41740 West Maricopa-Casa Grande Hwy, Maricopa, AZ 85138
Review Highlights
Slim Chickens Restaurant Review
For this review, I went all the way out to Pinal County, in the city of Maricopa, to try Slim Chickens. The restaurant features popular items such as tenders, wings, wraps, sandwiches, and salads. And yes, a chicken and waffle plate is on the menu.
In addition, there were several items that you typically will not find in a fast-casual restaurant, like fried pickles, fried mushrooms, milkshakes, and desserts served in mason jars.
For those who are stressed out about chicken chains with limited, highly focused menus, Slim Chickens might be the solution to your problems.
The restaurant’s interior is very modern with high ceilings, exposed air ducts, and trendy slogans on the walls. The theme is “southern” with a heavy blues music inspiration, including guitars mounted on the walls. The place was founded in Arkansas.
For my review, I sampled the Buffalo Tender Mac Bowl, Chick’s Meal, okra side, and Reese’s cheesecake jar dessert.
Buffalo Tender Mac Bowl Review
This was good but maybe a bit overcomplicated for my taste preference. It included a base of mac and cheese. It appeared they used predominantly white cheeses to craft the dish. However, the topping was most likely a blend of orange/yellow and white cheeses.
From inside the restaurant, the menu board does not have a photo of the dish. So, I was not aware that there would be both green onions and onion straws on top.
Roughly one or two tenders are chopped and placed on top of the mac. The buffalo sauce was virtually non-existent. I couldn’t taste it at all.
Not sure if this was intended or what. But you can see from the pics, there was nothing red in the bowl.
Once I began eating it, I did notice a very thin layer of buffalo sauce. But it was very insignificant.
The Slim Chickens website indicates that the dish contains “hot buffalo sauce” and “cayenne ranch sauce.” The Buffalo Tender Mac Bowl includes a side of Texas toast, which was good but maybe smaller and flatter than I’ve seen elsewhere.
Chick’s Meal Review
The Chick’s Meal consists of a 3-piece tenders, fries, Texas toast, and a drink (Coke products). It includes one dipping sauce. I chose “Slim Sauce.”
Most of their sauces were “house made.” The Slim Sauce tasted like thousand island and maybe ketchup.
It was difficult to tell what the second ingredient was. But the Slim Sauce was much sweeter than similar “fry” sauces. It paired well with the chicken and fries.
Slim Chickens serves basic fries (lookin’ like Wendy’s fries). They were good but not memorable.
By the way, you can choose as many as 17 sauces. And they have some stuff you don’t see anywhere, like Cayenne Ranch, Gravy, Korean BBQ, and Inferno.
The tenders were good. The chicken is made to order and they use a buttermilk marinade.
Additionally, the company maintains that the tenders are “100% all-natural” and “hand-breaded.” The breading was fine, but not particularly unique flavor-wise.
The Texas toast in the Chick’s Meal was noticeably larger than the one that came with the Buffalo Tender Mac Bowl. Butter and garlic on toast is always good.
Slim Chickens Okra Side Review
The serving size of the okra was decent. Breading was typical. Okra is not common unless it is a southern restaurant. So I was pleased to see it on the menu.
They had eight side items: mac and cheese, coleslaw, potato salad, fries, fried pickles, fried mushrooms, fried okra, and salad.
Reese’s Cheesecake Jar Dessert
One thing I applaud Slim Chickens for doing is trying to be different. Nothing over the top. But they at least try.
The Reese’s jar dessert was probably better than I was expecting. By its appearance, I thought it would be essentially, whipped cream, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and cheesecake bites served in a mason jar.
And I was right! I did not intend to finish the dessert in one sitting because I assumed it would be too rich.
While it was definitely sweet, the whipped cream and tartness of the cheesecake bites sort of tamed the sweetness.
And because the dish comes in a sealed mason jar, the moisture makes the candy and other ingredients soft. The jar dessert was worth it.
If you are wondering, yes, they had other flavors like Oreo cheesecake and strawberry cheesecake jars. I believe the flavors change based on seasonality and availability of ingredients.
For example, the Reese’s one I had does not appear on their website. The menu inside the restaurant only lists “jar dessert.” Flavor options are not specifically displayed.
Overall Review of Slim Chickens (Maricopa)
Everything I ate was Justin Leonard Approved.
Slim Chickens was definitely tasty, but flavor-wise, they were not quite in the same ballpark as the leading restaurants in this space.
I would say they made up for any shortcomings with their expanded menu, huge selection of dipping sauces, and some of the foods were surprisingly better than expected.
The mac and cheese bowl stood out, as did the dessert jars. Not too many instances where you get to take home a reusable glass container. Cool.
I will eventually try other things like the chicken sandwiches and wraps. If you are ever in the city of Maricopa, stop by Slim Chickens and let me know what you think.
