This town loves chicken.

At least eight new chicken places are either open or about to be in Fresno, from restaurants to food trucks.

In addition to the small mom-and-pop shops opening, Fresnans are eagerly awaiting Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers coming to Fresno and Clovis. The popular restaurant is planning 10 new locations in central and northern California.

Even before the recent spate of openings, Fresnans were gobbling up the chicken. Remember beloved hole-in-the-wall Rudy’s Chicken Man?

In recent years, The Chicken Shack and Angry Chickz have unleashed a spate of restaurants in our area. And Fresno is home to two Chick-fil-A restaurants that are so popular they regularly clog traffic with their lines (our readers voted one of them the worst drive-thru in town).

And the fried chicken sandwich craze at fast food restaurants was like gas on the fire. Several Popeyes locations in Fresno sold out of the sandwich in 2019. Since then, other chains have introduced their own version of a chicken sandwich, like Burger King and its new “Ch’King” sandwich.

So why all the love for chicken? And why are so many places opening now?

Why is chicken so popular in Fresno?

Newly opened Pacific Fried Chicken Company owner Long Nguyen originally planned to open a ramen restaurant, but switched to a menu specializing in chicken because there was already a Japanese restaurant in the shopping center where he had rented space.

“It’s easy. A lot of people love fried chicken. If you do it right, you can do it very well,” he said. “I think it has a much lower barrier to entry compared to other restaurants because people are a lot more familiar, more comfortable (with chicken)“.

For more details, we turned to the godfather of all things chicken in the Valley, Damon Miller, the founder of The Chicken Shack restaurants.

He started the first one in Hanford and has two in Fresno, with a third on the way in northwest Fresno. There are now 23 locations of the restaurant either open or about to be, most of them licensed to other owners.

Nashville hot chicken, chicken and waffles

It’s easy to get creative with chicken, Miller said.

“Chicken itself doesn’t have a lot of flavor, so you can add flavor to it,” he said. “That’s the thing with chicken, it’s pretty versatile. You can change the flavors to make it whatever you want, though beef is pretty limited.”

Hence varying trends like Nashville hot chicken, wings and all their sauces, and chicken and waffles. (We can’t mention chicken and waffles without bringing up the rave reviews that Chef Paul’s Cafe in downtown Fresno gets, with one Yelp reviewer literally writing a poem about it in her review. Meanwhile, The Chicken Shack is getting ready to release its own spin on the combo with a waffle bun for its chicken sandwiches.)

A big selling point for restaurateurs? Chicken is cheap. Or at least it was when most of these new restaurants started plans to open months and months ago.

Chicken historically costs far less than beef or pork.

But that’s changing, especially when it comes to wings.

Demand for comfort food like pizza and wings skyrocketed during the pandemic. Fresno alone saw three chicken wing ghost kitchens (eateries that are delivery only) launch during the pandemic, including Cooped Up Wings, which operates out of Me-n-Ed’s kitchens.

Increased demand and supply problems have led to a chicken wing shortage, which is pushing prices up.

The labor shortage plays a role in supply problems, with suppliers having trouble hiring people to process chickens, according to The Washington Post. Volatile feed prices also contributed and storms in Texas and other southern states led to interruptions in chicken processing that rippled throughout the industry.

Still, chicken remains popular.

Another reason why? People consider it healthier than other proteins, especially beef, Miller said.

That may be true, but most of the new restaurants opening in town are serving fried chicken, often with french fries.

People think, “Yeah, I’m going to eat chicken. It’s healthy,” Miller said. “But then, they fry it.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2021 at 10:00 AM.

Bethany Clough

The Fresno Bee

(559) 441-6431

Bethany Clough covers restaurants and retail for The Fresno Bee. A reporter for more than 20 years, she now works to answer readers’ questions about business openings, closings and other business news. She has a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and her last name is pronounced Cluff.