A couple of years ago I saw a link on Facebook about the best fried chicken restaurant you never heard of … because you can only find it at convenience stores or gas stations. Krispy Krunchy Chicken, a Louisiana-style fried chicken akin to Popeye’s chicken, is that restaurant, and when Wendi and I finally made it to one, the “restaurant” did not disappoint.
So, I had read a blog post on Thrillist a couple years ago about this awesome fried chicken restaurant, and I really wanted to try it. The problem is, the closest one was more than an hour away. When Wendi founded this blog, she wanted to write about the places we visited, the restaurants where we ate, and whatever else she wanted to, thus Wendi’s Weekend Trips & Whatnot. While we enjoy trying new restaurants, did we really want to drive an hour for gas station fried chicken? So, the trip was put on a back burner. Soon, Krispy Krunchy Chicken was no longer top of mind, and it slipped from my memory.
Fast-forward a couple years, and I am in Westlake to shoot video and take photos for a client. I got to thinking about the best fried chicken restaurant no one ever heard of and wondered how close I was to one of these fine establishments. I did a search on Google and found out the two locations in the vicinity, as well as discovering another article about Krispy Krunchy Chicken. Turns out, I was west of Cleveland, and the two in this area were in East Cleveland and Willoughby Hills. Both were about 40 minutes from where I was. I had work to do, so I headed back to Wooster.
However, a few weeks later, Wendi and I were wondering what to do, and I wanted to try that chicken. So, one of the things we try to do is to figure out what else we can do while in the area. A quick search turned up North Chagrin Reservation, which features Strawberry Pond (a place for a picnic), Buttermilk Falls (Wendi loves waterfalls), and Squire’s Castle. I asked Wendi if she wanted to go try the chicken and take our dog, Owney, to the reservation. She was up for the day trip, so we headed off around 12:45 p.m. on a Saturday.
After a pit stop at a rest area and giving Owney a little walk, we finally made it to Willoughby Hills, and the Sunoco station that housed Krispy Krunchy Chicken, around 2:30. I went inside to order the chicken, only to discover they only had chicken tenders ready, along with Boudin Bites. They were cooking some fresh chicken, but only dark meat. I don’t eat dark meat, so they breaded and fried some breasts and wings for me. Frying chicken takes time, so I would have to wait another 20 minutes. I didn’t drive more than an hour for just chicken tenders, so wait we did.
While I was a little disappointed I had to wait for the chicken, I would not be disappointed when I finally got to eat the chicken. But, because the chicken had to be made fresh, I had the chance to witness firsthand how meticulous the owner was in preparing, cooking, and serving the KKC. There were two men there, and I presume one was the owner. They were both very careful breading the chicken pieces individually. I used to work in restaurants and would have to bread bone-in chicken. If you are not careful to dip and coat each piece individually, it creates a lot of lumps in the breading. This makes it more difficult for the breading to stick to the chicken, which results in an inferior product. After coating the chicken carefully, the breading was sifted to get rid of the lumps that can create problems.
I ordered the family meal, which had 12 pieces of chicken, a family size order of potato wedges, six chicken tenders, and six biscuits covered with a honey butter mix. I think the family meal was $22.95. The dark meat finished cooking, and the owner arranged the pieces with great care in the holding area/display case. The chicken looked good, and it glowed beautifully under the warming lights. When the white meat chicken was done, I was ready to go … but the owner took his time, letting the oil drip off and then shaking and lifting the fry basket several times to ensure all excess oil was gone. This was just another example of the great care used in the preparation and presentation of the food.
They also cooked up some fresh potato wedges for us, as well as baked some biscuits. Along with the meal, I ordered a couple of Boudin Bites, which are fried rice balls with pork and Cajun seasonings, rolled, breaded and deep fried. Wendi, Owney and I were about 10 minutes away from the reservation, where we were going to eat at Strawberry Pond. I was concerned about the fried chicken “steaming” in the box while we drove. However, I did not want to eat chicken in the gas station parking lot. We did decide to eat the Boudin Bites. This gave us an introduction to the kind of chicken we were getting. The chicken is prepared using a Cajun marinade, and the breading is seasoned, too. When we bit into the bites, they tasted like Popeye’s dirty rice, but with a crispy and spicy coating. The bites turned out to be spicier than the chicken, and they were very good.
After arriving at North Chagrin Reservation, we set up to enjoy a meal. We brought a lead so Owney could wander a little bit while we tried Krispy Krunchy Chicken. As Wendi and I took our first bites of the chicken, both of us were surprised at how crispy it was. It might be closer to say I was shocked the Krispy Krunchy Chicken was still crispy and crunchy. If you have a pizza delivered, the product you receive at your home is much different than if you were to eat the pizza at the restaurant. Same is true if you order General Tso’s chicken at Chinese restaurant and take it home. It will be a much different product than if you dined at the eatery. The reason? Simple. The heat from the food steams it while it travels from the restaurant to your home. This means the crust from the pizza is a little more rubbery, and the General Tso’s is not as crisp. That was not the case with the KKC. It was crispy.
The chicken had a great taste. It was a little spicy, but not to the degree of the Boudin Bites. The skin was crispy, and the chicken was not dry at all. “I thought it was good, and it was juicy,” Wendi said. The tenders were good, too. The potato wedges were, OK. I liked the biscuits more than Wendi did. They were a little denser than most biscuits, but they were moist. I enjoyed them. I am a big fan of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and it is a different kind of chicken. It is pressure fried, where KKC is deep fried. Because KFC is pressure fried, the skin is not as crisp. KKC was more like the Southern fried chicken you would get at hole-in-the-wall restaurants in the Deep South.
Other places I like for fried chicken include Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen in Mt. Hope, Ohio and the Amish Door, in Wilmot, Ohio. Both are Amish-style restaurants and broast their chicken. Now, Krispy Krunchy Chicken is one of my favorite places to get fried chicken. Wendi and I wish someone in the Wooster area would open a KKC location. If not, I guess we’ll be taking more hour long trips because the chicken is that good.
