Blazin’ Coop’s Nashville Hot Chicken
47182 Michigan AvenueEvery time I go watch my nieces play softball, I’m a little bit grateful that my kids chose an indoor sport.
It was a hot day at the Canton Sports Center for the USSSA Great Lakes National Championship. My niece’s game was supposed to start at 1:00 but rain moved through right before that and set them back a couple of hours.
The second game started around 4:45 and after a couple of comebacks, the won their game and advanced to Sunday.
It wasn’t the end of the season so as soon as the game was over, the team kind of all split up and went their own way. My brother asked if I wanted to join them for dinner and asked if I had anything in mind.
I noticed a hot chicken place right across the street. I figured that would be easy if they liked hot chicken. My brother said he was up for it as long as there was something that wasn’t spicy for my niece.
We headed across Michigan Avenue to Blazin’ Coop’s Nashville Hot Chicken. The restaurant is in the Crossroads Village Shopping plaza on Michigan Avenue east of Beck Road. The restaurant got it’s start a few years ago as a food truck in the area. They opened this brick and mortar building last year in what used to be a diner.
Blazin’ Coop’s is not a chain (at least not yet) but it does have the feeling of a chain restaurant and looks pretty similar to a competing chain. The restaurant is counter service or order online. They state on their social media channels that they don’t do phone orders. The menu, consisting almost exclusively of chicken, is on TV monitors above a flame painted order counter. I knew what I wanted but I let my brother and his daughter take some time to look over the menu.
There’s actually a pretty decent sized dining room that we took advantage of. I had a long drive back to Kalamazoo and my brother needed to find a hotel for the night. He had only booked through Friday night but they had to stay one more night.
The dining room decor is dominated by a mural painted on the interior wall. There are a mixture of booths and tables. The tables are those cheap, uncomfortable metal chairs but the booths are a much more comfortable red leather.
Our meals were packed up in to-go containers and bagged up even though we were dining in. Seems a little wasteful but I assume 90% of their business is carry-out so it’s just easier.
I tried a little bit of everything by order a Slider & Tender w/Fries meal. The cost was a little over $17 with drink and got me everything I wanted.
I started with the fries because I assumed I was going to burn my taste buds off. The fries are frozen crinkle cuts that have spicy seasoning on them. My niece used the Coop sauce that came with the meals to dip it in. She said the sauce was really similar to Raising Cane’s and really liked it. I handed her my sauce as well because I’m not really a sauce person.
I grabbed the tender next. The chicken at Blazin’ Coop’s is all halal which is kind of expected in this area of Detroit. It’s fried up really crispy with a thick breading but the tender inside is super soft and juicy. I opted for the X-Hot “I Dare You” hot sauce because I’m always disappointed in myself for not going hotter. I took a few bites of the tender and could instantly taste the spice but it wasn’t overwhelming….at first. A few more bites in and I was feeling it. It was good though and it had the heat I was looking for. My brother kept laughing at me and telling me I should go ask if they had milk.
The slider was up next. This sandwich is two smaller tenders with slaw, pickles, and Coop Sauce on a white bun. The sauce and the bun really helped me deal with some of the spice on this sandwich. I was still getting it but it wasn’t quite as hot as a straight up tender. The chicken was super crispy yet really juicy just like the solo tender was.
Nashville Hot Chicken is kind of a new fad and I hope it sticks around. There are a couple of chains doing things that are very similar to what Blazin’ Coops Nashville Hot Chicken does and these guys are right on par with those chains. I was a little hesitant to suggest this to my brother but they both said their meals were really good and unlike anything they’ve had before.
SW Michigan Dining 