Klein/Ally Show: The Podcast - Chicken Charlie Brings His OC Fair Madness to KROQ

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

About to get into a brand new episode of Klein Alley Show, but first let's tell you about our good friends at the finest airport that ever was and ever will be. The San Bernardino International Airport. Especially when there's summer travel plans, it can get expensive at these airports. That's why you gotta go to this airport where parking is just five bucks a day. Plus you got those easy trips, San Francisco or Provo, Utah. Maybe you didn't plan anything this summer. See how easy it is. Don't be one of those people who has to pack your patience. Go to San Bernardino International Airport. Okay, enough shilling. Now it's time to get into a brand new episode of Klein Alley Show. It's an annual tradition around these parts. We welcome back into the KROQ studios the king of the deep fryer. You know him, and I'm sure you've tried his many, many inventions and creations over the years at the OC Fair, the LA Fair, all the fairs.

He is the Willy Wonka of our generation. We've called him this as well. Chicken Charlie is back on KROQ. What's up, Chicken Charlie? My man, I'm so happy to be here. I'm so honored. Thank you so much for having me. Hey, thank you. We always very much look forward to, in the same way that people look forward to big festival announcements like who's going to be at Coachella this year, I always very much look forward to what will be the new things that you create because you spend an entire year putting together new items to bring to the fair. You'd think if you created the deep-fried Oreo like you've done or the deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich or the donut hamburger or any of the many things you've created over the years, you would say enough is enough, but every year you push yourself to come up with the next great fair food. Well, you know, that's what I love about food. It's like it's a cooking is like an art. And so it's never going to end. I mean, you could always mix ingredients together and come up with wackadoodle or different, you know, ways to, you know, have it to outdo yourself. And how did you come up with this year's concoction that is currently sitting in front of us? And did you have any rejected ideas that you experimented with and said this isn't going to work? Well, I'm Middle Eastern, and, you know, in Syria, where I was born and raised, I came here when I was 11, and there's shawarma stands, restaurants, on every corner.

Like, they have taco shops in Tijuana on every corner, but I never once thought of selling it. We eat it all the time, you know, I never once thought of selling it, and all of a sudden, on TikTok and Instagram, there's this viral chicken shawarma going this craze, and I thought, I told my brother, I said, we got to sell this, so we went and did it, but never did I ever think I would do this, and I did it. In some ways, I will say that, you know, you've once again, you've chicken charlified it by adding fries right into the middle of the cone. You served it in a cone. You're a big fan of serving things in cones. I've always said food tastes better in cones or buckets or whatever. But you have figured out a way to still make it a little out there. But it's pretty traditional.

I haven't tried it yet. I'm excited to try it. But it's got all the standard stuff you would expect to get, the cucumbers, the pickled beets, all that other stuff. Yeah. Let me tell you, we offer it in the wrap as well. But I brought you the cone because it's different. I put a Charlie twist to it. chicken charlie twist to it the pickled turnips are actually oreos they're all deep fried oreos

all of it deep down in the middle um no the pickles the pickled turnips and the cucumbers you're seeing on top i pickled them and we've been doing it all summer um the chicken is all fresh the tahini sauce is fresh everything is made in-house i'm so happy about this item it's been going off the charts at the fair you know what's interesting is you put in a paper cone and normally i'm used to being able to eat everything because i remember a few years ago when you debuted the mac and cheese in the red velvet cone. That's right. That had the buffalo bites as well.

That was where you could eat everything. So do you think people will be confused and eat the paper cone, just force a habit? Yeah, maybe at the fair after a few beers, they might just have the cone as well. You know, when we did the red one, that was a waffle cone. So you ate that, and it was the sweet and savory. That was so good. Well, it never is a waste. You don't have to go throw something away or find a trash can.

Just eat it. Make it yourself. But it's incredible to me, a couple things. Because, you know, I'm a big fan. I've always said you're bacon-wrapped, fried chicken legs. I'm a huge fan of. You can't go wrong pretty much at the fair unless you're trying to stick to a diet, which is going to be tricky. But I always say Chicken Charlie's got a couple different setups there, like six different.

I feel like you're all over the place. You always, it's the smell. Right when you walk in the fair, there's that smell. And that smell. Charlie's responsible for 90% of the fair smell. I would argue that is true. It's a great smell. I'm so honored.

I don't know why you don't do a scented candle, because I think that people want that smell year-round. Right, always. Now, what about this fried object? Because, of course, you have to have something that's deep-fried. Yeah, so I was walking by the Mango Nada booth, where they sell fresh mangoes in a red sauce with chamoy, tahini, and all that in a cup. And I thought, let me fry that. I should fry that. How many things do you walk by and go, I should fry that?

Pretty much all day long. He's tried to fry everything. He told us when you have those big fry parties at your house, you bring everything by, and all your friends and family just drop things in there, babies, shoes. Yeah, bring your shoes. I'll fry it. Fry it up and try it. You never know. So you decided, I'm going to deep fry mango.

Yeah, so this is a mango nada. Basically, it's fresh mangoes dipped in batter, fried, topped off with chamoy and tahini and a little lime juice. You know, Allie is – she's going to try this right now. And by the way, this is all stuff you can get at the fair, OC Fair, which is going on right now. Yeah, this one I think is going to be the home run. I mean, the other one looks great, too. This is a perfect pregnancy craving food. So I was going to say this.

I told Ali, Ali's pregnant right now, Charlie. And she's asking me if I would eat her placenta. And I said the only way I would eat her placenta is if it were deep fried by chicken charlotte. Deep fried and put it in a cone, Charlie? So, Charlie, if you will agree right now to deep fry and prepare Ali's placenta, I will eat it on the air. I love it. But we've got to figure out a way. And what items now, as we're trying these, these are the two big new releases this year from Chicken Charlie.

What things almost made the cut? You always say you have a few things that are on the ready. And you said you narrowed it down to 10 possible items to make the cut this year before you pick these two. You know, every year, like I said, I walk through a grocery store. Everything I see, I'm thinking, can I fry that? You know, from marshmallows to, you know, I don't know. I honestly think over the years I've tried to fry everything, but I keep

doing it, and we pick I get a group of friends, my chicken mafia I call them, just friends and employees, people that are around me that are willing to try everything, yeah, and we pick this shawarma was kind of special because it's really like taking a big

it's very popular on TikTok and Instagram and we're selling, it's our second best seller right now over the Maui chicken, I brought you the Maui chicken and the pineapple bowl I was showing everyone on YouTube who's watching this right now. I recommend you do not watch this unless you want to be instantly starving. But the good news is you can get all this at the OC Fair and then, you know, it hits the fair circuit. This one is where I get this like every year.

Yeah, I walk around. And this is one of those things like a stopper. Like you walk around this, you can stop at everyone's. Hey, where'd you get that? Where'd you get that? Well, and you're on a protein craze, Klein. So it's a ton of protein. That's why I'm surprised with protein being so popular, Charlie.

I'm surprised you didn't come up with deep fried protein this year at the fair. Just protein powder? Just like 100 grams of deep-fried protein. I feel like everyone's talking about protein everywhere. You mentioned you might come this weekend. I might have to get a protein bar and fry it for you. Years ago, we did deep-fried Slim Fast Bar. That's the only way to make a protein bar good.

Slim Fast Bar. Remember the Slim Fast Bars? I don't know if they still have them. I guess they do. It was delicious. We have created... We'll not get you Slim Fast. That's right.

If you're joining us now, Chicken Charlie's here. You recognize this guy, obviously, from the fair. He's the mayor of the fair. But in addition to the deep-fried frog legs he's brought us over the years, the fried bacon-wrapped pickle. Allie, remember that? We had that last year, I believe. Oh, yeah. Where's that?

I want to eat it. Twinkies, deep-fried cheesecake, the Kool-Aid float, the fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Because you have brought us so much delicious food. Oh, let's not forget about the Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich. That's right. That's the fried chicken. We have created something for you because you're always feeding us. Wow.

And we've gone a completely different direction. Something that you've never seen or thought of before. And we're going to play this song right now. And when we get back, it's our turn to feed Chicken Charlie. Oh, I love it. And I think he's going to probably hate it. I think that's a good early bet. But he doesn't know what it is yet.

Yeah, but it's definitely revolutionary. And you'll be the first to try it next. Oh, I'm so excited. Say it right. Fine Alley Show. In the studio right now is the great Chicken Charlie. You can probably listen closely to hear him. He's sitting in boiling oil as we speak.

That's how he likes to be comfortable because he is the deep-fried king. He's at the OC Fair this year. This is every year, LA Fair. You've seen him there. Hits the whole fair circuit, this guy. And the two new concoctions this year he's come up with is the deep-fried mango that's got the coating on it. Allie's been housing. I'm almost done.

Really? Oh, my God. I had to set it down. We're so glad you're here, Charlie. Allie used to be your size the first time she was pregnant. And then she got all skinny and annoying, and now we're going to get her fat again. If I go to the fair, it'll definitely happen. Oh, yeah.

You need one weekend at the fair. I know you get your steps in, so it kind of balances out. That's right. Once you're eating cookies out of a bucket and going over to Chicken Charlie's for your bacon-wrapped fried chicken, you can put it on pretty quickly. How many vats of oil do you think you go through in every fair season? We go through, in the fair season, between my three, four fairs, we go through about three, four truckloads of oil. I change my oil every day. Truckloads of oil?

Yeah, truckloads. Yeah, big trucks. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, we just found out off the air. Bring him by my house. Another cool thing of Chicken Charlie is that every year he employs over a thousand people that work for him. So these are all people that are looking for either seasonal work or side hustles or whatever.

Mostly young. And a lot of young kids, high school, college kids. And Charlie puts them to work. Even my kids. He forces his kids to work for him. But he has to pay them, too. They demanded it. 805 wanted to know, have you ever thought of deep frying insects like grasshoppers, crickets, anything like that?

You know, my kids would probably love that. I hate the idea. But, I mean, I think it's been done in some state fairs. But I've never done it. I've never done it. But my kids ask me all the time. I'm like, nope. I don't want that in your oil.

A spider or something? I feel like, Chicken Charlie, you agree that a lot of people do it for, like, a lot of people are not purists in the sense. Like, when you created the deep fried Oreo, you were the first one. It's been documented. You're the guy who created the concept of a deep fried Oreo. It's one of the greatest desserts you can have. And allow millions of people to do it. I don't think you're getting the credit you deserve.

But there's some people that just do it for the wow factor. They just want the buzzy headline. You actually, you go flavor first. It's got to taste good. I can't do the wow factor only in the sense of like we work very hard for our money. Nothing is cheap. So when you buy it and you spend that money, it's got to taste good. It's got to, the flavor, the taste, it's got to be there.

So we didn't think about that when we put this thing together for you. We didn't think about flavor or taste. But we did think that the one thing that their affair is not known for is healthy. and that's one of the joys of the fair is that you go to the fair so that you can pig out a little bit and there's no better place. Well, Chicken Charlie says

there are no calories in the fair. That's right. The calorie counter breaks when you enter the gate. And some of the rides do too, actually, from time to time. So we have created something that we think, Charlie,

could set you apart from everyone else. I'm scared. It would be a complete 180 for you. This will feed that one woman who wants a healthy snack at the fair. Please bring in to the studio what we've created for Chicken Charlie. I'm so scared.

This is a one-of-one now. I want you to see what this is now. What the hell is that? I'm going to show you what this is. Chicken Charlie in front of you now is a tofu veggie roll on a bed of baby spinach, quinoa, and crispy edamame drizzled. Who would eat this? Drizzled with protein honey and sea moss gummies. It's drizzled with gummies?

The gummies are put into it on a toothpick, but it is drizzled with the protein honey. And inside of the wrap is tofu. Please tell me there's no insects because we were just talking about that. No, no, no. No insects as far as we know. Now, I want you to know that no one would get in line for this. And I have a feeling if you were to add this to your menu, you would sell a total of zero of these at the fair. Even if you deep fried it, I don't think you would.

Oh, so I could make it delicious if I deep fried it. That would be the challenge. Could he make this delicious? No, I could definitely make it delicious. But I could tell you right now, if I sold this at the fair, we'd probably sell six during the 23-day run. There's gotta be six weirdos out there Sorry Six weirdos

I'll take the tofu wrap We thought it'd be fun to do a game Where Jake either he wins and he gets to eat The Chicken Charlie food or if he loses he has to eat This healthy concoction I mean this also looks dry as hell That's the other thing I'll eat it

Chicken Charlie we just think that it's probably the healthiest thing You've ever been forced to eat But it's got none of the wow factor and all of the annoying factor. I mean, it does have a wow factor. It's like, wow, I don't want to eat it. That's the wild card we were going for. I'm going to try it.

Chicken Charlie's going to try this now, but you have to make sure to try to get a little bit in every bite, which means the quinoa, the crispy edamame. Yeah, I want to try the quinoa edamame first. It's funny because a lot of Chicken Charlie's concoctions, I'm like, how do I attack this? How do I eat this? And that's what he's doing with this.

He's got a fork going like, what do I do? How do I throw this in the trash without them noticing? The quinoa and the crispy edamame are very good. Really? Yeah, they're good. That's good. It's dry, but it's good. Let me try this thing.

Is it going for the sea on the bottom? Is that the sea moss gum? Sweat on it? Oh, there's some sweat there. Oh, it's falling apart. It's been sitting out for a little bit. Hand-wrapped. Oh.

I got a secret to share with you. You like it? This is the first time I've ever had tofu. In your life? 157, in my life. I looked at it many times and said, no, thank you. How do you feel? Do you feel like you missed out on anything?

I feel like I'm eating a sponge. There's no flavor. Right, right. That's about right. Well, it's supposed to absorb every flavor, but yeah. It's so funny that over the years, how much Chicken Charlie has brought us to bring us joy. And we've repaid the favor by giving him tofu for the first time in his life. It's like a punishment.

If I ate this regularly, I'd probably lose 50 to 100 pounds. Probably. Not worth it. And probably nobody would buy anything from me. Right. That's true. Well, you'd also probably lose some of your taste buds because you get used to the bland taste of what you're eating. Might even live forever.

Who knows? Now, why don't you try one of those sea moss gummies? Supposedly good for gut health and skin. This thing here? Yeah, I guess this thing here. Yep. I thought it was a grape. That's a great name for this whole thing.

It's a freak ball. Oh, wait. It smells good. Yeah. Try that. This is the healthiest stuff. You know what? That's the best thing on the plate.

Oh, yeah? The sea moss gummies? Sea moss gummies. Very expensive. I took them from my wife. Sea moss gummies sounds like the biggest crock of crap I've ever heard in my life. I'm sure she's going to be really annoyed later. They were the last ones in the bottle.

She's going to be looking for them this morning. So you're not eating... What is the benefit of sea moss? I don't even know. I don't eat them. I don't know. Okay. I just saw them.

I just said, let's put together the most healthy, obnoxious thing we could put together to chicken Charlie to counteract all the delicious food he's brought us over here. I'm going to sum it up. The sea moss gummy wasn't bad. The edamame wasn't bad. The wrap with the tofu was very plain and dry. I think if we dipped it in batter and fried it, topped it with chocolate, it'll be amazing. Topped it with chocolate?

That's the way to save it. It solves all problems. Guys, please go support this man. He's a legend. We've said it many times. OC Fair now through August 16th. And whenever you see the Chicken Charlie booth, and there are many of them, stop by. You will never be disappointed with what you get there.

Chicken Charlie, thank you for bringing us the new fair foods this year. Thank you so much for having me. Jake came in here and stole a pineapple full of chicken already, huh? We got a spare pineapple of chicken. Jake, are you eating it already? It's done. You finished it already? Yeah.

Chicken Charlie, not to wow you, because I know you've just been wowed by our creation, but earlier this week we posted on our Instagram a recipe that Jake makes when times are tough. You want to tell Chicken Charlie about what you created, Jake? Grilled mustard sandwich, man. Wow. When he doesn't have meat money, he makes mustard just on bread. I love it. I love it.

I mean, a deep-fried grilled cheese I'm sure you would do, right? Yeah. A deep-fried mustard sandwich I bet would taste all right. Yeah, you cannot go wrong with anything available at Chicken Charlie's. I honestly think everything is better deep fried. Well, I can, yeah. I mean, that's why your name is Chicken Charlie. That's good.

It's not Tofu Charlie. We've got to take a break. We'll get back with your news, and then we'll give you more tickets after this. Chicken Charlie, always good to see you, man. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you so much for having me. The great Chicken Charlie on KROX.