Chicken scratch: Elliott Munoz
Chicken Scratch made headlines this spring for a billboard on Interstate 30 poking fun at its location with the deadpan tagline, “Between some trailers and a condemned motel.” The real selling point is that big biscuit sandwich, though. Chicken Scratch roasts whole hens and cures and smokes its own bacon. The kitchen pickles its veggies, makes sauces from scratch and even formulates the fountain sodas (when you can’t decide, try half strawberry soda, half lemonade). Call it slow food fast. The combination of value and commitment to quality keeps customers coming back. “I had a guy come in one day, and he came back three days in a row,” says sous chef Frankie Torres. A guy from Seattle took a cab straight from the airport after a previous visit, Torres says. The restaurant changed its menu in February with a focus on “knife-and-fork biscuit sandwiches,” which live up to their name with almost unruly fixin’s. The Foundry sandwich ($8; it’s the one on the billboard) has fried chicken, mashed potatoes, bacon, cheese, pickles, mustard and honey, for example. But you don’t have to blow your weekly calorie budget to splurge at this family-friendly joint. The spicy quinoa salad ($6) is one of two vegan dishes on the menu. It comes with spicy pickled vegetables, olives and a carrot-ginger dressing on a bed of mixed greens.
Chicken Scratch
2303 W. Pittman
214.749.1112
Ambiance: FAST CASUAL/TEXAS BEER GARDEN
Price range: $6-$10
Hours: SUNDAY-THURSDAY, 11 A.M.-9 P.M., FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, 11 A.M.-10 P.M.
The spicy quinoa salad is one of two vegan dishes on the Chicken Scratch menu: Elliott Muñoz
More places to dig on bird
1 Jonathon’s
Jonathon’s is known for its brunch, where chicken and waffles rule. A big, crispy Belgian topped with pan-fried chicken and optional pan gravy. Plus, build-your-own Bloody Mary bar.
1111 N. Beckley
214.946.2221
2 El Pollo Regio
The green sauce is available by the bottle now. But how does one use it except to drip it into a corn tortilla filled with juicy, char-skinned chicken and some of those oily onions?
2716 W. Davis
214.330.0066
3 Rudy’s
Probably the best fried chicken in Dallas outside a grandma’s kitchen. Rudy’s is so important to the economy of Lancaster Boulevard that the city is giving its owner an $890,000 economic development grant to improve the property. If it will make the drive-though line shorter on a Friday night, we might be OK with that.
3103 Lancaster
214.375.9234
