Tastes Like Chicken

One of my favorite Oklahoma things: Eischen's fried chicken. It's like heaven in your mouth. And the atmosphere is part of the experience. You want simple, down-home cooking - Eischen's is about as simple as it gets. Their menu basically consists of fried chicken (ordered by the chicken of course), fried okra, frito chili pie, an assortment of cokes, and beer. Here's how it goes:

(1) Seat yourself wherever you can find room (and on a Friday or Saturday evening, you can be guaranteed at least an hour wait because this is not an eat-n-go kind of place; this is an eat-sit-drink-socialize for the night kind of place). You might be sitting at picnic-style tables with other people, but that's okay because here, no one's a stranger!

(2) Sit and enjoy the sounds of honky-tonk blasting throughout the place. And yes, this is a bar, but there's kids running all over the place.

(3) Waiter will come take your drink order, you'll tell her how many chickens you'd like and any "extras" (okra, etc.). Don't you worry yourself about getting any sides, because your chicken comes with a basket of sliced Wonder bread and a basket of pickles & onions, free of charge.

(4) Drink arrives in styrofoam cup.

(5) Chickens arrive later (or much later, depending on season, day of the week, and time of day). With them come a stack of wax paper. Utensils? What are those? No, you chow down with your hands. I'm not kidding when I say it's heaven in your mouth. Piping hot, it's the most frustrating thing to wait for it to cool down a little. Perfectly crispy on the outside, just the right amount of grease on the inside. And that is some tender chicken. I love my boyfriend, but I may or may not be serious when I say that I would marry into the Eischen family to get ahold of this recipe. Although I doubt they even give it to family members not related by blood.

(6) Play some pool, kick up your feet, relax, eat, drink, and be merry.

(7) Repeat this process as often as possible.

(left) the beautiful window decor
(right) okarche, oklahoma's finest

(left) heaven, absolute heaven
(right) typical eischen's photo op

(left) we always visit the gift shop to pic up a ring pop for the ride home
(right) i love oklahoma's wide open spaces

for some reason, fried chicken always tastes even better when it's warm outside. so thank goodness it's beginning to feel a lot like SPRING!