IHOP’s ‘Earth-shatteringly Good’ Fried Chicken Dinner

Chopsticks + Marrow, written by Joe DiStefano, covers food both inside and outside of Queens. He joins us here on QueensNYC each Thursday.

IHOP’s fried chicken dinner is surprisingly good.

“We’re going to IHOP in the City,” a friend excitedly told me the other day, “You should come, it’ll be fun.” “Uh, no thanks,” I said thinking that I have a list as long as my arm of more important, more flavorful, more international foods to try in Manhattan before heading to the International House of Pancakes. In addition to my general foodwriterly concerns I wasn’t feeling especially hungry having just polished off an order of plov and a meat pie two hours before.

“Have you had their fried chicken? It’s earth-shatteringly good,” he exclaimed. And with that I was convinced to take a car ride to IHOP, a place I haven’t set foot in for at least 20 years. You see, I love good fried chicken, and frankly don’t eat it often enough. On the way there we passed by Momofuku. While my companions made fun of the name, I found myself longing to try David Chang’s $100 two-bird Korean-American fried chicken fiesta, but I stayed the course and we soon found ourselves at IHOP.

The fried chicken dinner, which to my recollection costs around $13, is a new addition to a menu better known for the Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Frooty breakfast combo. I was too full to order one, but my friend let me have his white meat. It was really, really quite good, crunchy of skin and tender of flesh with just the right balance of seasoning. Was it as good as Strouds in Kansas City? No. Was it as good as Charles’ Country Pan Fried Chicken in Harlem? Nope. I wouldn’t call it “earth-shatteringly good,” but it was much better than it had to be. Had I not filled up on Central Asian food for lunch I could have easily devoured a whole plate. I look forward to doing so in the future.

IHOP, 235 E. 14th St., 212-388-1499