Churchkey Debuts Fried Chicken and Donuts


Courtesy of Samer Farha

There’s a new dish you might see parading around Churchkey these days. Don’t worry if you don’t see it on the menu–we don’t need those where we’re going. Besides, you’ll see it coming down the bar from a mile away: a big platter of fried chicken and donuts.

The beer-focused bar’s fried chicken dinner splits a whole chicken in three different styles: thighs and drumsticks in a classic buttermilk fried fashion, chicken tenders fried with a jerk seasoning and “General Satan’s” crispy wings (that’s executive chef Kyle Bailey’s version of General Tso’s). The family-style platter also comes with homemade biscuits with honey butter, corn on the cob topped with a spicy mayo, sesame seeds, cilantro and panko bread crumbs, as well as panzanella with heirloom tomatoes and house-made burrata.

Rounding off your meal are four donuts from executive pastry chef, Tiffany MacIsaac. They’re fried brioche donuts filled with passion fruit curd and topped with a strawberry glaze and a homemade Nilla wafer crumbling or a filled with a goat’s milk cheesecake and topped with a Cajeta glaze and pistachio dusting.

That’s all for only $42, so go ahead and don’t feel bad about ordering that second beer.

The fried chicken special is available on Wednesday nights only in limited quantities.

Marissa was born and bred in New Jersey, but moved to DC for undergrad at GWU (Go Colonials, go!), fell in love with the District and learned that there was life and civilization beyond New York City. She loves eating at white-tablecloth-three-forks-at-your-place-setting restaurants, but she’ll also be the first to suggest we scarf down some chili dogs at 2 am. Simply put, she loves all things food. You can also read about why she loves DC. Follow her on Twitter and email her at mbialecki (at) welovedc.com.

3 thoughts on “Churchkey Debuts Fried Chicken and Donuts”

  2. @Joe Flood: The price is for a meal for four people, so it is only $10.50 per person for a full meal of chicken, sides, and desserts.

    While Neighborhood Restaurant Group does not disclose the sourcing on their meats, they do source vegetables and other ingredients from sustainable, local farms when possible and they make as much as they can in-house.

    I do not really like fried chicken personally so I am not sure what the going rate is for this type of thing. The closest comparable thing I can recall is that, just down the block from ChurchKey, Cork offers Fried Chicken nights at $75 for two people. Though that price includes Champagne, it is still about 3.5 times more per person for a very similar meal, minus the donuts. By contrast to that I think the $10.50 at ChurchKey seems extremely reasonable.