Hi there! I hope everyone is having a nice, mild winter out there! I know that here in Lexington it’s not been a typical winter season, but then again, maybe rain and temps in the 40s and 50s are going to be the norm now…who knows! What we do know is that we’re well into February and the themed food week celebrations here in town have only just begun. If you follow us on our social media pages (we’ll plug them at the end in case you don’t), you know that we’ve already been through one themed week and as of today we’re right in the middle of another! There’s going to be yet another food week happening in the next little bit, and there will be a few more happening throughout the year. The year’s first event, Lexington Chicken Sandwich Week, was pretty unknown and we took pride in being one of only a handful of blogs to cover it! Renee already did her recap of the week on our podcast, Hungry in Kentucky, but we’ve decided to also write down our thoughts about each event here as separate blog posts. So here’s our (well, Renee’s) recap of Lexington Chicken Sandwich Week!

So this was the first annual Lexington Chicken Sandwich Week, and although there wasn’t much coverage (apparently it was only advertised on the radio and it looks like no one listens to that haha!) we hope they bring it back for a second year. Everyone loves a good chicken sandwich unless you’re vegetarian/vegan I suppose, but we are a southern city so of course, we have some good fried chicken in these parts! There were 11 participating restaurants here in the area: Azur, Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, J. Renders, Lexington Diner, Magee’s Bakery, Mr. Brews Taphouse, Pub & Grill in South Elkhorn, Schlotzsky’s, Southern Deli & Tavern, Windy Corner Market, and Zim’s Cafe. Each place had a signature chicken sandwich with out-of-the-ordinary ingredients; most were fried chicken sandwiches, while Schlotzsky’s was a roasted chicken sandwich and Southern Deli had a chicken sausage sandwich. Renee was able to stop in on her way to work for most of the restaurants; the only ones she didn’t get to were Magee’s, Southern Deli, and J. Renders. We kind of disqualified J. Renders for our purposes because they were only serving the sandwich as a dine-in option and wouldn’t allow us to place a carry-out order. Since we were trying all these sandwiches under a time crunch, having the option to carry out was very important to us.

We decided as a team that Renee would be the one doing the judging of the sandwiches since she took the time out of her already busy schedule to get up early and come to town to pick up a different sandwich or two every day. An asterisk denotes sandwiches that only I ate, as Renee is not a fan of certain foods. So here it comes, Renee’s Top 8 Chicken Sandwich Week Sandwiches sponsored by MySpace! Okay, not really, but the Top 8 just really harkens back to my youth when MySpace was a thing that mattered just a little bit :)

• 8. *Schlotzsky’s: Not fried chicken! I don’t think that was part of the criteria, but when we think of an amazing chicken sandwich it’s always fried. Still a good sandwich, could have done without the onions and olives but overall would eat again. The other big knock on this one was the fact that it wasn’t very memorable; it just tasted like a sandwich that may very well be on the regular Schlotzskey’s menu.

• 7. Pub & Grill in South Elkhorn: Fried chicken…but barely. When they claimed their sandwich was lightly breaded and fried, they weren’t joking! It tasted good enough, we’d eat it again, but overall it just didn’t overwhelm us. Cue the famous quote from the movie “10 Things I Hate About You”: “I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?”

• 6. Lexington Diner: Finally, a fried chicken sandwich! We were slightly afraid of what we might get when we saw the picture online; it looked like a regular fried chicken sandwich with some Dorito’s sitting atop the chicken breast, and that wouldn’t have been very creative in our opinion. Alas, we were proven wrong: it ended up being what we hoped, a Doritos-crusted fried chicken breast with some tasty mayo and all the toppings. It was a good sandwich, very crunchy, and it’s not that we didn’t like it, there were just a lot of really good contenders on the list.

• 5. Zim’s Cafe: This was an early frontrunner for our favorite chicken sandwich of the week, but this was the first one that we tried so, of course, we jumped the gun a little bit. It was a really good sandwich: a nice, golden-brown fried chicken breast with some spicy notes and some bourbon-pickled onions. We both enjoyed this one quite a bit, and I even ate the onions on it even though I wish onions were an extinct vegetable!

• 4. Azur: Another great fried chicken sandwich! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try this sandwich, but Renee and our coworker Katie did and they both loved it! This sandwich had an orange honey butter and red chili flake breading, and they were pleasantly surprised by how well those two flavors go together. I hope this is one you can order by request because I’d like to get over there and try it sometime soon!

  Now we’re getting into the REALLY good stuff…the top 3!

• 3. Windy Corner Market: Yet another sandwich I didn’t get to try, and another sandwich tasted by Renee and Katie (only this time it was a different Katie)! I can see why Renee loved this one, it’s pretty much right up her alley: a chicken parmesan flavor, complete with a local fried chicken breast covered in marinara sauce and provolone cheese and placed neatly upon a toasted garlic Kaiser roll. The pictures made it look very tasty, and hopefully it’s another one I can go back and try soon!

• 2. *Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken: Y’all…this was MY favorite of the whole week and it’s not even close! Plus it’s the last one on our list that I tried, so the fact that it made it to number 2 makes me happy. It had 2 buffalo chicken tenders nestled tenderly (hehe, get it?) upon a bed of mac n’ cheese and griddle-fried like a grilled cheese sandwich to ooey-gooey perfection. I don’t even like mac n’ cheese and this sandwich was da bomb! 10/10, would highly recommend! Then make an appointment with a cardiologist, because your heart might explode after eating it haha!

  And here we are, Renee’s number 1 choice from Lexington’s inaugural Chicken Sandwich Week…

• 1. Mr. Brew’s Taphouse! Renee took this baby down all by herself, and she was singing its praises to anyone who would listen! We’ve never been here before but now I think we need to go and check it out soon. This sandwich had fried chicken that was beer battered in Country Boy Brewing Cougar Bait and topped with spicy coleslaw and a honey BBQ sauce made with Ale-8-One ginger ale, and the description alone is making my mouth water! We already asked if this sandwich could stay on their menu and they agreed…so now I can go and try it whenever I want! Look out, because Sara is coming your way!

Well, there you have it, folks! This is our in-depth recap of Lexington Chicken Sandwich Week, and honestly, we haven’t been this open about our opinions anywhere else online. Looks like if you want our honest opinions and reasons why we like what we like, you’ll have to check back occasionally for more food-themed week posts! I hope you all enjoy this, and maybe next year we can help promote this event even more so than we did this year.

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