On a recent Thursday afternoon at around 1:30 p.m., a long line snaked out the door near the corner of East 54th Street and Lexington Avenue.
Customers waited eagerly in an oily fog.
“I love Taiwanese fried chicken, I’ve been looking for it for a long time, but it’s hard to find an authentic restaurant [serving it in New York],” Lisa Ting, 30, a fashion designer who left Hell’s Kitchen on her lunch break, told The Post.
Chunky Boss, a Taiwan-based, fried chicken chain with cluckeries in the Philippines, opened its first US location in Midtown in mid-April.
Food obsessives have been clucking ever since — traveling from the outer boroughs to line up for the chain’s chunky cutlets, which are sold from an outpost within the bubble tea shop Tiger Sugar at 129 E. 45th St.
“I saw the cutlets on Instagram and wanted to try them for myself,” Daniel Ocampo, 32, who traveled from Coney Island Thursday afternoon and waited close to 25 minutes to get the delicious, well-priced chicken.
For $7.99 at Chunky Boss, you can get a hefty cutlet that makes a satisfying lunch. For $14.99, you can get a cutlet or cutlet sandwich, a beverage and fries, all packaged in a fun manner — the container of food rests atop the drink cup — that can be carried in one hand.
By comparison, the classic fried chicken sandwich at Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken costs $10.75, but doesn’t come with fries or a drink.
And, in an age where the once-humble hot dog or ham and cheese sandwich can set you back $29, snagging a good cheap meal in Manhattan is something to chirp about.
But you have to be an early bird to get the hot new chicken.
At the moment, Chunky Boss is only open from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. — or until they sell out.
The initial plan was to stay open until 7 p.m., but keeping up with supply and demand has been a challenge. When the chain first opened, there was a four-hour wait, a spokesperson told The Post.
“It takes a lot of time to prep the chicken. We didn’t expect it to be so busy,” said Steven Wong, who handles marketing for Chunky Boss, noting the plan is to resume hours until 7 p.m. in a month once they bulk up on chicken.
“We sell about 300 [cutlets] a day,” Wong noted.
He said the appeal comes down to the batter, which is a secret recipe.
“It’s all in the batter,” Wong said. “They figured out how to keep the chicken juicy while the exterior is crispy.”
Customers can choose from four seasonings — classic pepper powder, spicy powder, plum powder and the chain’s original recipe — and four dipping sauces — cheese sauce, mango sauce, honey mustard and sweet and chili sauce.
By 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, the Chunky Boss was sold out of its combo meals.
Ting, who, like Ocampo, found out about the chicken from viral posts on social media, also said the chicken was worth the wait — and the hassle.
“It’s good, really good!” Ting said. “It’s really big, and really cheap.”
