Fourth in a series of four. Thornton’s is a medium size gas station chain based out of Louisville. They’ve been rolling out hot snack foods at some of their stations, and I’ve tried their pizza, burgers, and breakfast sandwiches so far.
Today I picked up the “Southern Style Crispy Chicken Sandwich,” which is two of the tenders they sell as a snack offering, on a bakery bun. Half way through my chewing, I also discovered 3 pickle chips under the chicken!
The flavor of the chicken is OK, the breading is light, but not all that crispy. For some reason, despite playing with it for over 50 years, the food industry hasn’t been able to figure out how to have a crispy coating on food without it coming directly from a deep fryer (which this does not).
Like I thought on the other snacks, the chicken sandwich is a little spendy. On the upside for any of their offerings including an extensive seclection of roller grill choices, Thornton’s has an amazing array of add your own condiments, both fresh and packaged, and that’s a real plus over the competitors.
As an afterthought, I grabbed one of their “cheese bread” snacks. The packaging makes it look more substantial than it actually is (see pix below), and it rings up at $1.99. Like many of their competitors, Thornton’s cuts a slice of pizza into “cheese bread.” So the prices is 1/2 the price of their 2 slice pizza serving. While most of the condiments available for use on your sandwiches and dogs are recognizable brand names, the company’s choice for the included marinara dipping sauce is from Diamond Crystal, a diversified manufacturer in Savannah, GA, known primarily for being a supplier of ingredients and dry and liquid condiments. The sauce is heavy on high fructose corn syrup and modified food starches, if you pay attention to those types of things.
The chain also offers a free membership points system that has some pretty good incentives, both inside the stores and at the pumps. Worth a stop. Locator
Thorntons Chicken Sandwich Review