In Oklahoma City, we often get things a little later than other cities. For example, the opening of a new fast-food restaurant is like a star-studded event, with cars clogging the street and lines out the door, before anyone even knows if the food is worth the hype.
The hoopla around the new Bojangles in Oklahoma City has been kind of like that.
Coming straight out of North Carolina and, 50 years later, showing up in our neck of the woods, Bojangles is an American regional chain of fast-food restaurants that “specializes in Cajun-seasoned fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits and primarily serves the Southeastern United States.”
It was the promise of that down-home Southern cookin' that brought my wife and me to the new Bojangles, 13135 N. Pennsylvania Ave. Of course, we waited a couple of months for the brouhaha to die out and the lines to recede... and when we got there, the place was still cramped.
Even though it was still on the tip of Oklahoma City’s fast-food tongue during the somewhat explosive lunch rush, my wife and I used their computerized ordering system that then, inexplicably and indefinitely, began shooting out 50-plus receipts as we concluded our order.
As the receipts accumulated on the sticky floor, I mouthed “Sorry!” to the person working the tables, and his glassy-eyed stare truly cut deep into my soul.
Backing off, my attention was now geared to a couple of Bojangles’ Certified Biscuit Makers—that's apparently a thing—behind a large window into the kitchen, hand-mixing and kneading the dough, cutting the biscuits and hauling them off to the wall of ovens.
As I headed to our table, my wife grabbed us a couple of Bojangles’ fabled iced teas ($2.59 each): unsweet for me, sweet for her. After hearing about it for so long, I was ready for something special. It quenched my thirst just fine, but it was nothing to write home about.
For our lunch, my wife went with an item off the vaunted Bojangles all-day breakfast menu, winding up with the Country Ham Biscuit ($3.49). It was a big slice of country ham on a made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuit with extra butter, as well as a side of Baked Macaroni and Cheese ($2.89).
While the Mac and Cheese was baked rubber for the most part, the Country Ham Biscuit was pretty darn good, with the biscuit being reliably flaky and the ham salty in all the right places—I truly enjoyed it.
(One thing Bojangles is missing is some jam or honey on the table. It was a missed opportunity of taste!)
I had Bo’s four-piece Chicken Tender combo ($12.48), which I shared with my wife. Chicken breast tenderloins are marinated with a “bold” blend of seasonings, served with a made-from-scratch biscuit and some seasoned fries.
As my mouth drooled with much-deserved anticipation, I have to say the chicken was simply alright. Much like Cane’s, these tenders are okay, but with no spices to really give them a real push to legendary territory, they were kind of blah.
And while the seasoned fries were soggy for the most part, I got to say the fresh buttermilk biscuits saved the whole meal. Light and feathery and greasy the way a fat biscuit should be, they made me want to order a whole box of them for lunch.
Can I just get a box of biscuits and call it a day?
Along with the homemade biscuits, the desserts really made up for an otherwise forgettable lunch. The Bo-Berry Biscuit ($1.69) and the Blackberry Cobbler ($1.99) are just simple variations on the sweet biscuit recipe, but they were delicious, and we quickly gobbled them up.
In the end, despite all the hype, Bojangles chicken is your standard bucket of flavored grease. But the true winners are the biscuits—just sneak in your favorite jams and jellies and thank me later.
Cómpralo ya!
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Follow Louis Fowler on Instagram at @louisfowler78.
