Spicy Chicken Burgers and New Orleans Style Wings

There are no burgers at Ace Burger, a small restaurant on Valley Boulevard, on the same block as Pepe's Finest Mexican Food. But there is a short menu offering New Orleans-style chicken burgers and chicken wings.

The chicken burger is not the chicken burger you're probably thinking of. No ground meat is involved in its preparation. It's essentially a fried chicken sandwich built like the cheaper version of a fast-food burger: a breaded, deep-fried chicken thigh placed on a basic bun dressed with mayonnaise and iceberg lettuce.

“It's a Chinese-style chicken burger,” explains Kai Jiang, owner of Ace Burger. He opened the Alhambra restaurant three years ago and has since added another location in Irvine.

“Do you know the chicken sandwiches at Popeye's, McDonald's and KFC?” he says. “It's different. It's something very popular in China.”

The Chinese chicken burger is a sandwich served in a specific style of restaurant that I recently started seeing in the San Gabriel Valley. It's usually a fast-casual atmosphere with a menu that includes chicken burgers, popcorn chicken, something called New Orleans-style chicken, and a few other fried goodies (mozzarella sticks, squid rings, French fries, etc.).

male burger

Nowhere is the chicken burger trend more evident than in the three-level shopping center attached to the San Gabriel Hilton, where you'll find two chicken burger restaurants on the ground floor.

Macho Burger is a chain with multiple locations in California, including Arcadia, San Gabriel, Rowland Heights, and Sunnyvale. It's not the restaurant with a similar name in China that was forced to close after muscular waiters flexed their muscles, fed women mouth-to-mouth and danced provocatively.

The San Gabriel Macho Burger is a small, fast-casual restaurant with a bright red and yellow logo that evokes American fast food vibes. The brand's mascot is a cartoon character with buff arms, a red tank top, sunglasses, and a baseball cap with a top that looks like a sesame seed bun. The word “steroids” comes to mind most easily, but steroid burger doesn't have the same ring to it.

The menu includes chicken burgers, large fried chicken cutlets (like the extra-large cutlets you'd find at an Asian night market), something called a tender beef wrap that looks like a Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme but with sliced ​​steak, fried fish sandwiches , a macho cheeseburger that's actually made with a beef patty and grilled chicken wings (more on that later).

The Macho Burger Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich is served on a soft, golden potato bun. It's a hefty sandwich that features a giant chicken thigh with a circumference significantly larger than the bun. The meat is juicy, salty and a little fibrous, with a thick, rough crust mixed with an excessive amount of black pepper. Although it is advertised as spicy, it has about as much flavor as a jar of mild sauce.

Fried chicken

Signature Spicy Chicken Burger from Chickii Fried Chicken in San Gabriel.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Along the north side of the plaza is Chickii Fried Chicken, another restaurant offering chicken burgers, chicken wings, large fried chicken cutlets, chicken wraps, and mozzarella sticks. Although Chickii also advertises durian pizza and Macau-style egg tarts, neither were available when I visited.

The spicy chicken burger is served on a slightly dry sesame seed bun. It's constructed with two chicken thighs that don't quite line up with each other on the sandwich, ensuring everything falls apart around the third bite. The chicken is moist enough and well-fried, but lacks any flavor beyond the searing heat of a layer of what looked like chili powder stuck under the skin.

MBL&Q Burger

The MBL & Q Burger mascot is seen on the restaurant's menu.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

MBL & Q Burger is in the back of a food court in a Rowland Heights shopping center off Colima Road. I found other places that seem to be related in Philadelphia and New York, but only one in Southern California. The restaurant's mascot is an angry, screaming four-limbed hamburger.

How do I know the burger is screaming? Her eyebrows raise in what appears to be alarm and her mouth is wide open. She also clutches a spoon in one hand and a saucepan of rice in the other. She wears a bow tie and has all the ingredients for a line of cute Angry Burger Man products.

Like the other chicken burger restaurants, you'll find chicken burgers, a short list of other fried delights, and “New Orleans rotisserie chicken.” But the menu appears to be broader, with crab, shrimp and fish burgers, grilled fish ball skewers, nori-wrapped fried chicken rice balls and something called chicken enchiladas that look like squares of stir-fried chicken.

The MBL&Q chicken burger has a curious smell of artificial cheese powder that does not penetrate the real flavor of the chicken. The coating is paler than golden but still crispy and the bun is soft, fresh and without sesame seeds. It's a sandwich properly lubricated with a sweet mayonnaise spread and packed with iceberg lettuce and a slice of tomato.

Ace burger

The spicy chicken burger from Ace Burger in Alhambra.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

I stumbled upon Ace Burger while eating at another nearby restaurant. I Googled the name and found out it was another chicken burger restaurant (with a Guy Fieri quote in the “About” section of the website).

“I grew up in China eating hamburgers that tasted like that,” Jiang says on a recent visit. “I prefer the taste of American hamburgers, so I opened this store.”

Jiang's Spicy Chicken Burger has the distinctive fast-food aroma of warm iceberg lettuce dressed with mayonnaise and the heft of a double cheeseburger. It is served on the standard seeded burger bun and well toasted on both sides.

Their chicken is juicier than the versions mentioned above, with hints of soy and white pepper in what Jiang calls his “secret marinade.” The topping is uneven, crispy and well seasoned. It is generous with the shredded lettuce and mayonnaise.

New Orleans style chicken wings from Ace Burger in Alhambra.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

“It's more of a Shanghai flavor because I'm from Shanghai,” he says. “But is a secret”.

It was at Ace Burger that I finally broke down and ordered the New Orleans style chicken wings that I saw at some of the other chicken burger restaurants. “In China, people call it New Orleans style,” Jiang says. “But i do not know why”.

The chicken wings are tossed in a vaguely sweet glaze reminiscent of barbecue sauce.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, KFC China took credit for inventing New Orleans wings more than two decades ago. Tyson Foods makes New Orleans-style wings that can be found in members-only outlet stores in China, and Jiang says it's a popular food that can be found in restaurants across the country.

I wasn't getting much New Orleans energy from the wings, but I was looking forward to a cup of ranch.