Update: Since this blog post originally published, Champs Chicken is now open in Apple Creek. It is located in the BellStores on U.S. 250 that runs through the heart of the village.
I was really excited to go and try the chicken once I heard it was open. However, it was just a little bit disappointing when Wendi and I arrived there to get some of the chicken.
When I arrived there, I didn’t see any bone-in chicken. I asked if they were cooking some chicken. I discovered BellStores made the decision not to offer bone-in fried chicken. They had chicken tenders and boneless chicken breast fillets cooked, and I think something that looked like fried fish.
I ended up just getting a 3-piece chicken tender meal for $7.99, and with an extra biscuit I paid nearly $10. The chicken is good, but it is expensive. You can get three chicken tenders, potato wedges, a biscuit, cookie and drink at KFC for $5. Try it, you’ll like it, but you will pay a premium for it.
Here is the original post:
The Daily Record’s Jack Rooney recently reported a Champs Chicken will open in the new BellStores in Apple Creek. While my wife Wendi, the founder of this blog, and I were traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend the FinCon Expo, I spotted a Champs Chicken when we were in Breezewood, Pa. I told Wendi we needed to stop at the chicken place on the way home so we could check it out and write a review.
Wendi and I recently sought out Krispy Krunchy Chicken, and we really loved it. You can read about it here. Like KKC, Champs Chicken is found in gas stations and convenience stores. The Champs we visited was in a gas station. On the way to and on the trip back from Washington, we stayed with Wendi’s uncle and aunt, Jay and Kim, in Greencastle, Pa. Not being sure when we would leave Greencastle, I was hoping Champs Chicken would be serving lunch when we arrived. As it turned out, we pulled up around noon. When we made our way back to the counter where the food was served, the cupboard was bare, so to speak. I was glad to hear the woman working there say fresh chicken was cooking.
It was surprising to see how Champs Chicken offered a lot of variety in such a small food case. Some of the protein items offered include fried, bone-in chicken; chicken tenders; chicken dippers (like boneless wings or chicken nuggets); ChampStix; chicken sandwich, fried fish, and fried shrimp. Sides included macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, potato wedges, green beans, sweet corn, and cinnamon apples. They also had brown and country gravy, and biscuits.
Because I wanted us to try a lot of different items, we ordered much more food than we needed. I wish I spent some time looking at the prices, but I just wanted to try a nice sampling of Champs Chicken’s offerings. We ended up spending more than $20 for the two of us, but we brought a lot of food home.
So, Wendi ordered the chicken dipper bowl, which came with a base of mashed potatoes, topped with sweet corn, chicken dippers, brown gravy (she could have had country gravy) and cheese. There were only four pieces of chicken in the bowl. It would have been better with more chicken, Wendi said. The sweet corn was indeed sweet, something Wendi really liked. She also ordered a chicken thigh, which she ended up eating after we returned home. Wendi also liked the biscuit, saying it was nice and tender. Wendi said she wished they had honey. Champs Chicken offered her jelly instead. It was Smucker’s grape, so all in all, it wasn’t too bad.
I ended up getting a two-piece chicken dinner with two breasts, which included an up-charge because I didn’t go with the breast and wing. For my two sides, I chose the macaroni and cheese, and potato wedges. It came with a biscuit, and because they had hush puppies, I had to get an order of them. The chicken was pretty good. Wendi likes thighs because dark meat is moist, and white meat, like the breast, tends to be dry. I asked her to try a piece of the breast, and she liked it because the meat was moist. I am not sure if the chicken pieces are injected with a marinade, but if so, that will make the meat moist. Years ago, restaurants would brine the chicken to add flavor, not to mention helping the final product to be juicier.
The chicken breast was good, but it didn’t stand out. It was not as flavorful or as crispy as Krispy Krunchy Chicken. The potato wedges were OK … and deceptively spicy. The macaroni and cheese didn’t have a great cheese flavor. It is tough for a commercially produced macaroni and cheese to taste good. The macaroni ends up getting cooked to much, so it loses its flavor and tastes like water. The cheese sauce is often watered down. As for the hush puppies, they had a good flavor, but the texture was a little rubbery.
While our meals were not great, they were still pretty good. I like the fact they offer a variety of foods. Another feather in their cap is they offer free samples. They let me taste one of the chicken dippers. Though the dippers are about the size of chicken nuggets, they are not a processed product: They are real chicken meat. They are white meat, so I am thinking they are made of chicken breast meat. The ChampStix are a skewer with what appears to be four or five chicken dippers.
As a side note, I really love Krispy Krunchy Chicken, and as Wendi and I continued our journey home from D.C. and Greencastle, we stopped for gas somewhere in Mahoning County. Guess what, the gas station also had a KKC restaurant inside. Yes, we had gas station chicken twice that day.
Ever since the convenience store in downtown Wooster closed, it has not been easy to find a fried chicken dinner downtown. Sure, there is KFC, Buehler’s and Gionino’s, but I like being able to drop into a place and pick up an order. I am sure I will definitely check out Champs Chicken when it opens in Apple Creek. Rooney reported the BellStores is scheduled to open by the end of September.
