Khan Broaster Chicken

Running around like a chicken with it’s head, well, missing. That’s what it seemed like as the poor ‘chief cook and bottle washer’ handled more than one customer at a time. More on him, later, as we first focus on the food.
This review covers two occasions, so there are two verdicts, resulting in a hung jury. In any case, this place has good potential (with some work), but has a very bad location that may doom it.
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«Broast» chicken would phonetically lead you to believe «roasted» (by a Bro’?), but the chicken is FRIED! Maybe this is artistic license by the chef, er, …Jack-​of-​all-​kitchen-​trades (not his real name, but let’s use it). Since the chicken is fried, they should have named the place, …well…, «Church’s». Nevertheless, plain fried chicken is promoted here with the implied promise of more moist and less fat by the «broasting» process, which as I understand it, the chicken gets the ‘bends’, like a scuba diver.
I did not try the plain fried chicken. So, if that is your thing, then this review may not be that helpful.
Of more interest to me is the home-​made large menu banner with some (South) Asian options other than fried chicken. See the menu picture
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I was intrigued by a big picture of a meal on a poster on a window says «Leg and Thai» (
) … Clever name for spicy chicken? No, it’s not Thai spiced. It’s a misspelling of ‘thigh.‘
Lunch:
We wanted the spicy whole chicken («Lahori Chargha»), as pictured on the poster for $ 10 (
). Jack says it’s too hot for us. Huh? We give him our credentials (Popeyes, Indian food, etc.). Then, we ask if we can have the same spicing on individual pieces. Sorry, can’t. Whole chicken only. We ask how long it would take to cook the whole chicken. 9 minutes. We’re skeptical on his estimate and decide to move on. «What else is spicy?», we ask. He points right back to the chicken poster in the window that we just declined. Arrgh. «What’s medium spicy?» According to Jack, everything else seems to be mild. So, we order other stuff for lunch:
— 5 ‘hot’ chicken wings, 5 fried shrimp with fries and a drink for $ 8
— Boti Roll (see pic) a naan wrap of beef, onions and special Asian sauce for $ 7
Verdict 1 (lunch):
Food taste is nothing to B®oast about.
— Boti Roll (
): Do they taste the food they serve? (that is code for «I did not like it’) Naan looked like it was soaked in oil. Beef seemed mushy. I asked Jack if it was frozen. Honest guy. He says yes. That explains everything. This dish needs to be served fresh. But almost all the food here is frozen and then cooked! (reason: see final note at end)
— Shrimp (
): Over-​cooked. Shrimp are butterfly style, size of ring finger of a 5′-7» man. Maybe they bought them at Sam’s.
— Wings: Not spicy. False advertizing. Cooked well and not greasy, though.
— Fries: Very good (half-​inch straight-​cut kind, mild sagging when held)
(the lunch was not good, so why did I go back for a dinner that week… curiosity for Indian-​spiced chicken)
Verdict 2 (dinner):
Lahori Chargha, the whole chicken, spicy (
): Since it takes 10 minutes to prepare, I called ahead. The chicken is covered with Indian/​Pakistani spices and deep pressure-​fried. It is not greasy at all. If anything, it was slightly over-​cooked. But the taste is very good and different. But it’s NOT hot spicy like Jack indicated!
The Broaster franschise (
) seems to be now oriented to the service stations and mini-​marts that have a spot for a food franchise and low sales volume. The cooking is oriented towards frozen food fried without retaining much grease, so it can sit in pans under heat lamps for long periods of time looking fresher than would be a typically-​fried chicken pieces. You know … no pieces are sitting in puddles of grease, looking unappetizingly disgusting.
The website shows multiple Broaster locations in Houston area, but only one Khan’s. So, it’s a chain, but not a chain. Which is right? Both. The franchiser lets the owner improvise. So, a fitting song for this review might be: «Unchained Melody» by the Righteous Brothers. Aren’t you glad I’m out of room and can’t write a parody of it?