Rotisserie Chicken Vendor, Tokyo

When we were still living in Australia, if we wanted to quickly satisfy a craving for rotisserie or roast chicken (i.e. without the effort and time of cooking one ourselves) it was just a matter of heading to the nearest Woolies or Coles supermarket and grabbing a hot packet of roast chicken, or to Red Rooster or Chicken Treat and ordering one. Here in Tokyo, it's not so easy - raw whole chickens aren't even readily available from the standard supermarket (I source them instead from a meat wholesaler grocery store), and the likes of Red Rooster and Chicken Treat are nowhere to be found. We are often in Hiroo for some reason or another (most recently for Gymboree), and one weekend a while ago, our noses led us to a van/cart with a built-in rotisserie station selling freshly cooked-on-the-spit small chicken, located next to the National Azabu Supermarket.

Vendor cutting up the chicken (these photos were taken using Rob's iPhone):


It seems to operate only on weekends because I am often in the area on weekdays when this van is nowhere in sight. Prices are quite steep for such small chicken (2300yen for a whole chook, 1300yen for half), but we decided to give it a try anyway. Half a chicken was barely enough for the both of us, but perhaps we just have big appetites. I thought it was seasoned rather heavily with salt, but I guess it needs to penetrate to the flesh underneath the skin, especially if you're like me and discard the chicken skin (to Rob who happily ate it). I also thought it was dry and somewhat overcooked, but I did have the white meat which tend to dry out if even slightly overcooked. Overall, it was nice, but not too sure if we'll be having it again.

Close-up of the chicken: