Champs Chicken (Wayland)
1331 142nd AvenueWe’ve talked a lot about my (probably unhealthy) obsession with gas station chicken.
I get super excited when I stop for gas and I walk in to the store to smell deep fried chicken.
I had to meet a colleague in the Moline area one day last week. It was an afternoon meetup so I left Kalamazoo around lunch time with a plan.
I had stopped at a gas station right off US-131 a few weeks ago and found they had put in a chicken restaurant since the last time I was there. It was closed at that time due to low staffing. There was a sign at that time saying they were pretty much only open for lunch.
I was coming through at lunch time this time so I made it a point to stop in.
Champs Chicken is a chain of chicken joints in the upper Midwest. There are four locations in Michigan right now. Three are in the thumb and the other is at the J & H Family Store on 142nd Avenue right off the US-131 interchange. The address is listed as Wayland but I would have thought of this stop as being Dorr. It’s the exit you would get off to go to Dorr, not the exit to Wayland.
The chicken counter is straight back when you walk in the door. It takes up a large portion of the back wall of the convenience store. There are several warming trays and the appearance they have more food than they actually do. It looks like they’re easily able to expand should they ever bring in another brand.
The chicken is to the left when you’re looking at the counter. It’s typical gas station chicken fare. There are meal deals to chose from with tenders and sides. They also have bone in chicken, fish, and chicken sandwiches.
I kept it pretty simple with the 3-tender meal and picked the potato wedges as my side. The lady working the chicken counter quickly boxed it up and put a sticker on the box so it could be scanned at the register. I grabbed a couple of Pepsi’s from the cooler and headed to the self-check out to pay.
I didn’t get any sauces because I knew I was going to be eating in the car.
The potato wedges were all around the chicken so I started with them first. The wedges are small, wide hunks of seasoned potatoes and they were really hot when I opened up the box. They all had a crispy outside and that soft pillowy inside you want from wedges. They would have benefited from something to dip them in but they were fine on their own.
The three pieces of chicken were average sized tenders with a seasoned breading. Like the wedges, they probably would have benefited from some hot sauce. They were delicious, average chicken tenders on their own. You know I eat a lot of gas station chicken. These were tenders that I pretty much hope for when I stop for chicken.
Champs Chicken is what I look for when I stop for chicken at a gas station. It’s way better than the stuff you’d get at a national chain restaurant and it’s much cheaper and quicker. I always love making gas station chicken my lunch…mostly because I can get my two 20 oz. Pepsi, gas, and hit a bathroom all at the same time.
SW Michigan Dining 