El Pollo Loco

El Pollo Loco, Inc., is a restaurant chain based in the United States, specializing in Mexican-style grilled chicken. Restaurant service consists of: dine-in, take-out, with some locations offering drive through options. The company is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, and operates about 500 (as of January 2019) company-owned and franchised restaurants in the Southwestern United States. Fare El Pollo Loco prepares primarily Mexican chicken entrees. The company describes its chicken as "citrus-marinated and fire-grilled." The American company also offers Mexican-style food, such as tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and quesadillas. In a bid to compete with such companies as KFC and Chick-fil-A, El Pollo Loco experimented with offering deep fried chicken in the form of breaded chicken tenders at selected locations in the United States for a limited time during the Fall 2016. This experiment was a big departure from its previous marketing campaigns that tout their fire-grilled chicken as a healthful alternative to fried chicken.