer the wings, just because it had a more even ratio of breading to meat. Whereas I found the boneless dark meat pieces too crusted with too much breading, it was almost a 1:1 ratio making each bite too thick and jagged in the mouth.
Our combo came all in the same bucket. So what I thought was a full bucket of dark meat chicken also included deep fried chicken wings, taro sweet potato balls, and brown sugar rice cake hidden at the bottom. This felt deceitful as it did not match the pictorial menu and I got less chicken than I had hoped for.
The sides offered a nice break in flavour, but it was still all deep fried. So we leaned on the premade juices that we also ordered as a break. My guest got their passion fruit green tea and I their peach oolong milk tea to quench.
The taro balls had a good bread-like chew and the rice cake made for a nice sweet dessert. But our favourite side was the salted duck egg fries that we got as an add on. Most of the flavour, that I did like, came from the powder that was only sprinkled on top. I would have liked the fries better coated. To be all shaken in a brown paper bag for even distribution.
In short, this is a great way to enjoy a different kind of fried chicken. I have never seen another spot offering their chicken like this.
Zhengxin Chicken Steak Canada
5105 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 2E6
(604) 436-3186
zomi.menu/shop/zhengxinchickensteakcanada
