“El Pollo Correteado” translates literally to “the chased chicken” or “the run-after chicken” in English. It’s been my experience that anyone can chase a chicken, but chasing a rooster is an entirely different story. Roosters can be very aggressive, even mean. An aggressive rooster can be dangerous to humans, pets, and other chickens. Roosters are the “wife beaters” of the animal kingdom. Rooster pecking can be normal courting or a sign of aggression. During courtship, a rooster will gently peck a hen’s head or neck to signal her to squat for mating. However, targeted pecking that causes injuries, bald patches, or bleeding requires immediate intervention to protect the hens and establish boundaries.
An angry rooster can peck their human keepers mercilessly with their beak after digging their spurs into your leg. To this day, my friend Captain Escalante Tuttle is traumatized by Cousin Leandro’s posturing roosters ruthlessly having attacked him with sudden bursts of speed, sharp spurs and a fuscillade of pecking. It’s something I can relate to. My Grandma Piedad kept a brood of chickens. Kids being kids, we thought we could get away with playing near their coop. The rooster didn’t appreciate our proximity to its girlfriends and proceeded to show us no mercy.
So, perhaps the answer to the tired old question “why did the chicken cross the road” may well be “to get away from the hen-pecking rooster.” Or maybe it’s to get away from Colonel Sanders and the eleven herbs and spices with which he hoped to coat those chickens after denuding their feathers. I mention Colonel Sanders because when I express my disdain for chain restaurants, the most frequent retort is “you mean you don’t even like KFC.” As if KFC is some sort of sacred cow that everyone should love. Yes, I don’t even like KFC. But I do like Mexican restaurants that specialize in al carbon chicken (cooked on coal or charcoals.”
In Albuquerque, my friend Bruce “Sr Plata” Silver and I frequented El Rey Del Pollo where pollo al carbon prepared two styles: jugoso (juicy) or dorado (golden). It was easy to get to El Rey Del Pollo when I worked at the University of New Mexico, but not so easy from our home in Rio Rancho. I’ve missed pollo al carbon. When my Kim expressed her desire to visit mega-chicken-chain El Pollo Loco, I responded “have I got a deal for you” and drove her to El Pollo Correteado in Mesa. Admittedly I didn’t know for sure that El Pollo Correteado was better than El Pollo Loco, but hey, it’s a mom-and-pop and in my eyes and taste buds, mom-and-pop always beat chains.
There are three El Pollo Correteado’s in the Phoenix area. Two are in Phoenix and one is in Mesa. El Pollo Correteado originally opened in 2009 at its first location on West McDowell Road in Phoenix. As its name implies, the restaurant specializes in Northern Mexican mesquite-wood grilled chicken and ribs. Though the restaurant isn’t a taqueria, an order of pollo asado comes with a stack of warm corn tortillas to make your own tacos. The corn tortillas have a very pronounced corn-infused flavor and can accommodate a generous amount of chicken. A salsa bar provides other ingredients with which to stuff your tacos, including some of the best pickled onions around.
Chicken and ribs are sold both family-style. You can purchase the plump bird by the half-chicken (most suitable for a solo diner), whole chicken (as my Kim and I did), or in ten-piece increments, and picnic-style. Plan to eat with your hands, but as the Phoenix New Times forwarns: “As you eat , your fingers get too greasy to use a phone, too greasy to take a picture to Instagram. That is a good thing.” As you peruse the menu, take a gander at the back room wher numerous chickens are clamped onto metal spits over a large open bed of mesquite coals. A deft gril master respositions them on the grill to ensure even and delicious cooking throughout
It’s a beautiful thing to gaze upon your chicken when it arrives at your table. The combination of charred, grilled kissed skin and succulent white meat is mouth-watering to gaze upon. Its so much better when chicken meets your mouth. The skin has grill- kissed flavor that penetrates deeply into the chicken. Mesquite grilling infuses chicken with a bold, earthy, and intense smoky flavor while searing the outside quickly at high heat. Mesquite charcoal burns very hot, which helps lock in juices and create a crisp, charred outer crust on the chicken skin or surface while cooking fast. It takes real grill skill to prepare a chicken this good.
As has become so commonplace for me, the one side I had to order was a bowl of beans. Pinto beans taste mild and earthy with a soft, creamy texture. To me, they taste like home. Pinto beans easily soak up flavors from garlic, onions, cumin, chili spices, and broths. I added some of the salsa and scooped up spoonfuls with the corn tortillas. The only thing which would have made them better is flecks of that outstanding mesquite grilled chicken.
The aroma of El Pollo Correteado wafts into the street like a mesquite-grilled siren’s call. That roman perfumes the kitchen and makes all guests even more hungry.
El Pollo Correteado
120 S Alma School Road Ste 101
Mesa, Arizona
(480) 597-4938
Website |
LATEST VISIT: 26 July 2026
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$
BEST BET: Whole Mesquite-Grilled Chicken, Beans, Jello, Horchata, Salsa Bar, Corn Tortillas
REVIEW #1538