My Favorite LA Chicken Chain Has One Standout Sauce That Sets It Apart

Halbergman/Getty Images

There's one chicken chain in LA that every Angeleno is deeply familiar with. Even as a vegetarian, I go to Zankou Chicken for the falafel, and I never leave without toum, the incomparable garlic sauce that makes this eatery a true standout. Zankou Chicken, named after a river in Armenia, is a small chain that combines Armenian and Lebanese cuisines. Rotisserie chicken is the restaurant's signature, but its spit-roasted meats, flavor-packed sides, and, of course, toum have cemented Zankou Chicken as one of the West Coast chains we wish were everywhere.

Toum is mainstream enough that you can find the mouthwatering garlic spread at Trader Joe's, but Zankou Chicken was ahead of the curve, having opened in the U.S. in 1984. The Armenian family behind the chicken chain, the Iskenderians, began their restaurant in Beirut in 1962 and moved to Los Angeles when the Lebanese civil war broke out. I was first introduced to toum as a part of mezze spreads when I spent three months in Beirut, and the dip became a regular order for me at cafes throughout the city. Returning home from Beirut, I thought I was leaving toum behind. Discovering Zankou Chicken when I moved to LA showed me that, thankfully, I was wrong.

Garrett Palm/Static Media

In Lebanese Arabic, toum is the word for garlic, and garlic is indeed the key ingredient. The list of supporting ingredients is short: garlic, oil, water, salt, and lemon. Much like egg yolks in mayonnaise, garlic is used as an emulsifier to join the oil and water. When made right (by slowly adding the neutral oil into the blended garlic), the result is creamy and airy, with a strong garlic presence. You will smell like garlic after eating it, but people who constantly smell like garlic are living life right.

Zankou Chicken's version of the garlic sauce is just as simple, but the recipe is a secret. Whatever happens to it behind closed doors takes Zankou's toum beyond the one I buy at the grocery store. Zankou makes the paste fresh every day, so it is lighter and fluffier than anything sitting in the refrigerated section at the grocery store.

The recipe for the chain's toum is passed down from the founders' days in Beirut. The restaurant buys fresh, high-quality garlic directly from Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, California, which calls itself the "Garlic Capital of the World." Zankou's toum tastes so fresh, it's hard not to wonder if that's what really sets it apart. As I've continued to explore the city, Zankou isn't the only spot I go to for toum . Some of my favorite Armenian restaurants in Glendale, near where I live, also have great garlic paste.