NY Food Truck Lunch: Fried Chicken From The Jerk Pan
Perry, the man behind New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City food trucks.
One of the hidden treasures in the NY food truck scene is the Jerk Pan truck. They don't tweet or have a website, but they have been quietly serving tasty Jamaican food on the SE corner of 48th St and Park Ave for a number of years.
The truck is fairly nondescript but easy to spot, with a Jamaican flag with Bob Marley on it flying off the back of the truck.
When I walked up to the truck, they were just taking fresh pieces of fried chicken out of the fryer, which were still sizzling.
A "small" fried chicken platter is $7.50, which comes with 2 side dishes. They also have a "large" platter for $9.50 which could feed an army.
More: NYC's 6 Best Fried Chicken Meals
Walking back to the office, I couldn't believe how heavy the "small" container was. In addition to an enormous chicken breast, the side dishes were rice & beans and macaroni salad. I can't imagine what a large platter would be like. Probably would need a wheelbarrow to get it back to the office.
The huge chicken breast was cut up into about 6 large, thick pieces, and "sweet sauce" (as they called it) was put on the chicken.
The chicken was very moist and juicy and basically fell off the bone. This was one of the juiciest fried chicken breasts that I've had. The deep frying really sealed in the juices.
The "sweet sauce" was a light, fruit-based sauce which I'm guessing had an orange base, and I'm pretty sure there was allspice in there and possibly nutmeg. Sweet, light and fruity.
The macaroni salad was nice, with carrots, peas, corn and string beans in a light dressing.
The rice & beans were pretty heavy though. With two starchy sides dishes, maybe I should have gotten a veggie dish for the 2nd side, but that's a minor quibble when compared to the lusciousness of the fried chicken.
The Jerk Pan does not tweet or have a website, but they are on the SE corner of Park Ave & 48th St every weekday. We highly recommend their fried chicken, and the jerk chicken too.
