If you’re not familiar with Chicken Salad Chick, it has a wonderful back-story of how Stacy Brown grew from a home based kitchen in Auburn, Alabama to a store front with locations all over the Southeast from Texas to the Carolinas. Today, there are over 15 different chicken salad varieties, with something to please everyone! All of them are available as scoops, as sammies, as combos (half sandwich/cup of soup), as duos, as trios, AND to pick up by the pound.
I’ve been a huge fan ever since my first bite a couple of years ago, so you can imagine how excited I was when the baby and I received an invite to taste their new fall menu. We pulled on our stretchy pants and hit the road.
I’ve never done anything like this and had no idea what to expect. My best guess was that we’d be given a little tasting spoon full of a few items and be on our way. Well, that couldn’t have been farther from reality. They brought us out plate upon plate upon plate. So yummy!!
Our first dish was Rockin’ Rita and Buffalo Barclay with crackers and Fritos. Rockin’ Rita is made with Wickles Spicy Red Relish has the perfect amount of heat, especially paired with the Fritos. Buffalo Barclay is just like a buffalo chicken wing dip. These ended up being two of our very favorites! In fact, we are going to be taking a tub of the Rockin’ Rita and the Fritos to our Halloween soiree as an appetizer. This location sells the chicken salad by the tub AND the Fritos right there in the shop. Easy peasy!
Next up was the Fancy Nancy on a croissant with a side of the broccoli salad and a chocolate chip cookie. Fancy Nancy, full of apples, pecans and grapes, is one of my go-tos but I had never tried it on the croissant. Super yummy! The broccoli salad is also one of my faves and is a MUST TRY.
Another seasonal item that I was crazy about was the Strawberry Pecan Salad with poppy seed dressing. This was paired with a scoop of Classic Carol, the signature chicken salad that started it all.
Okay, this plate was another one that we both just fell in love with. It’s a Kickin’ Kay Lynne on wheat bread with a side of grape salad, salt and vinegar chips and a snickerdoodle cookie!! In fact, trying all these new things and having them put together with other items that just “go together” was one of my favorite things about our afternoon. I never would have ordered this exact meal, but all the flavors went together perfectly. I’ve loved the grape salad ever since the first time I dared to try it – it just seemed odd. But it’s DELISH! Like a nice, cool, light dessert. Well, the owner gave me a little tip to crumble up the snickerdoodle cookie on top of it and, let’s just say, I can never go back.
This plate looks a whole lot like my standard order! I almost always get the Chick Trio with a scoop of chicken salad (this one is Cranberry Kelli with cranberries and almonds), a scoop of the pimento cheese (theirs is SO good!), a side of the broccoli salad and a cookie. Now, if I’m not being super piggy, I can eat half and take half home to the baby for his after school snack. We took the buttercream frosted cookie home and ate it the next day. It was a REALLY good cookie, and I know my way around an iced sugar cookie.
This doesn’t even cover everything we tried!! Another new-to-me fave was the Jalapeno Holly on toasted sourdough (they are testing toasting now and it’s goooood) with a side of the tortilla soup. It was such a yummy, comfort type meal that will be perfect if the temps ever cool off. The baby loved the pumpkin cheesecake and, I do agree, it was tasty.
At the end of our tasting, the baby was stretched out on his side of the bench saying he could never eat again. HA! When they asked him if he had any suggestions he said “I think you should also let dogs in and serve them all kinds of flavored dog foods so that there is something for every palate.” The owner couldn’t help but chuckle. :-)
As you can tell, the incredible staff and owner were absolutely THE NICEST and fed us well beyond our expectations. In fact, they boxed up everything we couldn’t eat and we fed Honey and John for dinner that night and all four of us for dinner the next night! It was also a pretty memorable experience and unique little outing with my baby. <3
If you’ve tried Chicken Salad Chick I’d love to know YOUR favorite!
DIXIE DELIGHTS DELIVERED
Oh my goodness! Can’t you PLEASE influence this franchise to hurry up and open in the South Hills of Pittsburgh?! I promise to be their best customer and to spread the news! I’m a true chicken salad fanatic – to me, a special treat isn’t a cookie or latte, but Giant Eagle’s homemade chipotle or lemon almond chicken salad! So, I’d welcome them with open arms! Or, I could just move south …
What a fun way to spend the afternoon! We don’t have a location around here, so I’ve never tried it – but everything you shared sounds delicious!
I absolutely love Chicken Salad Chick, once a week I will stop by on my lunch break & enjoy the Classic Carol, Pimento Cheese, pasta salad & a sweet tea!! I will be trying that Strawberry Pecan Salad on my next visit, it looks so yummy. They also have a great app where you can build up rewards with every purchase :-) Looks like a fun lunch!
When Chicken Salad Chick opened here in Auburn it was truly a glorious day! I’m almost certain I was one of the very first customer to drive thru at their original location! One bite and you are hooked! I’m a Classic Carol gal and my Honey likes Fancy Nancy! The grape salad is beyond amazing…no pecans for me but they are so sweet to never put pecans on mine. I’m positively delighted you have gotten to try and enjoy what I can only guess was everything on the menu!
Oh my…I LOVE CHICKEN SALAD. Please tell them to come to Minnesota!!
The pictures look so tempting I want to crawl through my computer screen.
My favorite little restaurant in St. Paul has a nummy chicken salad that I order year round even on the coldest of days.
OMGoodness I would have been in heaven as chicken salad is my FAVORITE!!! I am salivating here! I am going to see if there is any chance there is a store anywhere near me. I have never heard of this so doubt it but when we travel I can look for it!
My five year old daughter (also affectionately known as CeCe) and I LOVE the Chicken Salad Chick and visit a Columbus, Ga location whenever we are there. CeCe loved the Fancy Nancy, and I love the Fruity Fran and the Nutty Nana, but my fave is the strawberry salad with that delectable poppyseed dressing!!! I wish Chicken Salad Chick would invite me to try the whole menu!!
You’ve made me hungry for lunch and I’m not even through my cup of morning coffee! Will be sending you my FEDEX account number shortly. ;-) I would be there all the time if we had one.
I am eating the Classic for lunch as I am reading this. I love it. My personal favorite is the Fancy Nancy!
So, wonderful Amanda – I adore chicken salad and found that there is one in Ft. Worth, TX which is about a 45 minute drive from my house in Dallas ( don’t put it past me to drive that far for chicken salad!). My parents live in Peachtree City and I have never heard of Chicken Salad Chick so thank you for the info! I so enjoy your blog :)
I have been craving the Strawberry Pecan Salad since I had it the other day!!
We do not have one of these in my area but it looks AWESOME! I have to try this if I am ever in the south where they have them!
Youngest daughter and I love chicken salad lunches together and when she comes home we head out to sample at whatever knew place has opened up since last time she was home. When Chicken Salad Chick opened up we each ordered a different trio and sampled them all while taking notes! No favorites, we loved them all. What a great afternoon.
I discovered that we had a Chicken Salad Chick in Mt Pleasant, SC (outside of Charleston) about 6 months ago and I love it. I have only ordered the Classic Carol and broccoli salad because they are so good. Maybe I will try others soon. I don’t like mayonnaise, so I am super picky about chicken salad (and all other mayo-based salads). Their recipe is just perfect. There’s barely enough mayo to just hold all the quality ingredients together. I highly recommend trying CCC if you get a chance.