{"id":16369,"date":"2016-09-19T09:18:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T14:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burgersdogspizza.com\/?p=16369"},"modified":"2016-09-19T09:18:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T14:18:21","slug":"dell-rheas-chicken-basket-review-route-66-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/?p=16369","title":{"rendered":"Dell Rheas Chicken Basket Review – Route 66 Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dell Rheas Chicken Basket Review \u2013 on old Route 66, Chicago<\/p>\n

\"Dell<\/a>
Historical Marker<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Based on my personal consumption, I’m \u00a0thinking their slogan should be \u201ccome for the biscuits, stay for the chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the original highways across America, Route 66 ran from downtown Chicago to the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica, CA, a total of nearly 2500 miles.<\/p>\n

It’s also been referred to as \u201cAmerica’s Main Street,\u201d and the \u201cMother Road.\u201d The highway was instrumental in boosting America’s migration to the west by automobile, and was full of interesting tourist stops, eateries and motels with creative architecture. I’ve written about some of the eateries in the past, including the\u00a0Maid Rite<\/a>\u00a0and Cozy Dog<\/a> in Springfield, IL, the onion burger establishments in El Reno<\/a>, OK, Country Cup<\/a> diner in Countryside, IL, and the Galaxy Diner<\/a> in Flagstaff, to name a few.<\/p>\n

I love driving Route 66, the trip evokes memories of a simpler time. I think it’s officially my own personal \u201chappy place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chicken Basket<\/a> grew out of a gas station lunch counter in the 30s or 40s, and opened in its present form in 1946. They are famous for \u2013 what else \u2013 chicken \u2013 and they offer it in a bunch of different forms, including a weekend lunch AYCE buffet.<\/p>\n

The servers are very friendly and chatty, and the knotty pine room is adorned with Route 66 memorabilia. A basket of fresh baked biscuits is presented when you’re seated, and they were delicious, reminiscent to me of \u201cBoy Scout dutch oven Bisquick drop biscuits\u201d except these were perfect, not burned or half baked balls of dough that we used to have in scouts.<\/p>\n

I started with an order of onion rings, large slices of sweet Vidalia’s in a crispy corn meal coating. It’s a large serving, adequate to share between two or more people.<\/p>\n

We ordered a couple of meals, the chicken fried chicken, a boneless breast, which comes with fries, gravy, and corn \u201cpudding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The menu cautions that it’s up to a 30 minute wait for the chicken, as it is all fried to order. The chicken breast was crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside, with the breading having some nice crunch. In the chicken dinner, the coating was considerably different, much lighter and less substantial, and I’m going to venture an uneducated guess that while the boneless breast was actually deep fried, it seemed like the chicken dinner was prepared more like ‘broasting<\/a>,\u201d a distinctly Midwestern thing, a deep-fry with less oil that also involves a pressure cooker. Maybe, maybe not.<\/p>\n

In any case, unlike many legendary eateries, the Chicken basket exceeds its hype, the food is really great. Two dinners, one appetizer, two beverages and tip, $47.00.<\/p>\n

Full menu is online<\/a> if you want to ponder your choices prior to arrival.<\/p>\n

If you’ve never driven Route 66, put it on your bucket list, even if you have the time only to do segments in one or two states. In addition to Illinois, the road crossed Missouri, a smidgen of Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and into California. It’s a very popular trip with foreign tourists, as well, and there are even \u201cRoute 66 Associations\u201d across the globe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Dell<\/a>
Chicken Fried Chicken Dinner<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Dell<\/a>
Fried Chicken Breast<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Dell<\/a>
\nDell Rheas Chicken Basket Review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dell Rheas Chicken Basket Review \u2013 on old Route 66, Chicago Based on my personal consumption, I’m \u00a0thinking their slogan should be \u201ccome for the biscuits, stay for the chicken.\u201d One of the original highways across America, Route 66 ran from downtown Chicago to the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica, CA, a total of nearly… Continue reading Dell Rheas Chicken Basket Review – Route 66 Illinois<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,31],"tags":[1472,3055],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16369"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}