Restaurant Reviews

Fast-food nation challenged
Featured in the “Pasatiempo”
Rob DeWalt
May 11, 2007

Enjoying a decent lunch is a dying art, a privilege most working Americans sacrifice the minute they punch the clock. Fast-food restaurants and drive throughs make it all too easy for workaday folks to accept mediocre fare on a daily basis — but I’m here to tell you it doesn’t always have to be that way.

You may not have the time or money to truly enjoy lunch every day. But I found two restaurants that take great care to offer you that option in the form of takeout (you may also dine in).

The chicken with personality

Early in my food career, I was told by many mentors that a cook’s true worth rests on his or her ability to roast the perfect chicken.

At the time I thought it was a challenge. In fact, it was an exercise in humility — any chef who believes he has roasted the perfect chicken has unwittingly admitted he cannot do better. Still, as elusive as that perfect roasted chicken may (and should) be, one Santa Fe restaurant is constantly chasing its tail feathers.

Sam and Marilyn Kahn opened Hidden Chicken in 1996, gambling on the notion that their love of home-style cooking and roasted, flightless fowl would fill a local niche. Eleven years later, Hidden Chicken continues to draw a devoted following.

Hidden Chicken’s menu includes whole- or half-chicken meals, pot pies, roasted pork ribs, sandwiches, salads, soups, and house-made desserts. The half-chicken meal consists of one rotisserie breast/wing and leg/thigh combination with garlic rolls and a choice of one side.

The chicken was tender and well-seasoned, and the skin, even after a short trip in the car, maintained its crispness. A subtle dry rub gave the chicken a bit of personality, and two side sauces increased the dish’s flavor potential. One was a sweet, vinegary barbecue sauce, the other a spicy, tomato-based, red-chile concoction swimming with onions and dried herbs.

The latter worked well with the juicy chicken, while the sweet barbecue sauce seemed better suited to the menu’s pork ribs.

I chose mashed potatoes with dark gravy as my side — a cafeteria- style offering with equally mundane gravy — not disappointing, but not that interesting either. The garlic rolls were a letdown.

While crispy and flavorful, the two rolls were smaller than a pair of silver dollars. A huge lemon square for dessert proved tangy, crispy, and creamy — a perfect palate pillow to soften that creeping red-chile burn.

Potpies are my weakness, and at Hidden Chicken I am at my master’s feet. The green-chile chicken pie is a grand slam of fluffy pastry, dark and light chicken, mild chile, peas, carrots, potatoes, and savory chicken gravy. Served in a miniature alumi num loaf pan, this bad boy can intimidate even the most hearty of eaters.

A petite pork-rib meal with mashed potatoes gave the sweet barbecue sauce a chance to shine, but again, the garlic bread left me squinting. To their credit, the Kahns have mastered the art of oven roasted ribs: pink and tender (not smoky) with the exterior burnt bits that rib lovers often expect.

A side of honey-glazed carrots arrived more like carrots in honey water, but they were tender-crisp nonetheless.

A Chinese salad of romaine lettuce, almonds, fried won-ton skins, rice noodles, and carrots came dressed with a surprisingly spicy dressing, heavy on toasted sesame oil. It’s a solidly delicious vegetarian option that can also be ordered with chicken.

Hidden Chicken delicious discovery
featured in the entertainment section “Pasatiempo.”
Robert Dewalt
February 25, 2005

Winters in Santa Fe are a wonderful backdrop for nearly perfect comfort food, because with good comfort comes an understanding of consistency.

Were Granny's mashed potatoes a little on the lumpy side last Thanksgiving? Crash! Food memories shattered in the blink of an eye. Are you going to mention it to Granny? No, of course not—or you'll be sipping cider at the kids' table next year.

For true comfort, what you need is something consistently yummy that's portable, stays hot, and elicits food memories from everyone at your table—no matter what the time of year.

A nearly perfect science

Hidden Chicken Café has the chicken potpie down to a nearly perfect science, producing three varieties with equal attention to consistency. Owners Sam and Marilyn Kahn have been preparing their potpies from scratch—based on a family recipe—since 1996. The addition of green chile is, of course, a regional touch, and a welcome one indeed.

To see what all the fuss was about, I had dinner in this very well-hidden café—it's tucked into the side of the shopping plaza on the corner of St. Michael's Drive and Pacheco Street. The café has been open for nearly a decade, and a recent remodel has opened up the dining area with room for more than 100 hungry pie fanatics. In the warm months, Sam and Marilyn offer up to 40 outside seats, and they lighten up the fare a bit. We were greeted at the counter where the ordering takes place and given plenty of time to peruse the menu.

I chose a green chile and chicken potpie, a side of creamy coleslaw, and a bottle of Corona beer. My partner decided on a tuna melt with Monterey Jack cheese on sourdough, instead of the rye toast listed on the menu, and a cold bottle of Negra Modelo beer. Although the melt came with chips—he chose Cheetohs for the crunch factor—we also split an order of french fries.

The chicken potpie at Hidden Chicken Café is a thing of beauty. The crust lies somewhere between an exquisite puff pastry and the flakiest pie crust known to humankind. The pie itself is the size of a brick and arrives at the table dangerously hot. The filling is a blend of dark and white meat, peas, carrots, green chile, mushrooms, scallions, and a lava-hot base of slightly thickened chicken stock.

Overall, the pie was delicious. If it lacked anything, it would be what I'd call "chunk factor." There was plenty of filling, but it was very finely diced and absent any potato—something I thought was a given in affordable, Americanized potpies. The green chile was so mild I could detect it only by sight, but perhaps that just makes it closer to the family recipe.

My partner's tuna melt was simple but well-planned: toasty sourdough bread and cold, creamy tuna salad smothered in Jack cheese. I was jealous to see more chunks of tasty vegetable bits in his salad than in my pie—especially at the pie's almost $7 price tag.

Our French fries were a fairly standard fast-food variety, but the sweet, piquant barbecue-style sauce on our table took the blahs out of them. The coleslaw was somehow forgotten not only by the kitchen but also by us—so I went to get it toward the end of the meal. Unfortunately, it was little more than cabbage and mayonnaise with a bit of sugar—a letdown at nearly $3 for the smallest serving.

There are a number of vegetarian options on Hidden Chicken's menu, but the prices for these seem a bit high—like the cheese, chile, and tomato quesadilla for $8.75.

Chicken is good to go

On my second visit, I decided to order my food to go. I called ahead for a beef potpie and half a rotisserie chicken with one side—mashed potatoes with brown gravy. The food was ready as soon as I pulled up, about 10 minutes after I called.

Unfortunately, they were out of beef potpies. I wish I had been informed of that when I was on the phone placing my order, but they had a turkey potpie hot and ready to go. I took it. The food stayed warm during the short car-ride home.

The chicken was moist, tender, hot, and simply seasoned. The mashed potatoes were lump-free and seasoned well with salt and a bit of pepper. The gravy, although a bit institutional, was good.

The turkey potpie felt like a repeat performance of the chicken variety, except the poultry chunks in this version were a bit larger, the filling yummy but runny. The crust survived the drive with flying colors.

Put your name on that pie

The loyal customers at Hidden Chicken Café would not let it slide that we overlooked their favorite potpie after a recent Pasatiempo review on said delectable. I now understand why the customers are so loyal: Sam and Marilyn are charming, and their potpies should come with a warning label about their potentially addictive nature.

The demand for chicken potpies is so high that they run out of them quickly — especially on the weekends. If you call in a takeout order, remember to have them confirm that there is a potpie with your name on it before you make the trip.

Try Hidden Chicken's Pot Pie
By Anne Hillerman
For the Albuquerque Journal
January 21, 2005

Hidden Chicken Café, located off St. Michael's Drive in the Smith's Emporium Center, is not a well-kept secret. Most days, you'll find a local lunch crowd— people who appreciate the quick service, fresh food and no-nonsense approach to business.

The menu, posted near the cash register, is extensive, with a baffling array of choices from pot pies to chicken meals to roast pork ribs, salads and sandwiches. Lunch and dinner specials, such as roast pork, are available along with plastic wrapped desserts, bagged chips, a soup of the day and green chile stew.

The signature dish here, and the one you shouldn't miss, is the green chile chicken pot pie ($6.95). This marvelous creation, which we tried for dinner, is also beautiful, a nicely browned puff of pastry featuring the café's trademark chicken as a raised icon in the center. The hot, flaky crust overlaps the edges of the loaf pan in which the pie is served. Hidden beneath it is a saucy combination of chicken, peas, carrots, onion and green chile, all simmered together in a lovely light gravy. You seldom see pot pies on restaurant menus, and this one is a delightful treat. In addition to chicken, you can also order it with beef or turkey.

We also tried the half rotisserie chicken meal ($7.45). The chicken's dark meat was tasty, but the white meat was slightly dry. The skin has a nice crispness to it. The meal comes with small containers of salsa and barbecue sauce and a side dish. We chose cole slaw. The serving was no bigger than half a cup, but the cabbage tasted fresh with a good crunch to it, and the mayonnaise dressing didn't overwhelm us.

All in all, this dinner got a thumbs up in terms of both food and price. There were also few complaints when we tried lunch here.

We ordered the petite pork rib meal ($8.95) with two pork ribs and one side as an appetizer. I liked the roasted meat, simply seasoned with salt and pepper. It was served with a side of the same cold salsa and a squirt of the same watery barbecue sauce that we'd had earlier with the chicken dinner. For our side, we picked creamed spinach, hot and fresh tasting. My companion thought it was excellent, and I liked it, too. But the portion didn't seem like much food for the price. If you only had this for lunch, you'd leave hungry.

The soup of the day ($2.95) was a good split pea— a no-fuss combination of green peas with some small carrot pieces and basic salt and pepper as the main seasonings, all served in a white coffee mug.

We shared a green chile chicken melt sandwich ($8.75), a chicken breast supplemented with a helping of green chile and cheddar cheese on a soft sesame bun. A self-selected bag of chips came on the side. The sandwich was good, the meat fresh and the toppings adequate.

The Spicy Thai Chicken salad ($8.45), however, was a clear winner, and a better value for the money. A large plate of chopped romaine lettuce with shredded carrots, tomato wedges, chopped cucumber and plenty of slivered chicken meat. The Thai fish-based dressing had some zing to it, but was not overpowering. I've also had a Chinese chicken salad ($8.45) here, which is equally good and even bigger.

At Hidden Chicken you place your order at the cash register, usually standing in line if you arrive at lunch time. A server carries your tray with drinks back to the table and later brings your food. In our case, he checked back with us and brought a to-go box for the uneaten salad, which held up nicely for dinner that night.

From the entrance, you'd never realize Hidden Chicken can hold 100 patrons— it stretches back a ways. You can choose which dining area you prefer— a large main room or some smaller spaces. The place is clean and well-lit with some chicken knick-knacks on display, but overall it seems rather generic. Our lunch for two, with a drink, was $30.60 before tax and tip. Our dinner was $15.45.

Featured in the weekly “Out to Lunch” column of the entertainment section "Pasatiempo."
Robert Nott
February 21, 2003

It's tough to judge a restaurant on one visit. If it delivers the goods, you immediately feel that you’re in solid hands forever. If it doesn’t, you just may never return. I stopped by Hidden Chicken Café recently because I had heard from several sources about its wonderful pot pies. Based on the lunch I had there with a colleague, well, Hidden Chicken shouldn’t be hidden. It’s pretty darn good. We arrived just past 1 p.m. to find a sizable line of customers waiting to place orders (this is “place your order at the counter, take a number, then wait for the food” kind of place).

It’s a chicken joint, that’s for sure. They have whole-chicken dinners, half-chicken dinners, quarter-chicken dinners, kids’ chicken dinners, combo meals with chicken and pork, chicken wraps, chicken salads and something called a chickadilla. They even have a Chicken Little Sandwich, but the sky didn’t look like it was falling the day we visited, so we passed on that one.

My companion went with a Chinese chicken salad ($7.95), which contained chicken (naturally), lettuce, almonds, rice noodles, wontons, carrots, bean sprouts and a Chinese dressing. The salad was fresh and the chicken plentiful – so plentiful that her only complaint was that it was “too much” chicken, and who really wants to gripe about that? The accompanying dressing was nice and tangy.

I had to try one of the pot pies. The mainstay of the restaurant is the Green Chili Chicken Pot Pie, but they had two other special potpies that day – pork and turkey. I went with the chicken ($6.95). The pot pie – much larger than the ones you buy frozen at a grocery store – come in a rectangular, deep tin that was perched on a stoneware plate. The crust was extra crispy and erupted nicely over the side of the tin. The filling was piping hot to the point of almost burning my tongue, but I have tendency to gulp down steaming food with out giving it much thought, so I deserved the scolding. The pot pie had plenty of fresh, tender chicken. A nice compliment of peas and corn and just the right touch of green chile combined to make the dish doubly appealing.

I ate it all, and I knew I’d visit Hidden Chicken again to order one to take home (you can get them ready-made or fresh to bake at home).

Lunch sometimes isn’t the right meal for ordering appetizers or side dishes, so we skipped those, though we both decided to have dessert. My lunch pal chose the homemade bread pudding ($2.50), and I had a homemade, plastic-wrapped brownie ($1.95) that topped with chocolate morsels and filled with walnuts was dynamite.

So it was a good lunch. Simple, filling, fresh and hot. And who would have thought that a plastic-wrapped brownie could be so good? With iced tea ($1.50), the entire meal came to $22.24 (we left a nice tip on the table). A pretty good lunch deal, given the ample and excellent food. Hidden Chicken Café is worth a visit. You decide if you want to go back. I will.

Featured in the “Taste” supplement in the “Bites” column.
Pancho Epstein
January 24, 2001

While some restaurants struggle and have gone out of business, the owners of Hidden Chicken Cafe continue to expand their menu and the size of the eatery at 730 St. Michaels Drive. It’s gone from seating 40 to 100.

For dinner, order the Green Chili Chicken Pot Pie, which is topped with a cute puffed pastry rooster. In the pie are chicken, chili, peas, corn, celery, parsley, mushrooms, green onions and I believe, a touch of sherry. Great on cold days, you can get a glass of merlot to go with it.

“We had one lady from Dallas who liked the pot pie so much, she took 12 to Dallas with her for Easter breakfast,” said co-owner Marilyn Kahn.

If you haven’t tried the Hidden Chicken, do. It’s a pleasant, clean family place where you won’t spend an arm and a leg, or should I say a wing and drumstick.

Featured in the “Taste” supplement in the “Bites” column.
Pancho Epstein
December 11, 2002

Speaking of chicken, Hidden Chicken, 730 St. Michael's Drive, is a pleasant success story that just celebrated its sixth anniversary.

And, although there's a lengthy list of tasty nonchicken items (pork ribs, steak wraps, sandwiches, salads and vegetarian selections), Hidden Chicken made its reputation on what has become its signature dish: large, freshly made, juicy, Green Chili Chicken Pot Pies ($6.95). In fact, they've added two more to the menu: turkey and pork.

The cooked pies, which have become a popular take-home item, are also now available uncooked so you can take several home, freeze them, and take them out whenever you don't feel like cooking. I actually had one Green Chili Chicken Pot Pie for breakfast. It's great on a cold winter morning.

They've also go a community table that you can reserve for a lunch or dinner meeting. Hidden Chicken is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. It's a warm, cozy place with two nice owners continually watching and helping their business grow.
The slogan sums the place up: “Home cooking without having to cook.”