We’re up to week number 18 on the 13 month chicken eating tour and I just realized that we haven’t been on a road trip since last July when we went to Birdie’s Bar & Grill in Bellevue with my friends Amber and Joe. I think it’s time to get on the road again...uh oh, what’s that...

It’s Willie Nelson! Yeah, I know you’re ready to get on the road again but you smell like skunk weed and we’re waiting for someone else, so go ahead and hit the road Willie!

Okay, this is more like it, it’s Scott Turley, the official MBIP pal and Wheelman! Now it’s time to hit the road and this week we’re off to...

Normal, Illinois and our destination is Destihl Brewery. Scott discovered that they serve up Thai Fried Chicken, which sounds delicious and intriguing. And through the miracle of the interwebs, here we are at Destihl Restaurant & Brew Works! Check out the purple sky! Scott opens the door as we begin week number 18 in our motherclucking chicken tour!

Here’s the host area where they sell their locally brewed beer and t-shirts. Hannah greeted us and she told me her family has a baking company in Tremont called The Baking Baer. Check them out here on facecrack.

As you can see they have a large dining area and there’s comfortable booths lining the perimeter of the restaurant. But we decided to sit at the bar which is located in the back of the brew-pub.

I forgot to write the bartender’s name down, but he was a nice guy and he recommended the Normal Pils, which is named after the town it’s brewed in. We placed our order and let’s take a five minute tour of this place.

As you can see, there’s a lot of beer selections on tap behind the bar. The brewery is in the back and off on the other side is the kitchen area. Okay, the five minute tour is over, time to start eating!

We started off with a sourdough pretzel appetizer. It was hot, salty and delicious when dunked into the house-made cheese sauce. We were impressed that you get two pretzels with the order!

Scott ordered the Ham and Green Apple sandwich. He said it was very tasty. The sandwich is made with apple smoked ham, bacon, goat cheese, Granny Smith apples and roasted tomato mayonnaise. The sandwich is housed in toasted dark rye bread and comes with fries which Scott can be seen enjoying in this picture I snapped of him chowing down.

Now on to the star of today’s meal, the Thai Fried Chicken entree. It comes in a large bowl and it’s a half of a chicken fried in a spicy Thai sauce with jalapeño, ginger,lemongrass and carrots. The chicken sits on a bed of coconut and scallion rice and this looks and smells so delicious, time to dig in!

This is one of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever had in my life! The Thai seasoning is spicy and it blends so well with the slightly sweet coconut and scallion rice. The dish is bursting with flavor. Scott took the MBIP camera and snapped a shot of me happily devouring this meal!

Burp! This is definitely a unique chicken dish and one that’s worth the drive to Normal to sample! Thanks to Scott for driving and for suggesting this place, it was a real highlight of this chicken tour!