Wings N Things
Famous Chicago-style chicken clucks its way up to North Dallas
A Chicago-style fried chicken concept called Chicago's Chicken Coop is coming to Dallas, from a restaurateur couple who've been in the Chicago chicken world for 10 years.
Christopher and Angela Raybon previously owned three branches of the famed Harold's Chicken Shack in Chicago, known for fried chicken and also for the experience of eating at a shack. There are about 35 branches in Chicago.
The Raybons moved to Dallas in 2014, whereupon they parted ways with Harold's and created their Chicago's Chicken Coop concept. They still own the three stores in Chicago, and will open a fourth in North Dallas in September, in the Marketplace at Frankford, next to Buffalo Joe's Bar & Grill and an El Tizoncito.
"We just changed the name to Chicago's Chicken Coop a month ago," Christopher says. "For the menu, our chicken is bone-in. We'll do chicken strips but our primary product is bone-in. Our big thing is chicken wings with our famous mild sauce, but we do all parts: breast, leg and thigh, livers and gizzards, plus catfish, perch, tilapia and shrump."
Sides include French fries, cole slaw, breaded mushrooms and breaded okra, sliced bread and whole jalapeno hot peppers.
Harold's opened a take-out branch near Duncanville a decade ago, but it didn't survive long. And another Chicago-style fried chicken concept, Gus's, announced plans to colonize DFW, with a branch coming to Fort Worth.
Raybon says he has a special technique.
"Everybody has their way of doing chicken, but what I've discovered since moving to Dallas is that with most places, it goes straight from the box to the fryer," he says. "Chicago's Chicken Coop takes care of the chicken."