Eat Up Havana: Angry Chicken Makes For Happy Eating

Over a decade ago, former Westword food editor Mark Antonation began his food-writing career by eating his way up Federal Boulevard. Now, we're turning our attention to another vibrant culinary corridor.

The four-plus-mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week.

Previous stops:

• Old Town Hot Pot
  

• Leezakaya

• Chutney Indian Cuisine

• El Tequileno

• Milkroll

• Shin Myung Gwan Korean BBQ

• Watan Restaurant & Bakery

• Las Fajitas

• Mr. Tang

• Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings

• Yemen Grill

• Tofu House

• Sushi Katsu

• Coco Loco

• Ali Restaurant & Bakery

• Thank Sool Pocha

• Taqueria Corona

• Hanyang Wang Jokbal

• Coffee Story

• Tofu Story

• Havana Street Night Markets

• Seoul BBQ & Hot Pot (the Hot Pot)
  
• Seoul BBQ & Hot Pot (the BBQ)
  
• Pho 75
  
• Yong Gung
• Chopsticks A GoGo

Next Up: Angry Chicken

“No matter who you are, or what you do, at the end of the day, you have to eat,” says Somy Yadala, explaining why she got into the restaurant business. “So I thought a restaurant would be the best way to start my new career as an entrepreneur.”
That restaurant is Angry Chicken, which Yadala and her family acquired from original owner John Kim last August, who originally established it in 2017 as one of the first Korean-style fried chicken restaurants in the city.

What is Korean Fried Chicken (“KFC”)? At Angry Chicken, the difference between it and traditional American fried chicken can be found in the coating and the sauce. Rather than using bread flour to create the batter that the chicken is fried in, Angry Chicken uses rice flour.

This lighter coating absorbs less oil while frying, resulting in a crispier and less greasy crust that stands up well over time to the next key differentiator: the sauce. Most U.S. fried chicken is served with a gravy, while Angry Chicken offers a wide range of sticky sauces more akin to what you’d find on chicken wings than whole chickens.

Honey garlic, mango habanero, teriyaki, sweet & spicy, and the restaurant’s signature “Angry Sauce” are among a dozen sauce options to choose from, which coat the freshly-fried chicken and make a delightful mess out of your fingers when eating.

Both the crust and the sauce quickly won over Yadala who, after moving to the U.S. from India in 2006 to study chemical engineering, left her PhD behind to get into the restaurant business.

“We were exploring different restaurants here and there, and this just stood out,” she says. “When we tried the chicken, it was amazing. We loved how it was made, how it tasted. So that was the driving force.”
But as much as the original menu brought her in, it was a desire to expand it to incorporate the Indian cuisine she grew up with that keeps her going. In the year since Yadala acquired Angry Chicken, she’s added a number of new items like tandoori style wings, chicken lettuce wraps, chicken biryani, and “Frankies” (also known as “Indian burritos”): a thin flatbread wrapped around chicken or paneer.

One of the most popular new items on the menu is the Angry Chicken Trio, which includes two tandoori chicken wings, an Indian curry, and pulao rice (think pilaf) along with vegetables.

“We wanted to have an Indian twist to it,” says Yadala. “The owner left it in a great place, and we wanted to make it bigger and improve and expand from that. We’re learning as we go.”
By the looks of things, that learning curve isn’t too steep. In June, Yadala and the Angry Chicken team won first place in Aurora’s “Global Flavors Competition” for their entry, which included the restaurant’s original wings and sauces, along with the newly added Mango Shake. After Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman presented the team with the award, he later stopped in to sample the broader menu in the restaurant as well.

For those stopping by, the menu is a choose-your-own adventure of options. First you pick your chicken: either a five-piece half chicken, a 10-piece whole, or wings in six, ten, or 20-piece increments. Then you pick your style: original coating, naked (no coating), or baked rather than fried. Then you choose your sauces. And just to really make you think, you can skip the sauces and instead pick from seven different dry rubs (which are also options to toss on your fries as well).

And by all means, don’t overlook the sad, lonely raw carrot or celery that’s served with it all. As much as these sides feel like a sort of culinary beard masking the empty calories of fried chicken with the vague promise of obligatory nutritional value, their presence as a garnish contrasted against the glistening gloriousness of the coated chicken have the opposite effect of just making you eat more by comparison.

There’s also plenty of other chicken presentations, like chicken and waffle, chicken burger, and chicken tenders. Not up for chicken? There’s Korean Ddukbokki (rice cakes), an “Army Stew” of spam, sausage, hot dog, tofu, and kimchi, butterfly shrimp, and garlic noodle pasta.
According to Yadala, it’s all cooked to order, so settle in after you order and take advantage of the full bar. It’s a mostly compelling space, with an interesting wood-block menagerie covering the ceiling and walls surrounding the dark tile bar. There’s worthy specials to take advantage of as well, including half-off wings on Tuesdays, chicken/drink combos on Thursdays, and a gluten free, Halal buffet on Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

But what it doesn’t have, and desperately needs, are wet wipes. Those sauces have a super-glue like consistency on the fingertips, which dry napkins more exacerbate than resolve. So be sure to bring some, or you’ll wind up dipping napkins into your water to wipe your fingers clean.

Angry Chicken is open 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, at 1930 South Havana Street #13-14 in Aurora. Find more information at angrychickenco.com.