The Rockin Chicken in Hartford—So Much More Than Chicken

Frank Cohen June 13, 2021

You might hear the name The Rockin Chicken (TRC) and think it’s yet another really good chicken-themed joint, like West Hartford’s Chicken Citizen & Donuts, Wethersfield’s El Pollo Guapo, Newington’s Rooster Co. or the Elm City’s Hot Haven Chicken. But you’ll see it’s actually so much more. Since TRC opened in June, 2016 on Franklin Avenue in Hartford, it has been my go-to for Peruvian food, long one of my favorite cuisines.

TRC is owned by Dr. Miguel A. Colán and his wife, Kate. The genial couple doesn’t just own the business but the building as well. For Miguel, a Hartford chiropractor, it was an almost-weekly family tradition growing up in Lima to visit pollerias a la brasa, popular local restaurants specializing in charcoal rotisserie chicken. TRC grew out of his desire to recreate that dining experience for Hartford-area restaurant-goers.

While Peruvian food is well-represented in Connecticut, especially in Greater Hartford, TRC claimed the honor of being Hartford County’s only Peruvian charcoal rotisserie when it opened. TRC’s fresh, never frozen, chickens are marinated for 24 hours in a special spice blend and then “slowly spit-roasted to perfection” in charcoal-fired rotisserie ovens, handcrafted in Peru and shipped directly to Hartford, to produce a delicious, crisp-skinned, succulent bird imbued with flavor throughout.

Like many restaurants, TRC has been in a state of flux throughout the pandemic. The eatery did robust carryout and delivery business, but the Coláns only recently reopened half of their tables for inside dining on May 25th, with plans to phase in the remainder as they are able to hire back more staff. TRC will bring back its liquor license when it returns to full capacity. Similarly, some food items that were offered before the pandemic struck were discontinued because they weren’t suited to the carryout/delivery model, while other items better suited to it were added. All of my photos are pre-pandemic.

The rotisserie chicken is available in numerous forms. In its simplest, customers can order a quarter leg solo ($5.50), quarter breast solo ($6.50), half chicken solo ($11) or whole chicken solo ($14). Customers can order combos that come with two sides, including a quarter leg combo ($10), a quarter breast combo ($11), a half chicken combo ($17) or a whole chicken combo ($22), each coming with a choice of two of the following sides: French fries, sweet plantains, tostones, fried rice, white rice, house salad, onion salad, chicken soup, beans, sweet potato fries (+$1), arroz verde (+$1), yuca (+$1), mac a la huancaina (+$1) and macaroni verde (+$1). How’s that for customization?

There is also a Peruvian combo with a whole chicken, veggie fried rice, French fries, salad and a two-liter Inca Cola ($30). There are small, medium and large family combo ($37.50/$51.50/$135) with one, two or four whole chickens and proportional fried rice, choices of sides and two-liter sodas. [PRO TIP: When dining in, avail yourself of the fun trio of mild, pastel-colored, pepper-and-milk-based sauces, including a (yellow) ají amarillo, (green) ají verde and (orange) ají rosado that have their own separate applications (toasted corn, roasted chicken and salad dressing, respectively) but which I enjoy with pretty much everything.]

Finally, the rotisserie chicken also shows up in a rotisserie chicken chaufa, aka fried rice ($11); a rotisserie chicken soup ($5 for 16 ounces, $9.50 for 32 ounces); a mostrito burrito ($9) stuffed with rotisserie chicken, fried rice and French fries; and a rotisserie chicken salad featuring pieces of rotisserie chicken breast over lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot, avocado, Peruvian corn, olives, egg and red onion ($12). [PRO TIP: The rotisserie chicken salad is a personal dietary and budgetary favorite.]

But as great a draw as the restaurant’s incredible birds are, TRC has so much more to offer. Peruvian cuisine is richly layered and highly fused, with pronounced Incan, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese and Japanese influences.

Thus, TRC offers a range of Chifa dishes, namely dishes in which Chinese elements have fused with Peruvian ingredients and traditions. There is a selection of saltados, including lomo, aka sirloin ($16.50), chicken ($15), shrimp ($17), beef tallarines ($16.50), chicken tallarines ($15), mixto tallarines ($20), shrimp tallarines ($17), veggie tallarines ($12), veggie tallarines with quarter chicken breast ($13.50), and veggie tallarines with quarter chicken leg ($12.50). Similar customization can be found with TRC’s generous fried rice, including veggie chaufa ($11), chicken chaufa ($13.50), beef chaufa ($16), beef and chicken chaufa ($20), and chaufa de quinoa ($12).

Food from Rockin Chicken’s booth at Dunkin’ Donuts Park

I also enjoy TRC for its take on Peruvian classics like the sliced boiled potato covered in an addictive creamy yellow pepper sauce called papa a la huancaina ($9); the sliced hotdog or chorizo over French fries called salchipapas ($9); the large, filled, mashed potato croquette called papa rellena ($9); the gingery sustancia soup with chicken or beef ($12.50/$15; and a personal favorite, the soup a la minuta, featuring chicken soup with noodles, egg, tomato and milk, served with chicken or beef ($12.50/$15). [PRO TIP: For $5, you can make any dish a lo pobre, enhancing it with two fried eggs and sweet plantain.]

However, my very favorite menu section might be the seafood. Peruvians excel with their native ceviche, and TRC’s fish or shrimp ceviches ($14.50/$17) marinated in lime juice and served with Peruvian corn, fried corn, and white and sweet potato are wonderful. [PRO TIP: The fish ceviche costs less than the shrimp, but because marinating fish enhances its texture more than marinating shrimp, I like it even better.]

Peruvians also excel with fried seafood, and TRC’s jalea ($18.50) is a wonderful bounty of fried shrimp, flounder, calamari and mussels accompanied by fried yuca and salsa criolla. One can order just fried shrimp ($17) with the same accompaniments. [PRO TIP: Do as Peruvians do—and order a ceviche and fried seafood side by side, tasting back and forth between them in perfect counterpoint.]

Other dinner entrées include bistec ($18.50?), pasta verde ($12.50), chicken milanesa ($15), chicken chiccarón ($15), grilled chicken with two sides ($15.50) and rachi ($14), aka grilled beef tripe. [PRO TIP: When anticuchos, or grilled beef hearts, return to the menu, TRC’s combined anticuchos con rachi is swoon-worthy.]

One of TRC’s most popular pandemic innovations, well worth exploring, has been its new lineup of lunch bowls ($11), which include a tallarines rojos de carne bowl, arroz con pollo bowl, mac con lomo bowl, seco de carne bowl, ceviche bowl, TRC bowl, a la pobre bowl and the healthy bowl. There are also family bowls ($32), in keeping with TRC’s robust catering offerings.

TRC’s offers three desserts ($4) ready to takeout, including a tres leches cake (seen above), crema volteada and chocolate cake, all of which are good but the first two of which I find especially hard to resist. TRC also offers wonderful lucuma, strawberry and mango smoothies ($4.50).

In the past, TRC offered Pisco sours in regular and passion fruit flavors as well as beers and small bottles of wine. Non-alcoholic drinks currently include chicha morada and maracuya fruit drinks ($4); Inca Kola, Inka Diet Kola, Kola Inglesa, Concordia Pina and Roja ($2.25); Jarritos sodas ($2.50); Coca Cola, Diet Coca Cola, Ginger Ale, Sprite and Fanta Orange ($2); Snapples or Mexican soda ($3.25); two-liter Coca Cola or Inca Kola ($4.50;) and water ($1.25).

TRC’s interior may be no one’s idea of fancy, but it’s comfortable and welcoming. No one will ever rush you. I have enjoyed more than one party at this likeable restaurant, but for such occasions, reservations are advisable. I have even watched a soccer game there. Reflecting the Coláns support of the community, TRC operates a popular Neighborhood Flavors stand at select Hartford Yard Goats baseball games at Dunkin’ Donuts Park.

When I can’t stop exclaiming during and after a meal, it’s an incontrovertible sign that a restaurant has made a lasting impression on me. I find myself craving TRC’s tantalizing food all the time. If I didn’t live almost an hour away from this amazing eatery, I’d turn up there at least weekly. Its interior reopening is some of the best news I’ve heard in awhile.

The Rockin Chicken, 476 Franklin Avenue, Hartford; 860-244-2536 (860-CHICKEN)