Kelley’s Kickin Chickin something to cluck about

Kelley’s Kickin Chickin something to cluck about

West Memphis eatery is “TheCat’s”meow Location: 1397N.

Missouri St. , Memphis Rating: 5 POWs(outof5) Hey everyone. This is the Cat.

After that awful barbecue experience in Memphis, this was supposed to be my turn to pick. But Bat insisted that we needed to eat somewhere in West Memphis for our next review.

Needless to say, I was not happy about it. He gave me a list of options and I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to go to any of them. I tried digging my claws in hoping that Bat would relent and let me really pick a place I wanted to go, but he wasn’t having any of it.

Since I had no choice, I looked over his list and settled on Kelly’s Kickin Chickin.

My initial thought when we first pulled up was that this is a fast food place.

You couldn’t see the sign.

It was small on the outside. And it didn’t have much parking. I almost threw a hissing fit, but I was instantly won over by the service when we went inside. I have to admit, I was impressed and a little surprised by all of the options on the menu. I thought it was going to be fast food or just wings.

Kelly’s Kickin Chickin is definitely not a fast food joint. The menu has everything from chicken tenders to wings (whole and boneless) to drumsticks. But if you’re not in the mood for chicken, Kelley’s also has burgers, seafood, and barbecue sandwiches. You also get to choose your Kickin’ Flavor – hot, mild, suicide, honey gold, honey hot, honey BBQ and a few others for wings, or Kelly’s seasoning, chicken seasoning, Kickin’ Hot seasoning and others.

The inside is small with seating for about 25. The decor has a sports theme with all of the local high schools well represented on the walls as well as the Memphis Tigers and the Grizzlies.

The girl taking our order was super nice. Then, Mitch came out and introduced himself and made it a point of asking where we were from and if we had been there before. He also had some very helpful advice about what to order and explained the different seasonings.

I decided to try the four piece Kickin Chickin Tenders ($8.95) with Kelly’s seasoning.

It also came with two sides, a roll or hushpuppies, and choice of dipping sauce. Kelley’s offers plenty of sides to chose from – fries, okra, potato salad, slaw, steamed veggies, fried pickles, fried jalapenos, hushpuppies, baked beans, mac n’ cheese to name a few. For my sides, I chose corn on the cob, which was nice and juicy and perfectly buttered, and fried pickles. The fried pickles were perfectly battered and the Ranch dipping sauce was great. Instead of a roll, I went with the hush puppies which had corn nuggets on the inside and were really good. I love chicken tenders, and the ones at Kelley’s didn’t disappoint.

They were long and thick and the seasoning was sweet, but had a hot kick to it, but not one that would bum your mouth. I liked the dry seasoning.

Bat ordered the four piece chicken mix meal ($8.59) which came with a medium drink, roll, and one side. Bat ordered fries as his side. The chicken were nice sized pieces, but Bat thought they were overseasoned. He liked the seasoning, but thought there was just too much on it.

Mitch was very attentive during our visit, refilling our drinks and asking how we liked our food and if there was anything else he could get us. Bat and I were both stuffed and had plenty of chicken left over to take home with us.

Mitch asked us if we had room for the strawberry shortcake and actually brought us one to try on the house. I have to be careful with sugar, so I made Bat do the tasting.

Bat isn’t big on desserts, but after one bite he agreed that the strawberry shortcake was really good. I had a small bite and was so impressed that I told Mitch that I would be back the next day to get a half a pan to bring to a Super Bowl Party. I also got a couple of brownies to go as well, but they also have cheesecake. And oh yeah, I also got two bags of pork rinds to take with me to the party.

Our bill came to a little over $26 for the both of us for lunch. I couldn’t help but notice that there is a chain fast food chicken restaurant across the street. There is a little bit of a wait at Kelly’s Kickin Chicken, but the payoff is worth it because every- thing is made to order. So why would anyone want to go to a chain for chicken when you can get it fresh from a mom and pop place right there in West Memphis?

Kelly’s Kickin Chickin was so good that I asked Bat if we could eat there again since we had to pick up my pan of strawberry shortcake anyway. So this kind of counts as two reviews, although I told Bat not to get any ideas because I still get to pick the next two places we go to. This time out, we decided to try something else on the menu and see if it is just as good. Having already tried the fried chicken and the tenders, I decided to order the bacon cheeseburger ($5.50) with everything on it. I made it a combo so I also got one side. I noticed that they had mac n’ cheese on the menu choices for sides and regretted not getting it the first time. I love mac n’ cheese. Bat isn’t a fan of mac n’ cheese and often complains that it has no taste. I made him try some and even Bat agreed that it was nice and cheesy! The burger was great too. It was a big patty that was juicy and had a nice flavor.

And the bacon was perfectly cooked.

Bat tried the two piece fish dinner ($12.95) which comes with four hush puppies and choice of two sides. Bat got com on the cob and fried okra. The fish dinner had two whole fish filets. You don’t always know how the fish is going to taste, but Bat said it was amazing. It did not have a gamey taste and the filets were both quite large. So that made two lunches that were great at Kelley’s and convinced me that Kelley’s Kickin Chicken is the real deal.

We give Kelley’s Kickin Chickin five well deserved POWs. I may have found my new go-to place to eat in West Memphis. Okay Bat, this one was good after all. It definitely tickled this finicky Cat’s fancy.