Halloween Green Monster Chicken is something special, that’s for sure!
One of the gifts humanity has brought is fried chicken. Honestly, who doesn’t love hot, juicy chicken with a crispy batter flavored with a delicate array of spices?
But in Japan, despite there being plenty of options for karaage (Japan’s specialty boneless fried chicken), fried chicken cutlets, and crispy chicken sandwiches, it’s a lot harder to find restaurants that serve bone-in fried chicken (besides Kentucky Fried Chicken, of course).
Luckily, there’s a restaurant in Shibuya that serves Korean-style fried chicken called Chicken Street Shibuya, which is located very close to the Shibuya branch of the Tokyu Department Store. Our Japanese-language reporter and resident foodie Mr. Sato had known about this restaurant for while but had never really had the chance to try it out.
That is, until he was passing by one day and happened to see a sign advertising a special Halloween menu option: Green Monster Happy Halloween (available from October 23 to 31). Squinting, Mr. Sato could not decipher what kind of green concoction was being advertised on the signboard, as there was nothing to really indicate what, exactly, it was.
Was it broccoli, deep fried with only a light batter? In the true spirit of Halloween, Mr. Sato did not succumb to his fear of what strange food he might be served and allowed his curiosity to spur him inside. Once seated and offered a menu, he realized what was being offered was not broccoli, but in fact green fried chicken.
He ordered a set of the half-size of the Green Monster Chicken Mix, which contained both bone-in and boneless meat, and cheese balls (1,600 yen/US$14.07). Strangely, what he received still looked like broccoli. Though he knew it was chicken, and it smelled like chicken, it was truly difficult to dissociate his cruciferous impression from reality.
Picking up the chicken with his chopsticks didn’t really help assuage his doubts. It still reminded him of broccoli.
It was only when he tried a bite that he was forced to reconcile with reality. It was most certainly fried chicken inside a layer of green batter!
If you put aside the fact that it’s green, it was just like any normal fried chicken, and it was really tasty too. The meat was superbly moist and tender, leaking juices with every bite, and it was fresh out of the fryer, making it nice and hot. Colonel Sanders better watch out, because he may have met his match in Chicken Street Shibuya!
By the way, the cheese balls that came with the set were a very sweet dessert. They were rolled with plenty of sugar and were enough to satisfy even the sweetest of teeth! Eaten alongside the chicken, it was almost too sweet for Mr. Sato, who tends to prefer more subtle sweets.
For those with less of a sugar craving, the Green Monster Happy Halloween Green Chicken is also available as a set with garlic french fries (1,500 yen for the set) or Korean tteokbokki, spicy stir-fried rice cakes (1,700 yen for the set). All sets come with a soft drink, too.
You can also order just bone-in or boneless chicken, if you prefer one or the other (these add an extra 100 yen to the price). There are two different sizes: a full-size weighs about 700 grams, which is about 1.5 pounds, and a half-size, which is what Mr. Sato ordered, is about 350 grams. The full-size is a lot of chicken, even for Mr. Sato, who regularly challenges himself with big portions! It might be best to share the full-size portion with a friend unless you’re really, really hungry.
Since the fried chicken is made fresh to order, it does take about 15 to 20 minutes for it to come out piping hot, so be prepared to wait a bit! It’s well worth it, though. Just make sure that, if you want to enjoy the Green Monster Chicken, you’ll want to go before Halloween is over, otherwise it’ll be gone.
Restaurant Information
Chicken Street Shibuya / チキンストリート渋谷店
Tokyo-to Shibuya-ku Dougenzaka 2-21-11 Bilt Osho 2F
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (last order 8 p.m.) for dine-in; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (last order of 9:30) for takeout/delivery
Open every day
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