Stacker's Burger Cafe's baked fried chicken is the latest addition to the restaurant's 'fast casual' menu. Photo by Kap Maceda Aguila, InterAksyon.com.
Fried chicken has long become as basic and ubiquitous as a plateful of rice (or pancitand spaghetti, for that matter)—a staple guest at any celebration worth its salt. After all, one of the most indelible images at parties is a kid chomping down on a “drumstick” in hand.
But the folks at I-Foods, Inc., the company behind “fast casual” restaurant Stackers Burger Café, also concede that the popular fare is virtually a palate’s pleasure concerto in the key of oil—a sure way to mainline fats, calories, and those pesky LDLs (that’s low density lipoproteins) into your system. It’s the ultimate revenge of the chicken, come to it.
But Stackers disagrees: You can now have your cake, er, chicken, and eat it, too. Enter the restaurant’s “baked fried chicken” product—the newest thing that should make poultry quiver.
“The concept is to give customers what they want in regular fried chicken—the crispiness, the (juiciness), the tenderness… while not having the unhealthy (component),” explains Mary Michelle Lapuz, I-Foods marketing officer.
She continues that the chicken is fried first in palm oil, then baked. Doesn’t really seem all that mind-blowing, except that Stackers insists that this product delivers 80 percent less oil into your system. Hear that? That’s your heart heaving a sigh of relief.
Mary Michelle Lapuz, I-Foods marketing officer, explains that the aim of Stackers was to come out with all that customers want from a good fried chicken—extra crispy, juicy, and tender. Photo by Kap Maceda Aguila, InterAksyon.com.
The concept was developed by I-Foods (which notably owns other restaurant brands such as Peri-Peri, Tokyo Café, Parmigiano and Kogi) president and CEO Bryan Tiu with the help of his R&D team after months of “careful research,” and Lapuz narrates that Stackers teamed up with an equipment company to develop the kitchen helper that now churns out the baked fried chicken. She declines to say more, and one suspects it’s all top-secret proprietary stuff. At any rate, the chickens aren’t talking either.
But taste buds should—and they’re saying there’s no perceptible difference between good ol’ fashioned fried chicken, and the Stackers take on it. Good news, really, because that’s the point.
Still, Lapuz insists Stackers has gotten positive feedback from their guests when the chicken first debuted about a month ago. “We have guests who request for it. They said it’s tastier, juicier, and crispier,” she says, and adds that the baked fried chicken keeps these qualities for up to an hour – making it a viable option for delivery or take out.
When asked if this means the beginning of a trend towards healthier eating, Lapuz tells InterAksyon.com: “People are converting to healthier lifestyles, and this is Stackers’ participation in that—to bring in healthy food that do not compromise on taste.”
On the other end of the spectrum are the guilty pleasures that will make cardiologists antsy. Stackers recently unveiled what it terms The Penthouse – a seven-inch burger bonanza. You can also glean a lot from people’s choices. Consider that the Stackers bestseller remains to be the Jack Burger (with bacon, cheese, mushrooms), and Crazy Deluxe Burger (a two quarter-pound patty with cheese).
And the end of the day, it’s about serving a wide swath of customers what they crave for, after all. “People don’t always want the same thing. You may opt for the penthouse or you may opt for a salad,” declares Lapuz with a smile.
There’s some baked fried chicken democracy for you.
• Stackers Baked Fried Chicken’s pricing: P95 (one piece with rice), P155 (two pieces with rice), P205 (three), P395 (six), P775 (12), P970 (15), and P1,900 (30). Branches are at McKinley Hills–Venice Piazza in Taguig City, Resorts World in Pasay City, Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa City, and Promenade in Greenhills San Juan City. Call 87-878 (delivery), 723-6033 (franchise inquiries). Official Facebook page: stackersburgercafeph.
