Popular Pecking House Fried Chicken is now available In Clinton Hill

By Scott Lynch

Eric Huang never intended to become famous for his fried chicken. In fact, when Huang left Eleven Madison Park in January of 2020, after four years as a sous chef at that fanciest of all restaurants, his plan was to open his own fine dining establishment. “That had been my goal forever, from the day I started cooking,” Huang tells Brooklyn Magazine. “And then obviously we all hit a little bit of a snag in March.”

Huang’s family owns a couple of Chinese restaurants, so he spent the early days of the pandemic helping out in the kitchen at his mom’s business in Long Island and then, after a lot of experimentation, launching a fried chicken delivery service, called Pecking House, from his uncle’s place (called Peking House) in Fresh Meadows, Queens.

“We were just trying to sell enough chicken to pay the rent, budgeting for like 30 meals a week,” says Huang. “I was the only person working there, cooking, cleaning, prepping it myself, driving it myself. After we got our first press hit around the end of October things started taking off, we got into a waitlist situation, and it’s been just kind of ever-upwards ever since. I was 100 percent surprised by the success, but am so grateful.”

Now Huang, his lovely fried chicken, and the whole Pecking House operation have moved to Brooklyn, setting up shop five nights a week at the Rosalu Diner right across from Pratt in Clinton Hill. They’ll be here until at least May; construction begins this week on Pecking House’s permanent home in Prospect Heights. And there’s no more waitlist, or secret passwords required. The kitchen at Rosalu is large enough to handle all comers, so now you can just stroll right up and enjoy an outrageously good fried chicken dinner.

Huang made me a feast on Wednesday night, my first ever Pecking House experience, and this bird lived up to the hype. It’s as technically perfect as you’d expect from a chef with Huang’s resume–it’s juicy, crisp, with a remarkable range and depth of flavor–but it also works well as pure comfort food.

“It’s an unusual style of fried chicken for sure,” says Huang. “A natural evolution of what I grew up eating, both Tawainese fried chicken and the kind of buttermilk fried chicken that we associate with KFC or Popeyes, with a spicy sauce on top that was very much inspired by Nashville hot chicken.” In other words, the best of three fried chicken worlds.

With each three-piece fried chicken order you get three generously portioned side dishes, and these, too, are delicious. The roasted Brussels sprouts come charred, a little bit funky (that’s the fermented soybean), and sitting in a puddle of garlic aioli. The creamy sweet potatoes are mashed with almonds, bacon, and topped with a kind of cilantro relish, and black vinegar gives a bit of zing to the hearty butter bean salad.

The 3 piece fried chicken meal comes with all three sides, $35 (Scott Lynch)

Does $35 sound like a lot for a fried chicken dinner? It does! But this is a ton of food, and could even feed two if you’re willing to share.

Butter bean salad, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts salad (comes with meal, or $6 each served separately) (Scott Lynch)

Huang has added a few dishes to the Pecking House lineup over the months, including two vegetarian items: a fried cauliflower meal that gets you those same three sides, and an oyster mushroom po’ boy with green peppercorns and a fresno chili sauce. But if you’re sticking with fried fowl, definitely get the lively, fun-to-gnaw salt and pepper duck drumettes.

Salt and pepper duck drumettes, $18 (Scott Lynch)

Another option, the “Chicken Sandwich #14” was sweeter than I usually like—the pineapple jam was likely the culprit—but the bird here is still quite good.

Chicken Sandwich #14, $14 (Scott Lynch)

I happened to catch the debut of Huang’s peanut butter pudding for dessert, which comes topped with chocolate ganache, candied nuts, cacao nibs, and kettle corn. This was sublime after all that umami. There are several beers available, and you can stay and eat at one of Rosalu’s tables if you like. Pre-orders are welcome, but walk-ins are just fine too.

Peanut butter pudding with chocolate ganache, $6 (Scott Lynch)

Huang, who recently moved into an apartment right nearby, is loving Brooklyn. “Pecking House has only been here one week but it’s been awesome,” he says. “Brooklyn’s been extremely warm and receptive to us.”

And as far as that fine dining dream restaurant goes? Huang is over it. “This is the type of food people eat every day; it lifts their spirits. It’s less of an artistic chef-driven experience, and more about just feeding people. Making people happy. That’s really what it’s all about, to be a chef, right?”

Scott Lynch

Pecking House at Rosalu Diner is located at 274 Hall Street, just north of Dekalb Avenue, and is currently open for take-out and dine-in on Wednesdays through Sundays from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.