Let’s talk turkey about fried chicken.
Kentucky has its version, which began as a roadside stand in 1930 — and so does San Antonio.
Founded by George W. Church Sr., a retired chicken incubator salesman, Church’s Texas Chicken got its start in 1952 as a to-go store across the street from the Alamo right here in San Antonio.
These days, the quick-service eatery known for steaming boxes of crunchy fried chicken, made “the Texas way” if you add a biscuit and jalapeño, has something familiar back on the menu.
Church’s expanded fast in its early years. At the end of 1968, there were more than 100 Church’s Chicken restaurants in seven states, making the concept the first fast food from Texas to become a national chain.
In the seven decades since, the fast food chain has grown to 1,700 locations in 26 countries, including 380 in Texas.
In 1992, the parent company America’s Favorite Chicken moved the company headquarters to Atlanta, the same city where Chick-fil-A is based.
For the past 15 years, Louisiana native Chef Kevin Houston has served as senior director of product development for Church’s in Atlanta.
Houston recently traveled to San Antonio, where the company kicked off a competition that invites people to share a video showcasing a creative talent, professional skill or unique personal trait, their “OG crunch.”
The promotion coincides with a recent announcement that Church’s is returning to its roots, so to speak, by way of changing up its fried chicken ingredients to more closely match the original flavor.
Just don’t call it the “original recipe.”
On Nov. 8, KFC filed a lawsuit against the parent company of Church’s Texas Chicken for violating KFC’s trademark rights by using the phrase, “original recipe.”
KFC has used the term in advertising since 1972 and holds two trademarks for it.
Since then, Church’s has employed the phrase, “legendary recipe” in its emails to the Report. But “original recipe” remained in use on the company’s website.
A company spokeswoman said Houston could not comment while the matter is in litigation.
Houston also declined to reveal the actual Church’s recipe, except to say it’s breaded by hand and is a messy job, one that many people often aren’t willing to do at home nowadays. (Hat-tip to a Report staffer who found this copycat recipe online.)
“The cliche is love,” Houston said of the Church’s secret ingredient.
It’s perhaps not far from the truth.
Church’s employees commonly have long tenures, going back three or four decades, he said. “They know what they’re doing and they care about what they’re doing, and it shows in the product.”
The company did not deliberately abandon the “legendary” ingredients — it just happened over time, Houston said. “The various levels of our proprietary ingredients tended to shift.”
The back-to-the-future idea came from Mario Sanchez, a franchisee of more than 50 years from Mission, Texas, who suggested it to Church’s CEO Joe Guith.
Guith took the helm of Church’s two years ago after Rego Restaurant Group acquired the company in 2021 and was charged with accelerating growth of the brand.
Last year, Church’s was ranked 9th in sales among the crowded fast-food fried chicken chains in the nation, according to the food service industry data firm QSR. It was ranked fifth in 2012, when Chick-fil-A took the top-ranked spot from KFC.
Houston recalled what Sanchez said to Guith during a store tour.
“He said, ‘Hey, the chicken just doesn’t taste quite as good as it used to,’” Houston said. “It’s always been good. It still is good, but it’s not as good as it used to be.”
Reviving the 1952 recipe involved a two-year process of mining the past and peoples’ memories of the flavors, talking to longtime suppliers and doing taste tests with customers, he said.
Church’s rolled out the new-old flavor profile in all its restaurants in September, said a spokeswoman.
There are 30 Church’s restaurants in San Antonio, doing business alongside what is likely countless mom-and-pop chicken eateries across the city.
Working in the kitchen one weekday afternoon, the store manager of a Southside Church’s store, said she’s been with the company for 41 years working in various locations throughout the city.
She said she likes the job because Church’s is a “family-oriented” company and her customers are loyal.
“People really love fried chicken,” Houston said. “Not just in the United States, but really, all over the world. It’s such a familiar flavor. It is something that is crave-able.”
