Church's Chicken might not be as popular as Chick-fil-A or have as storied a history as
KFC, but it's nevertheless been a fast food staple for decades. So keep watching to discover
how it grew to where it is today from its early beginnings in the heart of Texas.
Whataburger might be the Lone Star State's favorite hamburger, but Church's is king when
it comes to Texas chicken. It also has the upper hand, or wing, when it comes to the
state's history, as it was founded across the street from a famous American landmark.
We're talking, of course, about the Alamo.
George W. Church opened the first Church's Chicken in Alamo Plaza in 1952. It didn't
even have a dining room and patrons would walk right up to the window where they could
get two pieces of fried chicken and a roll for just 49 cents. The restaurant wasn't much
more than a small shack, but it obviously made an impact on San Antonians, and within
10 years, Church's had expanded to eight locations in the city.
"So the next time you're driving and see the Lone Star, just know it was all first made
in S.A."
When it comes to fast food chicken, KFC is the big bird that everyone else looks to follow,
although Chick-fil-A has been encroaching on its territory in recent years. Back in
the 1960s, there were 600 Kentucky Fried Chicken locations scattered throughout the United
States. If the little guys wanted to get ahead, they'd have to outsmart Colonel Sanders, and
that's exactly what Church's Chicken did.
Even though KFC was busy building a fried chicken empire across the country, the company
was pretty picky about where it would put its new restaurants. They avoided low-income
urban neighborhoods, so Church's Chicken saw an opportunity there, and thus it began moving
into areas that KFC wasn't interested in. This would ultimately prove to be a successful
expansion plan for Church's. In 1962, they had just eight locations, but by the end of
the decade they had over 100 restaurants in seven states.
"Ooh, chicken! Must eat! Need money! Any means necessary!"
You can find Church's Chicken locations throughout the United States, but if you go to any other
country in the world, you'll have a hard time finding one. That doesn't mean you can't get
your favorite Church's combo platter anywhere else, just that it won't be offered at a restaurant
named "Church's." That's because outside of the U.S., it's called "Texas Chicken," and
it can be found everywhere from Egypt to Indonesia, and as far away as New Zealand.
The company began expanding internationally in the 1980s and chose to go with the name
"Texas Chicken" for two reasons. First, they didn't want to imply any religious connotations.
Second, "Texas Chicken" conjures up images of cowboys and just screams "America" in foreign
markets. The Texas Chicken logo at some locations mimics a similar design and color scheme as
the Church's Chicken logo. That changed in 2019 though, at least for Canadian locations,
as the brand got a logo redesign and it's now known north of the border as Church's
Texas Chicken. Understandably, a company with three different names might be a bit confusing,
but rest assured, it's all the same chicken.
"Church's: gotta love it."
Despite its name, Church's Chicken has no affiliation with any actual churches. "Church"
is merely the last name of the restaurant's founder. While the company has gone to great
lengths to avoid this sort of confusion in the international market, it hasn't always
been 100 percent foolproof. In 2015, Texas Chicken Malaysia received a Facebook message
from a concerned customer who was upset about being tricked into eating chicken made by
a church. Malaysia is a country that is 61 percent Muslim and the customer was concerned
that the chain was serving non-halal food.
The location that served the meal was in fact called "Texas Chicken," though it said "Church's"
on the dipping sauce label, and that's what made the customer worried. Texas Chicken Malaysia's
social media team cleared up the confusion, explaining the company's backstory and reassuring
Facebook fans that there was no "religious context." In the end, the customer apologized
for causing the minor stir and all was right in the world of fast food chicken.
It's not uncommon to see certain combination restaurants under the same roof, like Pizza
Hut and Taco Bell or Long John Silvers and A&W. Fans of Church's Chicken and White Castle
will also find a few locations where both brands share the same building. What separates
them from a Pizza Hut-Taco Bell combo is that Church's and White Castle aren't owned by
the same parent company and never have been. Unlike so many fast food chains, White Castle
has skirted industry trends and is a completely family-run business. So how then did this
partnership come to be?
The exact details of the business partnership aren't entirely known, but according to the
book Selling 'Em by the Sack, it came to fruition in the mid-90s. Both restaurants serve their
own menu items while sharing the same restaurant space. And both companies also share the same
supply chain company, which undoubtedly makes running co-branded restaurants a little easier.
Either way, the fact that fast food customers can get a fried chicken meal with a slider
on the side is pretty cool.
Convenience and cheap prices are the big drivers behind fast food sales, but it never hurts
to have a mascot around to remind people of the deep-fried delights awaiting them. When
George W. Church launched his chicken business in the early 50s, the restaurant had a mascot
by the name of "Churchie" who was a plump little fellow in a chef's hat holding a fork.
Churchie may not exactly have been as attention-grabbing a character as Ronald McDonald, for example,
but he nevertheless managed to hang around for a few decades.
Sometime in the 80s, Churchie underwent a physical transformation from a man in a chef's
hat to a full-blown chicken. This happened around the time that the brand introduced
its record-setting Church's Big Sandwich. The original Churchie occasionally still pops
up nowadays, but it's mostly only in social media throwback photos.
Partnerships between sports and fast food joints are nothing new. Pizza Hut has teamed
up with the Super Bowl, while McDonald's has hooked up with the Olympics. As for Church's
Chicken, it turns out that chess was a beloved hobby in the Church household. The company's
sponsorship of chess tournaments goes as far back as 1972, and a partnership with the United
States Chess Federation continued through at least 1986.
A 1972 tournament in San Antonio sponsored by Church's was dubbed the "Fried Chicken
Tournament" and included some of the best players in the world. And the winners didn't
merely walk away with a lousy T-shirt or a box of free fried chicken. Instead, George
W. Church put up $10,000 of his own money for the winnings with the first-prize winner
getting a purse of $4,000. While four grand is certainly nothing to scoff at, it was apparently
too low at the time for chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, who declined the invite to attend
the tournament.
It's no secret that 2019 was a big year for fast food chicken when Popeye's kicked off
the "chicken sandwich wars." Alas, Church's Chicken was nowhere to be found when Popeyes
was dominating headlines. Church's hadn't even had a national advertising campaign in
10 years! The company has seen years of declining sales, so it should come as no surprise to
learn that numerous locations have closed in recent years. 15 locations closed in 2015
for not paying taxes, while other locations have closed without much explanation at all.
In 2018, Greenville, South Carolina saw several of its Church's Chicken locations close with
only handwritten notes on the doors asking customers to visit other locations. The company
didn't go into much detail about the reasons for the shutterings, though some sleuthing
by the Greenville News linked the locations to a foreclosure lawsuit. That's at least
more information than the Church's Chicken fans of Mansfield, Ohio were given in 2020.
That year, a reporter with the Richland Source who thought he had picked up an easy story
about the local Church's Chicken closure was given the runaround from all of his sources
and came up with no answers. While Church's Chicken may be eyeing better days ahead, be
aware that if your nearest location ends up shutting down, the reason behind it may very
well remain a mystery.
"When I found out Church's Chicken was closed, I was- I was- I was just shocked."
Fast food can be a pretty cutthroat business and there's certainly something to be said
for the old adage that there's strength in numbers. It's not uncommon for different restaurants
to be part of the same chain, and for a number of years, Church's was part of what could
best be described as a fried chicken power couple. Popeyes and Church's might seem like
they'd be sworn enemies, but in 1989, they united their poultry powers as one. While
the two restaurants operated separately, they were theoretically the second largest fried
chicken chain in the United States, behind only KFC.
Popeyes owner Al Copeland went back and forth with Church's before an agreement was reached
for a buyout of the chicken chain for $395.4 million. The two restaurants had combined
sales the previous year of $1 billion and while that might sound like a lot, it was
still nothing compared to the powerhouse of KFC's $4.9 billion figure. The Popeyes and
Church's partnership lasted for 15 years, but eventually, all good things must come
to a finger-lickin' end. In 2004, the chicken brand's parent company, AFC Enterprises, Inc.,
sold Church's Chicken to a venture capital firm.
If you head over to the menu page of the Church's Chicken website, you'll see a lot of the typical
sides of a fast food fried chicken joint: mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, biscuits,
coleslaw, et cetera. But there's one item that really stands out from the norm, and
that would be the jalapeños. Church's offers multiple jalapeno-based items, including fried
jalapeños stuffed with cheese. But the really classic Church's Chicken side dish is the
pickled jalapeño.
"One of our original items is our jalapeños, and I think that's our signature item. It's
something that guests love to pair with our chicken."
The jalapeno peppers have been on the Church's menu since the early days. According to Jennifer
Chasteen, the company's vice president of brand strategy, they're a nod to the brand's
Texas roots. As she told QSR Magazine,
"The jalapeño is an original menu item that dates back to way back when; guests have been
squeezing jalapeño juice over our chicken for spice and heat for 65 years. So we take
that jalapeño and add it into various configurations and items. That’s where the jalapeño cheese
bomber came from. It’s one of our most popular unique sides."
Church's takes its jalapeños pretty seriously, like in 2017, when Chris Ward, the company's
supply chain vice president, took a trip down to Mexico to visit jalapeño farms and negotiate
pricing for 80,000 cases of the peppers per year.
Sometimes, fast food chains get a little too big for their britches and think that they
can successfully expand into other culinary areas. McDonald's tried it with pizza, while
Burger King ventured into tacos. More often than not, though, these experiments fail miserably
and become but a blip in a company's timeline. In the late 70s, Church's tried to enter the
burger market in a big way. Instead of simply adding hamburgers to the menu, though, George
W. Church opted instead to open an entire new chain of restaurants called G.W. Jrs.
Church opened the first location in 1979 and ramped up operations of the budding chain
incredibly fast, but probably a little too fast. By 1982, there were 62 G.W. Jrs locations
throughout Texas, but by 1985, they had all closed up for good. Church's was reportedly
having some "philosophical differences" within its upper management at the time and G.W.
Jrs became a casualty of the turmoil. Now it's merely a fading memory for Texans who
hope and dream that it will one day stage a comeback.
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