El Malecon Restaurant

A beloved classic that stands as a salty, greasy, shiny symbol of the Dominican diaspora, El Malecon has become famous for their rotisserie chicken. [Do not confuse this with the word marecon, which has an entirely different meaning and is not a restaurant at all.] I happened to be in Washington Heights for some Center for an Urban Future research and I knew that I had to make a stop at this landmark. There were many, many options for Dominican food in that 'hood but this is the classic.

I am sorry to say that I was disappointed. There are two fundamental issues with roasting a chicken,
Number 1: Getting a crispy skin.
Number 2: How to get the white breast meat and the dark leg and thigh meat to be properly cooked.
Malecon's chicken was a tour de force in the first department, with a crisp, salty, spicy skin that crackled in my mouth. Unfortunately, while the leg and thigh were both delicious (I love meat on the bone) the breast was dry and bland. My preferred method at home involves an extremely long resting time to let that dark meat come up to temp, followed by a quick run under the broiler to reheat the bird and get that skin the way it ought to be.

In sum, next time I'm going to ignore the hype, and am going to follow my gut to "Elsa, La Reina Del Chicharron".