14301 Beadle Lake RoadWhen I worked in Grand Rapids, a lot of our office staff was obsessed with Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken. There isn’t a location anywhere in Grand Rapids and at that time, Kalamazoo and Muskegon were the only places to get it.
I never got the obsession. Maybe it was because it was readily available to me in Kalamazoo.
We would pick up chicken from Lee’s occasionally but it was never the “oh my god! I have to have it” chicken place that a lot of my co-worker made it out to be.
It’s been quite a long time since I’ve actually been to one of the two Lee’s locations in Kalamazoo. I eat a lot of gas station chicken so I really don’t think about it as an option for dinner anymore.
I was heading to Detroit last week for a job assignment but first, I had to meet a co-worker in Lansing. I got B on the bus to get to school and still had time to take a quick nap before making the trip.
I woke up around 11:30 and got on the road about noon to meet her in Lansing by 2:00.
I was a little ahead of schedule and hungry. I typically just eat at the Hardees in Delta Township but a new gas station opened in Battle Creek with a couple of new food options.
Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken is right off Interstate 94 on Beadle Lake Road. There’s a new Amoco station right next to the off ramp on the south side of the highway. The Lee’s portion of the building is seperate from the gas station convenience store on the north side of the building. It has an exterior entrance but you can also get to it from a door from inside the gas station.
Lee’s is fast casual chicken. The Lee is “Lee’s” is Lee Cummings. He’s the nephew of Colonel Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. The chain is much smaller with about a 150 restaurants.
The Battle Creek location is pretty small and probably does most of it’s business via the drive thru. It’s still pretty new though so even when I stopped in on a Monday morning, there were quite a few people already in the store waiting on their chicken.
Ordering is done fast food style right as you walk in. The menu is…well…chicken. And sides of course. Can’t forget about the sides.
I ordered the 3 Piece Breast Strip Meal which comes with two sides and a drink. I picked the potato wedges and macaroni and cheese as my sides. It took probably ten minutes or so for my meal to be boxed up and brought out to me. There are a few tables in the small restaurant but I had to get back on the road to meet my colleague in Lansing.
I started with the wedges once I got back on the highway. The wedges are skin on with a crispy exterior and a little bit of a spicy seasoning on them. I typically prefer regular fries over wedges but had no complaints with these. They were light and pillowy in the middle, still had a bit of a crunch from from the crispy exterior and gave off a little bit of heat from the seasoning they were dusted with.
I headed towards the chicken next after I gave it a few minutes to cool down. Like a lot of fast food chicken, there’s a lot of breading. Unlike a lot of fast food chicken, there is still quite a bit of meat under that breading. The meat inside was moist and a contrast to the crunchy exterior. The tenders were tasty as they were but could use a little bit of spiciness or they’d maybe benefit from being dipped in something but I was in the car and not in a position to deal with sauces.
You can’t have a good chicken meal without a biscuit. One biscuit comes with the meal. It’s a really buttery Southern buttermilk style biscuit. It’s a little crumbly and really good without adding any honey but I know most people like to do that.
Finally, the macaroni and cheese. I didn’t really get to eat any of it. When I got to the rendezvous point in Lansing, I realized there was no fork in the bag. Bummer. I went rogue and used my fingers just to try a bit of it. It’s a super creamy, cheesy mac and cheese. I would add pepper or hot sauce to it if I was at home but even on it’s own, it’s a good mac. Bummed I couldn’t actually eat it.
This Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken was exactly what I was expecting from a Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken. I’ve eaten it many times in the past, although not recently, and got exactly what I’ve always gotten in the past. That’s the goal of chain restaurants, right? Lee’s delivered once again.