One of the things that I love most about the restaurant community in Shreveport-Bossier is the ready availability of delicious, creative cuisine in totally casual, affordable restaurants. Case in point: The baked and fried chicken at Pita De’ Novo (8510 Youree Drive, Shreveport), a no-frills Greek and Mediterranean restaurant that serves food on paper plates, is one of the best things that I’ve eaten in Shreveport in 2019. Ranging in price from $9.99 for a quarter-chicken to $21.99 for an entire chicken, it may be my new favorite dish under $10 in Shreveport-Bossier.
What makes it so great? For starters, it’s rotisserie chicken that’s deep-fried after slow roasting. But the star of the show, in my opinion, is the spicy, garlicky sauce that it’s doused in. It’s in the same wheelhouse as Nashville hot chicken sauce, but with more flavor and less heat, and it clings to the crusty chicken pieces for dear life. I asked an employee about the sauce, and they remarked that it’s the same sauce that the restaurant’s spicy potatoes are served with.
Finally – and this is a point worth considering – fried chicken goes really, really well with Greek and Mediterranean sides like hummus, baba ghanoush and tabbouleh. The chicken is served with a lemony, garlicky yogurt dip that goes great with it…but you’re gonna wanna dip this freakin’ chicken in everything.
If you’ll indulge me, I want to get a little nerdy: Is this Lahori charga, a Pakistani baked-then-fried chicken that definitely bears a resemblance to what Pita De’ Novo is serving? If so, I’ve just gotta say: Pakistani fried chicken is really, really good.
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