In 1952 Church’s Fried Chicken-to-Go opened on Alamo Street in downtown San Antonio, selling only two-piece orders of fried chicken along with a roll for 49 cents. Founder George William Church Sr. placed the fryers right next to the pickup window, a shrewd act of marketing that meant that not only could customers watch their chicken being freshly fried, but they could also smell the intoxicating aroma that escaped the small building and permeated the area. No growling stomach stood a chance.
It’s been a while since that particular scent lured hungry office workers, families, and tourists to line up at the original Church’s across from the Alamo. (The building is no longer standing, but a historical marker was installed in 2022 to note its location.) The fried chicken recipe has changed over the years, alongside the chain’s global expansion. Now based in Atlanta, Church’s currently encompasses more than 1,500 locations in 23 countries. One rather notable change in the recipe happened in the mid-sixties, when Church Sr.’s sons Bill Jr. and Richard reformulated the marinade to allow the company to bring on franchisees, per Bill Jr.’s obituary in the San Antonio Express-News. The new marinade could be replicated in individual restaurants, instead of made only in a central commissary, and this allowed franchises to open locations farther from the San Antonio headquarters.
In recent years, though, the chicken had gotten a bit . . . lackluster. Kevin Houston, senior director of research and development at Church’s, says franchisees and diners alike reported that it “just wasn’t as flavorful as it used to be.” (Also lackluster: the chain’s sales amidst the fried chicken chain wars, which began in 2019.) Tasked with improving the flavor, Houston looked at what had gone wrong, noting that proprietary ingredients such as marinades and spice blends had “shifted with time, and that resulted in a lower flavor overall.” So a simpler recipe was key.
He turned to the 1952 original recipe. “We have all the information,” he says, referring to the specifications Church Sr. developed, which the company has in its archives, but “we did have to do some digging.” It wasn’t as easy as simply following whatever the chain’s founder had written down at his kitchen table, though. Food technology, suppliers, and distribution are all quite different than they were in 1952, not to mention that delicious fried chicken is significantly easier to achieve in one storefront than across hundreds of locations. For chains, consistency is important, and Houston says Church’s is producing all of the marinade for the whole country in one facility, “so it really is the same ingredient everywhere.” (It is much easier to distribute marinade from a central facility today than it was in the sixties.) As for whether or not Houston got it right, luckily, he had some expert taste testers on hand: “We have suppliers . . . as well as franchisees that have dealt with our product, frankly, longer than I’ve been alive.” In this current “rejuvenated” version, now available at all eight hundred locations across the U.S., “you’ve got flavors of garlic and onion and pepper and salt, and not a whole lot else.”
When asked what makes this fried chicken recipe particularly Texan, Houston cites its “bold” flavor and long marinating period. The chain also famously serves its fried chicken with a whole pickled jalapeño, meant to be squeezed over the crispy exterior for a bit of kick and tang, along with Texas favorites such as fried okra and honey butter biscuits.
All of this can feel a little like Texas-washing; an invocation of Lone Star cultural clout as a marketing plan. After all, Church’s hasn’t been based in Texas for decades—the headquarters moved to Atlanta in 1992—and it has had several corporate owners since the late eighties, including, since 2021, private equity firm High Bluff Capital Partners. Recently, the brand has made moves to associate itself more closely with the state. In 2019 it rebranded as Church’s Texas Chicken, in an effort to differentiate it from competitors such as KFC, Chick-fil-A, and others. (And, perhaps, to align itself more closely with its international locations, which are widely called Texas Chicken.) Leaning into Church’s Texas history by reverting to its San Antonio founder’s original recipe reinforces that. But if the fried chicken really is the same flavor that people lined up for back in the fifties, perhaps we can forgive Church’s its Georgia zip code.
