Charcoal Chicken @ El Jannah, Granville

Today’s entry is about El Jannah (6 South St, Granville) - that store in Granville that serves Lebanese style charcoal chicken. The chicken (and the garlic sauce it comes with) is somewhat of a legend in Sydney and is considered by many to be the best BBQ chicken in Sydney. The first thing you notice about El Jannah is that it is always super busy. It almost doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, there is always a queue. Today I got there at 11.30am hoping to beat the lunchtime crowd, I still had to wait a bit in the queue and then probably another 10 minutes to get my food.

Charcoal chicken, garlic dip, pickles

I was feeling rather hungry today so I decided to order half a chicken ($10.50). The chicken came with a very generous heap of garlic sauce, some Lebanese flat bread and some pickles.  

Half of a charcoal chicken

Is this the best chicken in Sydney? Probably not, but it is a very tasty chook! The charcoal-charred skin is actually quite crispy. The flavours are nice: slightly bitter and smokey from the charcoal, tangy from the marinade and finished with a hit of salt. The flesh was good but it definitely could be a bit more moist (the breast was quite dry).

Garlic dip

What seals the deal at El Jannah is the garlic dip. It is a perfect complement to the chicken or some hot chips. Once you have some of that sauce, you just want to smother more and more of it onto the chicken. The flavour of the sauce is very very intense! There is so much garlic! I feel like I have just eaten an entire garlic. Probably not a good idea to take your date to El Jannah unless they are happy to deal with garlic breath :P                    

Pickles

The pickles are quite sour just the way I like them. Great to eat as a side with the chicken.  Or to enjoy with the chicken and garlic sauce as a wrap inside the the flatbread.   

Overall, the chicken is very good and it is definitely worthwhile making the trip to Granville to tuck into some of that charcoal chicken with that amazing garlic sauce. Luckily for me I live less than 10 minutes away, which makes it easy for me to satisfy any cravings I might have.