Even though Alberta is "open for summer," it's almost been a full year since I've dined inside a restaurant. Shocking, I know. At the same time, it's sort of been nice getting takeout and enjoying it in the comfort of my own home (sweatpants and all). While takeout isn't always representative of the full restaurant experience, food trucks never really had that problem. Takeout is their bread and butter after all. Which brings me to one of the best bites of food I've had in a while, coming from a bright yellow food truck in the parking lot of a community hall.
Oh! Chicken is a relative newcomer to the food truck scene, having opened in March of this year. They specialize in Korean fried chicken, which to me, is the only "KFC" that matters. Their original location was outside of a car wash in the southside but they've recently moved and set their sights north. (Finally! Someone has heard my prayers!)
The yellow food truck now sits in the parking lot of the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex at the corner of 97 St and 153 Ave. 80 Flavours Ice Cream also has a food truck here, and I've seen a couple others park here from time to time.
The fried chicken is made fresh to order so I would recommend calling to place your order ahead of time. We were quoted 20-25 minutes. We pulled into the parking lot and waited in the car.
Exactly 25 minutes later, we received a call that our order was ready. The chicken is packed up in their signature yellow with a quick scribble to distinguish the different flavours. You can tell portions are generous because the rubber bands barely hold the boxes together.
Although fried food usually suffers with takeout (turning soggy with condensation), the boxes have strategically placed air vents that keep the contents fresh and crispy. Thankfully we don't live too far away, because the smell wafting from the bag was borderline intoxicating.
The fried chicken comes in a variety of different flavours: original, spicy, old school (lightly breaded), snowing cheese, snowing butter, sweet and spicy, crazy hot, and honey garlic. You can also choose between bone-in or boneless, in three different portion sizes (single, half, or whole). We ordered both bone-in and boneless single portions to see how the two compared.
First up was the boneless honey garlic ($12.00). Our single box had about 11 pieces of chicken, complete with fries, pickled radish and coleslaw. The chicken was super crispy, yet moist, tender, and juicy on the inside. It was pretty much all dark meat, which leads me to believe that they use chicken thighs for their boneless chicken. The honey garlic was probably my favourite flavour out of the ones we tried. It was sticky, sweet, and garlicky, but not overpowering. One of the best Korean fried chickens that I've had in the city!
Fries are usually an afterthought for me, but these were delicious! It's the same fries that Costco uses, which have some sort of extra batter or coating around them. It makes them extra crispy and addicting. I also really liked their coleslaw, which had a creamy dressing and bits of corn throughout. The pickled radish also helps to cut the grease and serves as a bit of a palette cleanser.
For our bone-in chicken, we got the sweet and spicy flavour ($12.00). The box had about 5-6 pieces of chicken, but they were definitely bigger than the boneless version. The cuts are a bit random so finding the bones can sometimes be a surprise. The chicken was still moist but there was more white meat pieces which has the tendency to dry out a little. The sweet and spicy sauce was super flavourful with just a touch of heat, but I find you can only eat a couple pieces before the flavour becomes too much.
While bone-in meat usually has more flavour, I did prefer the boneless chicken.
We also ordered the chicken gang-jeong ($9.00), a common street food in Korea. Bite-size nuggets of boneless chicken, glazed in a special sauce with rice cakes. There are three flavours, including original (mild), spicy, or honey. We got the original which had a tiny touch of heat and a hint of cinnamon. Super easy to pop these back. I also loved having the soft, chewy rice cakes in there to break up the texture. The cup size was plenty to share, but it also comes in a box for $16.00.
The food truck season isn't particularly long in Edmonton (weather permitting), so I hope there will be some sort of future transition into a brick and mortar. Oh!'s chicken is super delicious, and I'm craving it as we speak. Perhaps we'll be on speed dial basis.
Oh! Chicken
www.instagram.com/ohchicken.edm
9615 153 Ave NW
Edmonton, AB
(780) 868-9399
- CT
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