An Arizona-based franchiser is opening the first Slim Chickens in El Paso on Tuesday, April 21, on the far Eastside.
Slim Chickens will open at 10 a.m. Tuesday at 3152 N. Zaragoza Road, just past Pebble Hills. People can download the app and get $5 off your $10 order.
“El Paso is a great community. We wanted that as part of our franchise territory. We’ve hired 100 people so far and everyone has been great. El Paso is really growing,” said Tom Parker, president of Desert Slims, the franchise group that owns the restaurants.
Dennis Ekstrom, a franchiser and CEO and president of Diamondback LLC, a Del Taco multi-unit operator, said in 2021 he hopes to develop several Slim Chickens restaurants in El Paso and New Mexico. He has been involved with Denny’s franchises for more than 50 years.
The tenders’ franchise, founded by two college buddies in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2003, prides itself on providing cooked-to-order chicken tenders, chicken sandwiches and wings, along with 14 dipping sauces and a variety of side dishes.
We got a first look at the new restaurant and this is what we loved.
Slim Chickens Menu
The Slim Chickens Menu is varied, offering reasonably priced chicken tender meals, ranging from $9.29 for three tenders, fries, Texas toast and a drink, to the Hungry Meal of seven tenders for $14.79. They also have six and eight-wing meals, chicken sandwiches and wraps, chicken and waffles, a salad, a variety of sides and milkshakes.
We sampled the tenders and the lemon pepper wings and were really impressed. The tenders are juicy with a crispy golden finish. And the lemon pepper wings were seasoned perfectly, without the need for any additional sauce. My husband liked that he got more flats (his preference) than drumettes.
Slim Chickens’ offers 14 different dipping sauces
The restaurant offers 14 different sauces and it’s hard to choose one. You can have your wings or tenders tossed in about eight of the 14 sauces. And if you want to try more than one, you can always add more sauces for about .39 cents each.
I tend to go for sweet and spicy, so my favorite sauces in order were the Red Chili, the Mango Habanero and the Korean BBQ. But know that the Cayenne Ranch and Ranch are still among the favorites.
Slim Chickens offers more sides than just fries
What makes Slim Chickens stand out among other competing tenders places is that it offers a good assortment of Southern sides. Yes, you can get fries with your meal, but sometimes you feel like something different. And that is where Slim Chickens shines.
Slim Chickens offers Mac & Cheese, potato salad, fried pickles, fried okra, fried mushrooms, and a side salad. The sides range from $3.99 for the side salad to $7.19 for the potato salad.
I was super excited to try the hand-breaded mushrooms and the okra and knew I would come back, especially because of those lightly breaded veggies.
Slim Chickens makes dessert in souvenir mason jars
Lastly, Slim Chickens has a line of desserts that come in cute souvenir mason jars for $6.99. The dessert types are seasonal. Right now, they have banana pudding, strawberry cheesecake and chocolate pudding.
You should definitely leave room for dessert or take one home for later.
María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; mcortes@elpasotimes.com; @eptmaria.bsky.social on Bluesky, and @eptmariacg on TikTok.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Slim Chickens opens first El Paso location, what we loved to eat
Reporting by Maria Cortes Gonzalez, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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