Today, I wanted to do some shopping down in Clarksburg, with the goal of heading up to Cracker Barrel for lunch. I thought if I got there before noon, I would beat the big crowds. There have been TV spots running about the Country Fried Turkey meal which looked too good to pass up.

I finished up my errands a little after 11:00 AM, and made my way up to the Cracker Barrel. I got there around 11:45 AM. I like the outside of this store. The sign is iconic and all of the ones that I’ve seen have rocking chairs out front.

When you first walk in, you enter their Country Store. You can easily just come here for the shopping, since they have a lot of options. I enjoy the old time or hard to find sodas and the hard to find candy. They have books, clothes, candles, CDs, kids toys, and much more. I was there to eat, so I headed over to take a seat.

The seating area is really neat. They have some vintage items and pictures all over the place, which really fits in with the theme. I was ready to order my food, but they had already run out of the Country Fried Turkey. I was a bit bummed out about it, but my server recommended the Homestyle Chicken, which is cooked in a similar fashion. I got it with green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and one other side, for which I chose mashed potatoes and gravy.

They start you out with a buttermilk biscuit and corn muffin. They were both warm, which made it easier to melt the butter. The biscuit was nice and soft and did not crumble easily. Very good flavor and I would have asked for more if I wasn’t going to be eating a big lunch. The corn muffin was also good. The texture was more similar to corn bread, but it absorbed the butter quite well.

Next up was my lunch. I’ll start with the green bean casserole. It had quite a few thin sliced mushrooms in there. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of mushrooms. I ate as many green beans as I could. The flavor of this was really good, and I would probably have loved it if I was a fan of mushrooms.

The mashed potatoes and gravy were also good. Good consistency to the mashed potatoes, good flavor to the gravy. The cranberry sauce was very mild, but still had a nice flavor. Just not a lot of tartness. The chicken was the star of this dish. This is boneless chicken, which I prefer. The crispness and the flavor of the coating were tremendous and on point. The juiciness of the chicken was incredible. Biting into the chicken was almost like butter. It was very tender. There was no dryness to the chicken at all, and the combination of flavors from the breading to the chicken made for a perfect bite.

Even though I did not end up ordering what I was hoping, I was very happy with what I ended up eating. The chicken was fantastic. I would not mind going back again and ordering this, even if the Country Fried Turkey is still on the menu. My favorite from Cracker Barrel is usually the Country Fried Steak, but this chicken was really close. It’s easy to have a positive day when you are eating good food like this!