The tastiest grilled chicken in Amsterdam
Anyone who knows me even a little knows it: I love chicken. Not those dry-fried cubes of chicken breast in your stir-fry, but juicy chicken that falls off the bone just by looking at it and still has crispy skin. At chicken stand Dilek Chicken, they have exactly that kind of chicken.
Whole chicken, half chicken, chicken wings, chicken legs, chicken bratwurst, chicken grill sausage or chicken fingers; owner Hidayet Cinar sells it all from his black-and-red food truck. Personally, I’m a big fan of the grill sausage: deliciously fatty and seasoned, great on bread but preferably just like that, hot and fresh. Cinar: “I’m a butcher by profession, so I make everything myself. The chickens I use are free-range chickens. Not organic, but halal.”
Wish
For a long time, Cinar ran butcher shop Het Vleespaleis in Osdorp. “In 2007, I sold it and started this. It had always been a wish of mine.” Hence the name Dilek. “That means wish in Turkish and is the name of my daughter and my late sister.”
Competition
At first, Cinar parked his truck in Osdorp, but he had to leave because his spot was supposedly obstructing traffic visibility at the roundabout. He moved to Mercatorplein, but had to leave there too because the municipality shut down the ‘freezone’ for stalls and no longer issues permits.
According to Cinar himself, it has more to do with surrounding businesses. “In Osdorp, big names like KFC, Subway, McDonald’s and Turkish restaurant Bir Bey complained about the competition. The same thing happened at Mercatorplein. I think: surely nobody eats only chicken. People want variety. You just have to run your business better.”
Chicken king and joker
Dilek Chicken is now located near Praxis in Sloterdijk. “Nobody can complain about competition here because there aren’t any others.” He still has no shortage of customers. Many of them simply followed him. “Customer loyalty is important; if someone comes five times, I give something away. I have a chat, make jokes—it’s always gezellig here.”
But the most important ingredient for his success? “Love!” says the chicken king.
Want to try it yourself? Dilek Chicken is open Monday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Roesiel 1 in Amsterdam.
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