No Ordinary Chicken (Beo Crescent Hawker & Food Centre)

No Ordinary Chicken might be a brand that is seemingly unheard of by most, but perhaps those working around the PSA Complex at Keppel Road might find it especially familiar — having established their presence in the local F&B scene with their location within Tanjong Pagar PSA Complex, we did manage to find out that No Ordinary Chicken had recently opened within Beo Crescent Food Centre; it remains unclear if this is a move out of their previous stall at Tanjong Pagar PSA Complex, though it is worth noting that both locations still exist on Google Maps at the very least (the latest reviews for its Tanjong Pagar PSA Complex location is however a few months back during the writing of this post). No Ordinary Chicken has taken over the former premises of the now-defunct MASALA CANTEEN by PasirPanjangBoy within Beo Crescent Market & Food Centre — the set up of No Ordinary Chicken is fairly simple though there are attempts to draw the attention of patrons with the use of coloured LED lighting surrounding its menu board. Whilst not quite obvious from its namesake, No Ordinary Chicken is an establishment that serves up Indonesian-style grilled chicken and curry chicken dishes; the menu is split into categories such as Grilled Chicken Set and Braised Chicken Set, while there are also the availability of some ala-carte sides as well — for those familiar with their menu at Tanjong Pagar PSA Complex, the offerings of the various curry chicken items in the Braised Chicken Set section of the menu at their location at Beo Crescent Market & Food Centre replaces the Fried Chicken Set line-up that is offered at the Tanjong Pagar PSA Complex location.

It is worth noting that the items that come with the Grilled Chicken Set at their Beo Crescent Market & Food Centre also differs from their Tanjong Pagar PSA Complex outlet — whilst each set at their location at Tanjong Pagar PSA Complex comes with rice, soup and sambal, the various Grilled Chicken Set items at Beo Crescent Market & Food Centre comes with rice, salad and sambal instead; patrons can also opt for the Briyanj Rice over white rice at an additional charge of $0.50 if they fancy so as well. Amongst the various sambals that they have to offer with the Grilled Chicken Set, it was the Shallot that stood out for us — it is worth noting that almost every element of the dish is actually made from scratch when we made our visit to the stall in the late evening on a weekday; there would be some waiting time involved with the preparation of each order, though considering how there wasn’t much patrons opting to dine from the stall, the waiting time was minimal and reasonable for those wanting their food to be freshly-prepared upon order.

What drew us to ordering the Shallot rendition of the Shallot Grilled Chicken Set was how it was seemingly done in the style of Sambal Matah that typically comes with Balinese grilled meats. The fragrance of the grilled chicken could already be detected the moment the dish was being prepared in the kitchen; we really like how lightly savoury the grilled chicken is with its slightly crisp exterior — there is also a very light hint of smokiness that one could detect that is similar to Balinese-style grilled chicken, while the flesh remains especially juicy and incredibly tender and the same time. Thought that the Shallot sambal wasn’t particularly spicy as what one would experience with the Sambal Matah served at Bali — guess these folks might have tuned the level of spiciness down to better suit local tastebuds here. The Shallot sambal adds a bit of a zing whilst also comes with the aroma of the other elements such as lemongrass and lime leaves further adds on for a refreshing note.

The various elements in the Shallot sambal also provided a crunch that adds on to the textures of the dish. Meanwhile, the salad that came on the side comes with diced cucumber, carrots, tomatoes and onions which are served chilled; these seem to have been seasoned with a bit of sugar that gives it a bit of a sweetness — all that without being a slightly spicy zing that tickles the tastebuds from the raw onions. Despite its unassuming looks in the way that it is plated, the Shallot Grilled Chicken Set is an item that felt big on flavours — we were most certainly impressed with how the grilled chicken was executed; absolutely tasty and quite different from how one would expect from a typical grilled chicken dish that one can find in the hawker centre. All of the elements are also designed with quite a fair bit of thought; as evidently so with the accompanying salad that was especially simple, yet creative and pairing with the grilled chicken so well. At $5.80 for its Grilled Chicken Sets, No Ordinary Chicken has also priced its offerings pretty affordably to be considered as an everyday meal option for most — definitely intrigued enough to give their other grilled chicken sets like the Curry, Dry Chilli and Green Chili a go when we return!