14 Restaurant Chains That Serve the Best Fried Chicken
When a restaurant chain nails its fried chicken, there's no stopping it from reaching the masses. After all, fried chicken is the perfect marriage of crunchy and juicy, with just the right amount of spice to create a one-way ticket to flavor town. Fried chicken is also a versatile dish that fits perfectly as a sandwich or as-is on a plate with your favorite sides. Mild or spicy, fried chicken can adapt to just about any flavor you throw at it.
Given all of fried chicken's accolades, it's no wonder restaurant chains have their attempt at creating the perfect dish to serve their customers. It isn't too hard to find restaurants with at least one fried chicken dish on its menu, especially once you cross over to Southern cuisine and comfort food. Other restaurant chains make it their mission to feature fried chicken as the focal point of their menu, with recipes passed down from generation to generation.
The next time you are craving fried chicken, be sure to keep these restaurant chains in mind. While many are specific to certain regions around the United States, others have nationwide reach and shouldn't be too hard to track down.
Fluffies Hot Chicken
The next time you're in New York City or New Jersey, scope out one of Fluffies Hot Chicken's three locations. This small but mighty hain specializes in tasty fried chicken dishes, including tenders, wings, and chicken sandwiches. Nashville hot chicken fans will also find plenty to enjoy at Fluffies, as its menu includes fried chicken served in bowls, rolls, and buttermilk biscuits.
Logan's Roadhouse
When the occasion calls for fried chicken, you can find Country-Style Buttermilk Chicken on the menu at Logan's Roadhouse. It starts with Logan's hand-breaded, all-natural chicken breast fried and topped with white pepper gravy. Served with your choice of two sides, it's one of many ultra-satisfying meals. If you want something handheld, try the Fried Chicken Sandwich, made with the same hand-breaded, all-natural fried chicken breast and topped with American cheese, pickles, and honey mustard.
Cracker Barrel
If the rocking chairs in front of the country store don't give away how much Cracker Barrel knows about its comfort food, its Chicken Fried Chicken certainly will. Served with Sawmill Gravy, it is a quintessential menu item at the chain known for its grits and Buttermilk Biscuits. Cracker Barrel even keeps things fresh with reinvented versions of this Southern staple, launching new menu items like its Cheesy Bacon Homestyle Fried Chicken meal that comes topped with cheese, bacon, onion strings, and Buttermilk Ranch.
Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen
If quality ingredients and freshly-prepared meals are important, then Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen is where you will want to head next. As Cheddar's proudly attests on its website, its scratch kitchen concept extends to each of its menu items, including the Country Fried Chicken. The hand-battered chicken comes served on Texas toast along with two sides and gravy. There is no question that you will leave Cheddar's full. Its signature Hand-breaded Chicken Tenders follow the same philosophy and give diners a handheld option.
Bob Evans
The menu at Bob Evans is filled with classic comfort food, including a few variations of Fried Chicken. For the most traditional fried chicken meals, they offer the Hand-Breaded Fried Chicken with two hand-breaded all-white meat chicken breasts and your choice of two sides. Try Bob Evans' Honey Butter Chicken and Biscuit for an even richer flavor, which takes the same fried chicken breasts and tosses them in real clover honey and butter.
Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken
If you want your fried chicken to be hot and spicy, few chicken chains hold a candle to Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken. The Tennessee-based chain has been in business for over 60 years, serving up tasty made-to-order, hand-battered fried chicken. All of that goodness stems from a recipe developed in 1953, and as Vernon "Gus" Bonner himself once said, "This is a dead man's recipe [and] I ain't telling." Whether you prefer fried breasts, wings, thighs, or legs, Gus has them all ready to go alongside your favorite side dish.
Texas Roadhouse
If you want to hedge your bets that you will be able to order a solid dish of fried chicken, head to your local steakhouse. While steak is the name of the game, they also know a thing or two about hearty chicken dishes. If you aren't feeling like a sirloin the next time you head to Texas Roadhouse, try its Country Fried Chicken, which includes a hand-battered white meat chicken breast that is fried up and topped with your choice of gravy.
Salt Grass Steakhouse
Largely concentrated around Texas and in the Midwest, Salt Grass Steakhouse features a menu filled with the usual suspects. While its menu has all of the porterhouse, T-bone, and ribeye steaks you could ever want, it also features a signature Chicken Fried Chicken that comes with delicious cream gravy. If you are looking for some lighter fare, Salt Grass Steakhouse also serves its Hill Country Salad that comes tossed with fried chicken.
Champy's World Famous Fried Chicken
Champy's World Famous Fried Chicken has locations in Tennessee and Alabama, bringing beloved southern cuisine to its customers. Unlike many other chicken chains, Champy's offers white and dark meat varieties in its fried chicken dishes. Those dishes are served with baked beans and slaw for a classic meal combo. All of the usual suspects are on the menu, including fried chicken breasts, thighs, wings, and legs. Customers can also enjoy chicken tenders, fried chicken sandwiches, and a variety of other fried items, such as catfish and pickle spears.
Baes Fried Chicken
Baes Fried Chicken proclaims itself to be "Portland's Favorite Hot Chicken," with two locations around Portland, Oregon. Its Pacific Northwest chicken is fried in canola oil, with your choice of being served either mild or dunked in hot oil and rolled in a 26-spice blend, which includes cayenne and paprika for the ultimate kick. Customers cannot get enough of Baes Fried Chicken, with one reviewer on Tripadvisor saying that Baes has "The best fried chicken sandwich I have had so far."
Lazy Dog
Life is all about sharing the things we love with our closest family and friends, which should also extend to your four-legged companions. At Lazy Dog, all doggos are welcome to dine in the patio area. They even get their very own menu with burgers and grilled chicken bowls to enjoy while their humans dine on entrees like the Fried Chicken Dinner. The fried chicken dish comes with hand-dipped buttermilk boneless chicken breasts with red skin potato mash, white gravy, spiced maple syrup, and sautéed spinach with smoked bacon, per Lazy Dog's website.Both you and your pup will leave satisfied.
Outback Steakhouse
Famous for its Bloomin' Onion on the appetizers menu, Outback Steakhouse is well aware of what keeps hungry customers coming back time and time again. The Australian-inspired steakhouse chain took the beloved appetizer and married it with fried chicken to create Bloomin' Fried Chicken.
According to Outback Steakhouse, this boneless chicken breast is battered in a Bloomin' Onion seasoning and then fried to perfection before being drizzled with Outback's signature bloom sauce. If you ever wished you could take the Bloomin' Onion and eat it with everything, this fried chicken dish will be right up your alley.
The Cookshack
With an award-winning menu that features all-natural, hormone-free chicken, it's no wonder customers love The Cookshack. The Texas-based chicken chain, with locations around San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth, specializes in hot chicken. That said, customers can choose their level of heat, with spice levels ranging from "Not Hot" to "AMF." The Cookshack's fried chicken can be enjoyed a number of ways, including menu favorites like Chicken and Waffles, Hot Chicken Tacos, and a classic Chicken Sandwich.
Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles
There's a reason President Obama stopped by Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles whenever he visited the West Coast. The small Los Angeles-based chain is known across the nation for its fried chicken, which can come in various combinations of legs, thighs, wings, and breasts.
Obama was not an anomaly; Roscoe's has been attracting high-profile clients for decades, including Snoop Dogg and Shaquille O'Neil. If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood of one of its seven locations, you owe it to your taste buds to give Roscoe's a try.
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