There’s a new pickleball palace between Fort Worth and Dallas: Chicken N Pickle
Pickleball restaurants made a double debut last week, and now we know what the fuss is about.
Missouri-based Chicken N Pickle opened a giant play yard, brewhouse and wood-roasted chicken restaurant at 2965 Texas 161 South, south of Arkansas Lane along the now-booming Bush Tollway east of Arlington.
A smaller local pickleball restaurant, Courtside Kitchen, also opened at 1615 Rogers Road in Fort Worth with a menu by chef Christian Lehrmann of Tinie’s. More on that another day.
Chicken N Pickle has 77,000 square feet of dining, pickeball on 11 courts, and yard games.
The food side is all about roast chicken, but it also serves burgers, “North Kansas City hot” chicken or fried chicken sandwiches and brunch dishes, including chicken-and-waffles.
The chicken flavors might come from Kansas City, but some of the seasoning is very Texan.
The side dishes include elote (labeled here as “street corn”), a serrano-cilantro slaw and a queso fundido disguised under the menu name “chorizo fondue.”
One of the chicken seasonings is a “seven-pepper” rub with a grilled orange. although it’s not really very spicy. For extra heat, there’s a choice of Yellowbird sauces from Austin.
The house special is a lemon-roast chicken ($13.80 for a half-chicken, sides extra).
It’s exceptionally good — a large portion of chicken, juicy and full of flavor.
But at $25-plus for a whole chicken, it should be.
The other seasonings are “Southwest” with lime or Caribbean jerk.
There’s also a combo basket of a quarter-chicken and a few pork ribs for $15. But the ribs on one recent visit were not what Texans expect.
The menu also offers salads, including a jalapeno-cilantro salmon power bowl ($14.95), a Cobb and others with roasted, grilled or fried chicken.
You could make an entire dinner out of side dishes: the elote and slaw, argula-pistachio beets, pickled-mustard Brussels sprouts.
Desserts, all meant for the table to share, range from giant cookies with ice cream to a churro waffle or coconut cream pie.
Chicken n Pickle is open for lunch and dinner daily, serving until 11 p.m. weeknights and midnight weekends; 469-943-1410, chickennpickle.com.
Another location is under construction at Delaney Vineyards in Grapevine.
This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
