Chicken Express

I like the chicken here much better than the other better-​known chicken place down the street. Tenders with gravy very good, corn nuggets interesting, fries killer. Good stuff!

This is not fast food — the last four times I’ve gone, there has been a 15 – 20 minute wait for chicken breasts. So today (when told chicken breasts wouldn’t be ready for 15 minutes), I mentioned the wait times to the woman who manages and/​or owns the place and she looked at me with this blank smile and said something about how some days everybody ordered the same thing. If I believed in coincidence, maybe that might have played. Since I didn’t really have 15 minutes to burn, I asked if they had chicken tenders ready. Yes! I ordered the combo with okra and then got to wait 10 minutes for the okra. Having plenty of time to watch, I saw they had massive amounts of tenders and a couple of chicken wings — everything else was being cooked to order.
To sum it up, the food is always good if you have time to wait for what you want instead of what they have. Otherwise, there are several other locations for Chicken Express and a lot of other fast food choices (that are really fast) right around that particular corner.

I didn’t try this place for the longest time but after finally getting some a while ago, I’m hooked.
What I like:
They make amazing tea! They will do half and half, sweet and unsweet for you and that is just to my liking. I have mentioned in other posts that a lot of Texas diners/​etc will serve oversweet tea so this is an awesome compromise.
Their corn nuggets are divine!
I love that serendipity seasoning sprinkled in my gravy!
Really good cherry pies!
Big portions of yummy chicken!
Good mozzerella sticks!
Polite staff
Staff will tell you if there will be a wait if you order something and give you an estimate of the time til it will be ready so you can make a decision if you happen to be in a rush.
What I don’t like:
My only complaint is SO MANY PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS PLACE! Literally the line can and will wrap around all the way to the other side of the parking lot because the line is just that long! I will joke with my husband that Chicken «Express» is not very express at all, haha. But the food is worth waiting for!

I have recently noticed that every time I order a 7 piece express tenders, I get home to find I only have 4 or 5. At first, I thought it was a simple mistake, but after the 5^th time I’ve decided that someone is not paying attention or the employees have been instructed to short the number of tenders in each order. Do yourself a favor and check your meal to make sure it’s accurate before you get home to eat it.

We love this chicken express, the chicken is always hot and crispy. The few cons are the «tip spot» on the receipt. This annoys me as all they do is give me my food. Really annoying in the drive thru. Sometimes the wait is long but I prefer hot, fresh chicken. This Chicken Express is about 4 $ cheaper on family meals than the one in Rockwall, employees are also friendlier here. The older manager is super friendly. Overall, this is our go-​to for fried chicken.

Fire the fat guy !! Been waiting for 10 mins in the drive thru. Total lack of concern. This place sux!

Big fan! I love this place. Great customer service, good food, great iced tea. I have been going here for years since living in Rowlett and they have always been consistent. The chicken livers are AWESOME!

This is my first time here, but the food isnfresh, service is good, and I haven’t been in a restaurant this clean in a long time. Guess they weren’t so great before, but they have improved for sure.

GREAT chicken. fairly priced too. the owner there is a real awesome guy! checks on all the customers to make sure everything is satisfactory!

Never again. Every chance I gave them was wasted. They rip me off every time! I order a 12 piece, I go home to a 7 piece. I order three meals, get home with two meals. I shouldnt have to take inventory before I leave a drive thru line. The food always tastes right but the service isn’t worth it. It appears to be managed and ran by high school kids.

Have to agree with other reviewers regarding this location. We love Chicken Express when they get it right but the Rowlett store has severe customer service issues. Our past three visits have been at various times of day, but mostly around noon to 2:00 pm. In each case, we have been asked to pull over and wait for our order, sometimes 15 — 20 minutes. One time chicken livers were ordered and they should have mentioned they took longer, if that was the case. The other two times were chicken tenders only, so having trouble understanding why the wait, especially on a time of day day they know they will be busy and should have some product fresh & ready to go quickly.
While Rowlett is not right down the street from us, the next closest store is farther than we really want to drive so we’re looking forward to a new Golden Chick that is being opened just down the street from us in Garland soon. Hope they can match the quality & service we came to expect at CE.

Love the food (except the biscuits are generally petrified), but the service at this location is horrendous! Today while ordering I asked if the biscuits were fresh and in a I could care less tone she said, «I don’t know…» I pulled up to the window and she rudely told me to sign the credit card receipt. I looked in the box and the honey mustard that I asked for wasn’t in there (for the 4^th time in a row) and the gravy I didn’t want was in the box. I was then informed that they were out. When I got home, I discovered my second side was missing. There were about 5 teens running the place and the rude girl was manning customer service. I have never gotten what I asked for but I love the chicken, so I go back. Maybe I’ll start going to Rockwall.

They have the best Chicken Gizzards in town! They are always made fresh when you order them so be prepared for about an 8 minute wait. The wait doesn’t bother me because I would rather have them fresh cooked than sitting out for hours under a heat lamp. The gizzards come with a side of gravy for dipping. I highly recommend if you like gizzards.
I have also eaten their chicken tenders which are pretty good but their buttered rolls are really good.

Wowza chicken express is awesome… most of the time. When there is no «adult» there they can’t get their stuff together. But the other 90% of the time there is no issue. The food comes out perfect, as does the amazing sweet tea. I highly reccomend them over kfc, popeyes, and Williams chicken anyday.

I love Chicken Express — but not this one.
I’ve been several times thinking it’ll be better — I’m wrong.
Not only does the service suck b/​c the «Kids» are in there running it, they always screw up our order or bill, but I have yet to get anything that isn’t soggy and COVERED (Literally dripping) with grease. I know it’s FRIED chicken, but can’t they drain it like everyone else does?
And what’s with the soggyness? Isn’t supposed to be CRISPY?
Sometimes the chicken is done, sometimes not.
Also, it doesn’t taste near as good as other Chicken E’s — very bland and boring.
Plus, I have never gotten fresh food unless I’ve had to wait 30 minutes or more on it.
It’s a chicken place — not rocket science. They need to shape up quite a bit.
Till then, I’ll be going elsewhere.

You know how parents take their kids out for their birthday sometimes? This is where I always went. This place is just that good. Everything Katherine B. said is true: the corn nuggets are amazing, they have a varied menu selection of classic southern cuisine and they are well-​known for their sweet tea (an odd distinction for a fried chicken place…). I actually prefer this dry kind of fried chicken, which when dipped in gravy becomes this wonderful taste experience that’s difficult to replicate anywhere else. It’s simply a great place for tasty but affordable fried southern food. They’ll even throw in extra pieces of chicken or free fries if they have extras laying around. Yay, free food! :D
My only complaint is that this specific location can get kind of dirty. it’s not a cesspool or anything, but sometimes the tables can be kind of sticky, and more than once I’ve been bothered by flies while I was there. I guess it just depends on when you go (luckily, they have a drive-​through which bypasses this specific problem :) So, if you’re looking for some tasty and affordable fried chicken (or fish!), this is the best place in town. And yeah, try the corn nuggets. @_@

Oh, the fond memories of coming here in high school. A buddy and I would skip out on our last period of school since we were aides (Thanks for my great education GISD!) and come here to get food. We’d always get like $ 20 worth of chicken tenders and gravy, take the food back to the journalism class to eat and hang out. The journalism class wasn’t my class, but I just liked hanging out there since most of my friends were in there and the teacher was coolest!
The Chicken tenders here were always so tender and the gravy was delicious. Someone once bet me to drink the whole tub o’ gravy. Are you chicken? My name is Joe, not McFly! Anyways, I did it and won. Mmmm gravy…
Also, as Katherine and Doug mention the corn fritters, those little bitches were awesome! I think the basic recipe is creamed corn in pancake batter and deep fried. What a recipe!

I could write a song, or paint a new world marvel, powered by the love of corn nuggets. I was offered corn nuggets once as consolation for losing a close person. I kinda regret not taking that offer in retrospect. I adore corn nuggets. I will eat a family size box of it in no time flat, with no help. This, my friends, is the only place you can get corn nuggets. This chain, not this specific location.
There are plenty of other novelty Southern foods to try out here, the best being fried gizzards. This is excellent fare to freak out your out of town friends who don’t realise we fry EVERYTHING. In all seriousness, I haven’t eaten fried gizzards, but they offer them, as well as fried liver, fried okra, and other things. Corn nuggets is by far my favorite dish there, but their chicken is tasty in that dry frying style that just absorbs cream gravy and demands to be eaten with bites of biscuits. I prefer greasy fried chicken, so this gets bumped down to 4 stars.
Final note: Their sweet tea is so famous, there’s a Facebook group for the one in Denton. People would walk at 9pm at night across UNT campus to go stock up on some Chicken Express sweet tea. I was actually introduced to corn nuggets, because my coworker was delivered corn nuggets by her boyfriend at work. I need me a boy who’ll deliver corn nuggets to me at work, I’d marry him on the spot. :D