The Chicken Basket as it exists today opened in 1946, got inducted into the Route 66 Hall of Fame in 1992, was named Best Fried Chicken in the Chicagoland Area by the Chicago Sun-Times in 1993, landed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, and got the full Guy Fieri treatment on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2009 — Fieri nicknamed the chef “Captain Creamy” over the mac and cheese. The kitchen still slow-cooks roughly 2,000 pounds of chicken a week. The menu runs the full roadside-Americana range: the signature Famous Fried Chicken Basket ($17.99), a jumbo shrimp basket, roasted chicken, chicken pot pie, and a daily dinner buffet from 4:30 to 8 p.m. ($19.99).
There's a real, current deal too — $10 for 10 wings and $12 domestic beer buckets on NFL game days, dine-in only — plus a 15-minutes-or-less lunch carry-out promise on weekdays. This is about as close as the Chicago area gets to a certified historic landmark you can also just stop in and eat lunch at.
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