She says she made the perfect chicken salad. Now her chain heads to Kansas City area

Atlanta-based Chicken Salad Chick is coming to the Kansas City market with more than a dozen chicken salad choices.

A franchisee for the chain plans a 2022 opening in Lee’s Summit, but the company did not provide a specific location.

Chicken Salad Chick offers chicken salad under four categories: traditional, savory, fruity and nutty, and spicy.

The menu includes Lauryn’s Lemon Basil (with chopped pecans, fresh basil and lemon), Olivia’s Old South (with sweet pickles and egg), Dixie Chick (with onions), Sassy Scotty (with ranch dressing, bacon and shredded cheddar cheese), The Barbie-Q (with a hickory-smoked barbecue flavor) and Jalapeno Holly. There also are two pimento cheese versions and an egg salad.

Customers can order a scoop or a sandwich.

Sides include broccoli salad, grape salad and pasta salad, fresh fruit, macaroni and cheese, and green salads. It also has a daily soup special such as Thursday’s loaded potato or chicken Florentine, and it offers catering.

Founder Stacy Brown had a goal of creating the perfect chicken salad. The stay-at-home mom kept perfecting her recipe and doing taste tests with family and neighbors before arriving at “the one.”

Then she would drop off samples at hair salons and teachers’ lounges, and began selling the salads door-to-door. But the health department hadn’t signed off on her home-based kitchen. With demand increasing, Brown and her husband, Kevin, opened a carryout-only operation in 2008.

They now have more than 190 restaurants in 17 states and plan to have more than 200 by the end of the year, including one in Columbia, Missouri.

This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 11:59 AM.