Pelicana Chicken Is Coming To Astoria

Thanks to an Instagram tip, we’ve learned that Pelicana Chicken will open up shop in Astoria later this summer—August or September. They are taking over the space that for a long time was home to the Golden Fruit Market (22-56 31st Street). I shopped there for many years but around, say, 2015/2016 they made a bad decision—remodeled, raised prices, but kept their inconsistent produce quality the same. I stopped shopping there; its not a surprise to me that they closed.

#pelicanachicken is replacing the fruit stand on 31st street by #mcdonalds @pelicanachicken #astoria #astouria #queens #ditmars #ditmarsdistrict #astoriaqueens #chicken #🐔 #pelicanaUSA

A post shared by Two Sisters TOURing Astoria (@astouriaqns) on Jul 20, 2017 at 10:45am PDT

But back to Pelicana Chicken. Its a Korean-style fried chicken franchise and has been around since 1982. There are over 2,000 locations around the world, so this is a global chain. In the NYC metro area, there are locations in Flushing, Palisades Park NJ, Sunnyside, and their Bayside location opened earlier this month; Astoria will be the fourth NYC location. You can see their menus, here and here. If you want to order from them now from their Sunnyside or Flushing locations, you can do that here.

They boast “50+ flavors of premium, all-natural chicken” and assert that they use “FRESH, NEW oil daily.” This article indicates that the chicken is halal. Another interesting detail:

“In 1982, the chicken chains started to put their own spins on the fried chicken, with Pelicana Chicken in 1982 starting to coat the chicken in hot and sweet sauce, now famously called “yangnyeom (seasoned) chicken.” It was the first such recipe in the world.”

We look forward to seeing how Pelicana Chicken will feed the Korean-style fried chicken fans in the neighborhood. It’s an exciting development!

Pelicana Chicken, 22-58 31st Street, Astoria
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