Piece of Chicken

Oh man am I in mourning. I am hoping that, like El rey del Taco in Astoria, this is just a momentary absence due to unforeseen circumstances beyond their control.
I fell in love with Piece of Chicken one magical February 14^th (save your sad comments). It seriously was magical. A restaurant that opened out of what appeared to be the back of a «real» restaurant which then continued to stay in business long after that «real» one shut down and eventually reopened as Five Napkin Burger.
It’s name was simple and effective yet beyond hysterical.
It was cheap.
It was freakishly delectable. (I’m gonna miss the chicken and that damned mac-​n-​cheese!!!)
The cashier was a beautiful and happy soul.
Outside of having nowhere to enjoy your cheap vittles (aside from heading the upstairs of McDonald’s or a long walk to the park), it was one of my favorite NYC finds.
I was surprised it survived as long as it did but (at least since my discovery — probably in 2007-​ish) but once I got used to it’s stability — POOF — GONE– No explanation. This truly is the definition of «sadface».
This is all I can find about it:
I guess it was too good to be true. DAMN you NYC RENT!!! COME TO ASTORIA!!! PLEASE!!!

RIP POC.
Very sad news about this place closing down. If anyone knows why or whether POC will be relocating, please share.

Good stuff, and you couldn’t quite beat their prices, but it appears that it’s all over now. Just walked over to get some lunch and the place is shut down and cleaned out. :-(
C’est la vie…

A piece of fried chicken in NYC for $ 1?!?
Sign me up!
You can piece together an abundant meal by mixing and matching the many items on the menu. The fried chicken thighs/​legs are great for $ 1, fried to a crisp and still juicy, KFC go eat your heart out. Timing is a key when visiting here, sometimes you might be getting food that has been sitting in the pan for a while. So try to drop by during lunch when they’re pushing out freshly cooked food.

4.5 stars…
Finally a place that can rival Prosperity Dumpling in terms of value for money. In a city full of $ 13 burgers and $ 25 pizzas comes Piece of Chicken, a place that shares its space with 2 Bros Pizza and charges $ 1 for a piece of chicken. Unfortunately they don’t have chicken breasts (I wonder where they went, I would definitely pay double for it), but they have all the other standard pieces crispy and fried for $ 1 per piece. You can also get it baked and seasoned for I believe $ 2/​ea. They have a number of great sides (like candied yams which you get a whole half a candied yam for $ 1) for $ 1 and $ 2 if I’m not mistaken. I don’t know where else you can go and get so much for so little and still have good quality. The trade off is they only have a couple seats in the back and a couple high tables you can stand by if you want to eat there.

I SURE LOVE ME SOME CHEE-​KEEN! This place is really cool and cute. Whether you’re taking a break from work and looking for a quick bite this is the spot. Its also perfect if you’ve had a drink or two after work and you’re hungry. GOOD FOOD IN A FLASH!
Its like a fast food for soul food. Piece of Chicken is definitely a food spot to check out. Very tasty quick food. Be prepared to take the meal to go. There is no seating.

Fried chicken= A+. Moist, delicious, great crispy skin.
Mac and cheese=A-. Good, spicy, but not enough cheese!
This place does delivery to my office in Hell’s Kitchen. Hallelujah.

JUST GET THE CHICKEN.
They do the fried chicken right. I didn’t like the honey battered chicken or the jerk chicken. Jerk chicken — spicy without full flavor, honey battered chicken — the sauce was watery and not sweet or sticky enough.
I didn’t like their mac and cheese or any of other sides as they tend to be blend. No soul in those «soul food».
BUT the friend chicken…
Man, I know it’s extra greasy and your conscience might say «NOOOOO, take that greasy skin away! Don’t eat it.» but you know you sometimes crave for it.
Just extra greasy enough to make you feel bad and feel great at the same time.

So don’t go here close to closing because they’ll be out of some of the things you want.
When I went after 8pm they were out of ribs and whiting and cornbread.
What I –did– get was more than enough. Two wings one thigh, a double order of collared greens and some potato salad. After being disappointed with what wasn’t there I asked if they still had any of their daily special left: pig feet. They did so I got that with some black eyed peas and candied yams.
I’ll be bringing that plate to my parents today, though I did taste a bit of each.
Very, very good greens. I was suprised as most places get them wrong or add too much sugar. The only thing I could say was that they were a bit salty.
The potato salad was ok, it’s not mine or my mothers, but it had all the right components.
The chicken was yummy, a little dried out since it was towards the end of the day, but the flavors were there.
I had low expectations for the yams because they were in such big chunks, but the sweet and slightly spicy flavor went throughout.
I still am not a fan of hoppin johns. Iono why I got them other than to just say I did.
The pig feet need vinegar and hot sauce. My parents are set.

Do you like fried chicken?
Do you like paying only $ 1 a piece?
If you answered yes to these questions, this may be your place. Notice I said MAY.
There’s no seating here… This is a take out only place. But there’s a tip jar. And I get it… Service employees deserve tips, even if they’re just packing up your order to go, so of course I contributed.
Personally, I’m not a big fan… of their food or the service. I find their mac and cheese mushy and bland and their chicken a little too greasy even for fried chicken. I also was not a fan of having the door dropped on me as I exited, hands full, by an employee who was quite aware they were doing so.

In a part of town where you can often spend an excessive amount of money on a quick meal, Piece of Chicken keeps it simple.
As their name implies, most people come here for a piece of chicken. Toss them a buck and they’ll toss you a piece of chicken.
Although that’s what most people come here for, they offer more than just chicken. Some of their side dishes are actually solidly good on their own. The corn muffins and mashed potatoes are definitely delicious items that I would easily swing by for if I happen to be in the neighborhood.
With the walk-​through window ordering is a breeze and most lines move pretty quickly. However like others have mentioned, there are definitely going to be occasions where you’ll come here and they’ll have ran out of some items.

This place is great. $ 1 fried chicken! in Midtown!
Choose from either a leg or a thigh. I got a thigh, and a piece of their BBQ Chicken, which was also delicious. For sides, the mac and cheese was on point, as well as the rice and beans. On a side note, don’t get the fries, they blow. Wish I would’ve gotten fried okra, also, but next time maybe.
Decent food at a great value, that’s what I’m about.

Once again, THANK YOU Unilocal!
Ever since Jezebel closed, I’ve been sad that there is no place to get good chicken/​soul food in Midtown, so when I found out that part of the old jezebel kitchen is still making and serving fried chicken and all the best sides, i was SO excited and couldnt wait to go.
Its take out only (but walking distance to worldwide plaza) and its fantastic and its cheap as cheap can get. The chicken, the wings, the chicken livers, the corn bread, the mac n cheese, — just try a little of everything.
This is one of those amazing finds, hidden gems, and I still dont know why Im telling anyone about it.

Dear Piece of Chicken,
I hate your FACE.
I am on a strict diet regimen here. I am trying to be healthy, to slim down somewhat. You are RUINING that.
Stupid $ 1 thighs and cheap, GOOD sides.
Don’t you know that food is supposed to SUCK when it costs a dollar? The skin on a buck piece of chicken isn’t supposed to be so flavorful with just the right amount of crisp!
Your mac and cheese isn’t supposed to be like down home mac and cheese, the kind one’s momma makes! The yams are not supposed to make my eyes roll back in my head!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
You are on my way home from rehearsal. I’m ashamed to admit that I actually broke down and came to you in the middle of a workout!
UGH.
If I don’t lose this weight I am coming for you…
AND your chicken.

Woohoo! I’m a fan of Piece of Chicken! So I came across this on Unilocal and based on all the reviews, I knew I HAD to try it. And hellls to the yea, I’m lovin’ it! Well, I live about two blocks away, so it is unbelievably convenient. Almost too convenient, because I know I’ll want it too often.
First… CHEAP!!! And, I am not talking manhattan, $ 15/​person cheap, I am talking REAL cheap. LOOOVE! I got mac & cheese, yams, and a piece of chicken (with hot sauce packets) for $ 7. Wow! I was shocked, I had to ask her to repeat the total a couple times.
Second… real mac & cheese. Now, it was a little cold when I got it, guess they were winding down for the day, but even with the cold, it still had that real down south baked mac & cheese flavor… you know the mac & cheese that doesn’t move. I don’t know who told people in new york that mac & cheese should be saucy… (and even worse made with cheese sauce) Ummmm no!
The fried chicken… also a surprise. It had real seasoning and flavors fried in the breading. The skin (the best part, i mean if I wanted to be healthy I would have a salad) delish!!!
Anyway, three for the food and boosted for the price just as another reviewer said.

I’m from New England. I know clam chowda. I know lobsta. I know potatoes (Maine potatoes, SCREW YOU IDAHO). I know how to cook a partridge (wrapped in bacon). I know how to cook a trout (wrapped in bacon). As a young lad, I once field-​dressed a deer (surprisingly, not wrapped in bacon).
Needlesstosay, I don’t know fried chicken beyond KFC. So take the next statement for what it is:
Piece of Chicken has the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.
$ 1 dollar for a savory piece of chicken served up by some of the friendliest people around. The sides are delicious, but I usually go with a couple legs with a side of a thigh, or some wings with a side of a leg, if you catch my drift.

A few guys and girls were sitting a few buildings away on a door stoop eating some yummy looking fried chicken. That’s when I realized that Piece of Chicken was right in front of my eyes! I love fried chicken and I’ve heard good things about Piece of Chicken but never got a chance to check it out. Boy was I excited.
It’s an open kitchen so we were able to view a cook preparing some raw chicken, frying them and placing them in bins where all the other ready to serve foods were located. The line was pretty short and my friend and I decided to get, duh, the fried chicken. We just wanted a snack so we each ordered a piece of chicken and and split an order of wings. We made sure to put some hotsauce in our carton. Total came to $ 3.25.
No seats at this tiny place so we decided to walk a few blocks and find some empty stair stoop. The chicken smelled so good that my friend and I reached for the wings and walked and ate even though we got some stares. Wings were good but not great. It reminded me of fried chicken wings from a Chinese take out place. We found a stoop, sat down and digged into the single pieces of chicken. I had a thigh and my friend had a breast. The crunch of the fried skin was amazing and the thigh meat was nice and juicy. My friend liked her piece and it seemed never ending. I wound up eating half of hers. Afterward we were both feeling that we just had dinner and not a snack and concluded that we should of stuck with just the pieces of chicken. So note-​the wings are not worth it but the pieces of chicken are.

Maybe I got a bad batch. Maybe the 10 of us got a whole big bad batch. But I’d rather go to Crown Fried Chicken. The smothered chicken I got was rough and not tender. I thought maybe it was just me. Then my friend tried her fried chicken and grimaced in disappointment. She didn’t have to say anything. I knew.
You know something is bad when it doesn’t taste good even though you’re famished.
A dollar a piece isn’t exactly what I would call «cheap» either. You ain’t seen cheap if you think that’s cheap. (Incorrect grammar was necessary there.)
All in all, I’ll still come back to try other items, since everyone else is hyping this up so much.

OMG, Piece of Chicken ROCKS! My mouth started to water as I stood in line and could smell the food cookin’… I had no trouble deciding on what I wanted, it was fried chicken… I just love me some fried chicken… I wish I could eat it every week! When it was my turn to order, I immediately said «2 wings, 1 leg, greens and a corn muffin». Within 7 minutes I was sitting on someone’s stoop chowing down.
This fried chicken was some of the best I’ve ever had, hot, juicy, crispy and yummy; the greens were flavored well and the corn muffin was warm and delicious. POC has a lot of other items but it was all about the chicken for me. My meal was under $ 6. It doesn’t get any better than that. I wanted to get on line again and order more chicken for later, but, I had tix for a 2 pm matinée and didn’t want to smell up the theatre. I hope POC stays in business as I will be back on my next trip!

KFC doesn’t hold a candle to Piece of Chicken, especially since POC does it better for a lot less money. For a place that specializes in fried chicken, this place does it just right. In most cases this place gets 4 stars for all of the intangibles (lines, food, service, etc.) but 5 stars for the chicken and the prices alone.
This place has no seating, but a drive through style window where lines tend to form during lunch time and after work. Usually around these times the chicken batches are replenished most often and are the most fresh with just the right amount of crisp. The legs happen to be my favorite, though the chicken breasts are really good as well. The wings tend to be a popular item as well, one of the few items that sells out often. Aside from the wings that are 50 cents each, all chicken pieces are indeed $ 1.00.
The Mac & Cheese is okay, it’s usually a bit too mushy and not as cheesy as I would like it to be. It’s by far the most expensive item on the menu at $ 2.50 for a tiny scoop. I expected better things from the potato salad, which has a little too much crunchiness from the onions embedded in the potatoes. One of the BEST items, is by far one of the simplest, which is the corn muffins. They’re just addicting to me and are best eaten when fresh out of the oven. It is quite possibly one of the best corn muffins I’ve had.
When I first came here, chicken breasts were $ 3.00 a piece and Mac & Cheese was only $ 1.50, but now it seems the prices have been adjusted accordingly. I almost want to denote a star because their takeout menu prices are at times different than the ones on the board. My favorite corn muffins were .50 each a few weeks ago, now they’re a whopping 75 cents.
The owner, who is a very nice lady, was telling me of her big ambition to make this place take off, and was in the process of taking photos of the food for a website that is in the works. Now that locals have caught onto this little cash only gold mine, it now seems to be a mainstay among Hell’s Kitchen’s many eateries.