I know a lot of people probably brag about their Mom's cooking skills but in my case it is less that and more factual. There are very few, outside of maybe professional chefs who could outcook my Mom. With that said, fried chicken was one of her specialties and I think, even now, one of its biggest attractions is how simple the recipe is. No need for beer or egg batter, or insane amounts of salt and spices...but I digress, as this isn't about my Mom's cooking (for which she really should write a book). Anyway, this isn't, or wasn't something I was familiar with growing up- gas stations that served actual cooked food. I was used to mostly nuts and candies in the gas stations I frequented in NY; but when I moved south to Va, I noticed that certain gas stations, chains usually, would have fried chicken and a few other items on their menu. When I moved to MD back in 2000, Royal Farms was mostly about gas and sandwiches- good sandwiches, but nothing to go out of your way to get (although they were a good deal better than Subway, but pretty much every place is, right).
My wife came home a couple of months ago with a story told to her by a friend about Royal Farms chicken. Having experience with this sort of thing I was able to convince her their might be some truth to it- and boy there sure is.
When it comes to fast food fried chicken, a lot of people will name KFC, Popeye's or Bojangle's, all of which I like but as is usually the case, you only get it when you get a hankering for it. Now, I used to eat fried chicken pretty regularly as a kid, at least once or twice a week because it was cheaper than beef back then. I never appreciated how good I had it til I had my first piece of fried chicken that my Mom didn't make- talk about culture shock! Greasy, salty - not very good (unless you'd been drinking after which, pretty much everything is good) but you get accustomed to something if you eat enough of it and I was too far away to run home every time I wanted it. Which didn't stop me from requesting it each time I did go home- made Dad happy as he loves it as much as I do. My wife learned my Mom's way so I got it whenever she felt like doing it but lets face it, its messy and a lot of work and with people's schedules being so busy, you rarely feel like tackling a bird after tackling dummies all day.
So, we went to this Royal Farms to see if it lives up to the hype and it does. It really does. As with anything else, it can be really great or just OK and I think that depends on who is back there prepping and cooking the chicken, but even at its least, it was better than KFC or Popeye's. Bojangle's is actually better than the previous two, but its further away and...Royal Farms chicken is better.
Now, you really only can get the chicken; if you want to make it a meal, you'll be better off going to one of the others that offer sides to go with the chicken because at Royal Farms the chicken is all you can get. Oh, they do have fried potatoes, but those are as awful as the chicken is good, which is a little confusing but that's about the size of it. Really, really good fried chicken, the fried potato wedges are just awful; they'd be better if they fried the potatoes in the same oil as the chicken but they don't as far as I can tell, so that's that. Get the chicken. One last thing- it is take out ONLY; nowhere to sit and eat. read more