El Pollo Loco recently passed a milestone. The Costa Mesa-based chain opened its 500th location on Oct. 17 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Two other new drive-thrus quickly followed: one in El Paso, Texas, on Oct. 24, and one in Albuquerque, N.M., on Nov. 6.
El Pollo Loco is now in eight states, with Washington state and Idaho on the way, according to Chief Executive Officer Liz Williams.
That’s for a start.
“We see El Pollo Loco as having the potential to be a national brand,” she said in a phone interview.
Although quick service is crowded with chicken brands, Williams said El Pollo Loco has a unique product in its citrus grilled chicken.
But it wouldn’t mind getting a piece of the action that chains like Chick-fil-A get with their breaded chicken strips.
To that end El Pollo Loco is testing its own chicken tenders at several locations in Orange County.
“We’re known as having flavorful, quality food that’s fast and easy. And we are really leaning into that as consumers are wanting to eat a little bit healthier but also pushing for quality. And there’s just not a lot of grilled competitors,” she said.
“However, having the name Pollo, we also feel we have license with our kitchen to go beyond our grilled heritage. And with all the growth that we are seeing in fried, if we can find a way to do fried at a higher quality, that’s really something that we think we can distinguish ourselves with.”
El Pollo Loco’s chicken nuggets, which we tried at its Yorba Linda drive-thru, have spicy breading and come with a choice of two new sauces, Baja Ranch and Pollo Sauce.
“These are tenders with a little bit of kick to them, a sweet and spicy seasoning,” Williams said.
An order of two tenders costs $5.99. Three pieces cost $8.49, and four pieces cost $10.99. Customers can get them in combos with chips and a drink for $2.80 extra.
Williams said El Pollo Loco is also working on a chicken sandwich as well.
She said until now research and development has been done in restaurants, but El Pollo Loco will soon have its own test kitchen. The chain is on the verge of moving into new headquarters in the Met, a mixed-use complex in Costa Mesa, near South Coast Plaza.
“We’ve been super focused on innovation in the last couple of years, and now we’ll have innovation closer to where decision-making is happening,” Williams said.
Here is El Pollo Loco’s list of locations participating in the chicken tenders test.
Anaheim: 110 W. Ball Road; 1201 S. Beach Blvd.; 969 S. Euclid St.; 1076 N. Tustin Ave.
Anaheim Hills: 8245 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road.
Brea: 2500 E. Imperial Highway, Suite 186.
Costa Mesa: 3131 Harbor Blvd.
Fullerton: 120 N. Euclid St.; 200 E. Orangethorpe Ave.
Garden Grove: 12909 Harbor Blvd.
Lake Forest: 21212 Bake Parkway.
Mission Viejo: 25110 Marguerite Parkway.
Orange: 18571 E. Chapman Ave.; 1611 E. Katella Ave.
San Clemente: 963 Avenida Pico.
San Juan Capistrano: 33953 Doheny Park Road.
Santa Ana: 1702 E. 17th St.
Tustin: 13421 Newport Ave.
Yorba Linda: 18402 Yorba Linda Blvd.