Chicken and rice
New halal restaurant simmers up trendy chicken for Dallas college crowd
A new fast-serve restaurant dedicated to one of the trendiest food pairings right now will open near the University of Texas at Dallas. Called Charcoal Avenue, it's a family-run place whose menu will include the popular combination of chicken and rice.
Charcoal Avenue will open this summer at 17509 Coit Rd., and comes from a trio of owners, including Sarah Khan, who are fulfilling a dream to open their own place.
"Well be serving halal fast food, which is basically meat that Muslims can eat," she says. "All our food is going to be halal. But it will be a fast-food joint, with burgers, wings, fried chicken, French fries, and our own menu of sauces."
Plus, chicken with rice, gyro meat with rice, and falafel with rice.
"Rice and chicken is a big thing, it's a hit right now, it's something everyone wants," she says. "Halal Guys has helped make that popular, and we feel like we should have it on our menu, but we don't want our menu to be restricted to those two dishes."
The chicken-and-rice trend got a big bump locally with the arrival of New York concept Halal Guys, but Dallas-Fort Worth already had entries such as the Original Chicken-N-Rice, MJ's Chicken & Rice, and Big Guy's Chicken & Rice. Look, we got chicken and rice.
Khan says the Charcoal Avenue menu will have a "Pakistani touch."
"The chicken won't be just regular chicken, it'll be Pakistani-style barbecue chicken and our burgers will be our own style, with our own flavors," she says, citing spices such as paprika, cayenne, coriander powder, clove, and black pepper.
They're optimistic about their location near the University of Texas at Dallas.
"A lot of the students that attend that school only eat halal food, and there’s not much around there," she says. "It's always been a dream to open a restaurant — not just an ordinary restaurant, but something that reflects who we are."
