Krispy Krunchy Chicken (Lake Street)
1102 Lake StreetIs it my goal to blog about every single Krispy Krunchy Chicken that pops up in Southwest Michigan?
No, but it looks like I’m doing it anyway.
I’ve been writing about Krispy Krunchy Chickens opening up in the area since I noticed the first one in Galesburg almost two years ago (not counting the one in Mendon that was really ahead of it’s time).
I don’t know why but I just really like gas station chicken. I also don’t know why but these Krispy Krunchy Chicken’s are popping up all over the place.
Kalamazoo got it’s first location on Douglas Avenue earlier this summer. I thought that was the only one in town until I took a detour coming from the I-94 Business Loop to get back downtown.
The next Krispy Krunchy Chicken in Kalamazoo is in the Edison Neighborhood at the Mills Street Market. The shop sits on the corner of Mills Street and Lake Street and while it has Mills Street in the name, the address is Lake Street.
This isn’t a real big market and most of the business is probably done from alcohol. I couldn’t even get a 20 oz. Pepsi. They only had the 16 oz. bottles that they clearly buy from another store then mark up for resale. I decided I was just going to have to make two stops so I could get my two 20 oz. Pepsi Zeroes.
The chicken counter is incorporated into the cashier’s counter. It’s a small warming cabinet with the menu on TV screens hanging above it. The cashier also runs the chicken so I just went to him and asked for my usual of the four piece tender box. The clerk thought I said four piece chicken box and started filling that. I stopped him and changed it tenders but looking back, I almost wish I would have just let him go with chicken. It’s been a really long time since I’ve had the chicken from Krispy Krunchy because I’m usually in the car and it’s easier to eat tenders. The cost for just the chicken and potato wedges was right around $11.
When I got back to the office, I started in on the tenders first because they were on top. Krispy Krunchy’s tenders have a really unique taste to the them. The breading is crispy..and crunchy…but it’s somehow also kind of soft. For chicken that sits under a heat lamp, it also tends to stay somewhat juicy. Not as juicy as fresh out of the fryer chicken but not nearly as dry and stiff as some other gas station chicken.
Unfortunately, that was the only decent part of the meal. I got the potato wedges as my side and while they were fine, there was only like six of them in the box. These you could tell had been sitting there for a while. They were starting to get a little cold and lost most of the crispy exterior. They still had a pretty good flavor to them and I wouldn’t have minded if there was more than half a dozen in there.
The finish to the meal is the honey biscuit. These are never soft, buttermilk style biscuits but this one was approaching hockey puck status. It had definitely been sitting there a while and was almost burnt around the edges. There was still a bit of the honey flavor on it so it wasn’t a total wash.
Not the best Krispy Krunchy Chicken experience I’ve had. I always say, it is what it is. It’s cheap gas station chicken. The chicken was still pretty good. The rest of it could use some improvement. I didn’t want to spend a lot on lunch and I didn’t. I ate everything in the box despite it not being the best I’ve ever had so it did a good job of holding me over until dinner.
SW Michigan Dining 