These restaurants in rural southeastern Kansas draw people from all over for their fried chicken dinners.

By Barbara Humeston, Contributing Editor, Midwest Living

Chicken Annie's and Chicken Mary's are the two best-known of a half dozen or so restaurants featuring fried chicken dinners in southeastern Kansas' Crawford County. Every weekend, thousands of diners flock to these two venerable chicken joints (each seats about 400) that are neighbors in the countryside northeast of Pittsburg near the little town of Frontenac (120 miles south of Kansas City). Both have been serving their own secret-recipe fried chicken for more than 60 years, with the third generation of the restaurants' founding families still involved in their operation.

The fried chicken feasts include a choice of side dishes such as German-style coleslaw (vinegar-and-oil based) and potato salad. Customers can order homemade onion rings with most dinners at both restaurants. Complete menus at Annie's and Mary's include steaks, fish and spaghetti too. You'll have to make a couple of trips to compare the two restaurants for yourself.

Both are open for dinner from 4 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, till 9 p.m. on Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays. Chicken Annie's Original (620/231-9460); Chicken Mary's (620/231-9510). For more information about the restaurants and the area: Kansas Travel & Tourism Development Division (785/296-2009).

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