Portuguese Chicken - which is currently the best?

[JBinOC]

Visiting this week, & am curious...
where should I go for the best Portuguese chicken meal?

Rotisserie Romados?
Portugalia?
Coco Rico?
Chez-Doval?
somewhere else?

Thanks.

[FoodNovice]

I vote for Braseiro - call an hour in advance for takeout.

[sweettoothMTL]

Same for Braseiro, they can get uneven at times. When they're good, they're good, but I've had dry chicken there as well.

[porker]

I never had take-out at braseiro, but the few times I had chicken there, it was pre-done way too early. Maybe I'm missing out on the timing...

[chilipepper]

Vote goes to Romados!

[Ghostquatre]

I'd say Romados when you get a good turnover. You just can't beat those prices and huge portions. Cocorico is just electric rotisserie with piri sauce, also the prices have gone up quite a bit in the last 2 years.

Also I believe that in every other Portuguese place, they grill it instead of roasting it like they do in Romados. Does that make a huge difference?

[maj54us]

@Ghostquatre: Romados is grilled chicken on charcoal not roasted. Their rotating grills are imported from portugal. Coco rico is roasted chicken.

The difference is flavors which makes them 2 different products.

[Ghostquatre]

oh i thought those were considered charcoal rotisserie because they rotate, instead of lying flat on a grill

i mean chalet bbq is considered rotisserie as well right despite using charcoal?

[maj54us]

I'm no expert but roasting would involve a closed environment where hot dry air is enveloping the chicken or meat.

As for grilling it involves direct close exposure of the chicken to a heat source.
Grilling on a gas BBQ will not give the same flavors as grilling on charcoal

I don't what is the heat source used by coco rico or chalet bbq on sherbrooke near decarie.

I remeber chalet swiss used to have that smoked flavors and they were using a process to create smoke to roast their chicken. Was it liquid smoke I dont know?!?!

Also I remember someone telling me that St-Hubert BBQ, tried an experiment with electric roasters but were not satisfied with the cooking result so they switched back to gas as the heat source for roasting.

[porker]

FWIW, Chalet BBQ on Sherbrooke uses maple lump charcoal in custom-made, brick-lined, steel ovens. The chickens are mounted on a spit (5/spit) and fire-roasted 6 spits at a time. Theres a drip pan filled with water in front of the fire-grate, directly below the rotating chickens. Its main purpose is to catch the chicken drippings (and keep them from catching fire), but it also provides moisture to the cooking environment. The system is not totally closed as the charcoal needs air flow to burn. This flow is controlled by vents at the bottom of the oven, a standard flue-control in the stove-pipe above the oven, and a motorized exhaust fan at the top of the chimney.
Chalet Swiss had a similar system until switching to gas (I'm not sure, but I don't think they used liquid smoke).

In general, rotisserie chicken gets most of its flavor by drippings hitting a hot element (grates/plates/steel, coals, etc). Kinda like drippings hitting the lava rocks on home gas grills.
Electric sources of heat ore one dimensional as the drippings/element is the only source of flavor.
Gas adds a bit of fire (combustion) flavor to the mix.
Chacoal adds the fire component plus smokiness.

[maj54us]

thank you for the info. Now you are the expert! lol

[porker]

I used to be an expert in a different life....I cooked quite a bit of rotisserie chicken.

[catroast]

just one point, unless the drippings contain aromatics, they impart moisture and not flavour or scent.

[porker]

I'd have to disagree on that, but maybe its an issue of semantics.

Drippings alone do not add flavor or scent. However, let those same dripppings hit something very hot (as mentioned, lava rock in your gas BBQ, or live charcoal, or a steel plate) and they will vaporize, carrying with them flavor and scent.

This flavor and scent carries over to the food doing the dripping.

You can smell grilled chicken a mile away - its the scent carried by the vaporized chicken fat (drippings).

[maj54us]

The one you like most. ; )

All good choices I would give the edge to doval and portugalia for being made in a artisanal kind of way. Ramados is a factory production style now. But still a very good and juicy chicken when cooked properly and just off the grill. They stack all their chicken in drawers under the grill.

One thing I learned with Portuguese chicken like for any other food is that nothing can beat freshly cooked or grilled.
I got caught once buying a whole chicken that was probably cooked for a while and the result was a very dry meal.

Coco rico is more of a roasted chicken and I'm not a fan of it. I prefer Au-coq chicken also when you get a nice juicy peace. Often hit or miss with them.

I like the charcoal style chicken like romados, chez-doval or portugalia, piri is good same rule apply when was it cooked.

[PierreGuy]

I love the chicken at Barroso, but only the one on Ontario. I have been to the one in Lachine a few times it was good but not as good as the one on Ontario.