I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like fried chicken. Having said that, I don’t know anyone who loves fried chicken as much as my cousin Jeff.

Jeff’s a few years older than me, so I’ve known him my entire life and in that lifetime, I’ve seen his love for fried chicken grow stronger through the years.

Jeff told me his love of fried chicken started at a young age with frozen fried chicken TV dinners and it really took hold one year on a family vacation where he ate a fried chicken dinner every single night on the trip!

Jeff is truly a fried chicken aficionado and he’s put together a list of twelve places in and around Peoria that are known for their fried chicken dinners for us to try out over the course of twelve months.

We’re going to have a monthly fried chicken dinner, take photos and then give you our thoughts and ratings from the dinner experience and the fried chicken itself.

Here we are at Schooners on War Memorial Drive in Peoria Heights. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind landmark Peoria building!

We got a table and there’s there’s Peoria’s fried chicken aficionado himself, my cousin Jeff!

Always great to see Jeff and it’s been a while since he was on one of my blogs! In fact it’s almost been 14 years since he was on my 365 bars blog!

Angie was our pretty and friendly waitress and she not only took our fried chicken dinner order…

She took a photo of us at our table and there’s the other guest star for the evening, my brother Tom!

It’s a real fried chicken family affair todnight!

Now let’s take a few photos in here while our meal is being prepared.

There’s a view of both ends of the bar and some of the drink and soup specials for the evening.

There’s a gaming area opposite the bar if you feel lucky. Well…do ya punk?

This dining room off to the side features the infamous “Mushroom Hall Of Fame” at Schooners.

Here’s a shot from the back of the bar and dining area.

Meanwhile, back at our table…

Dinner has started to arrive!

Tom and Jeff got salads to start the meal off and I got an order of cole slaw. It was a nice and light start to our dinner.

Next up we split an order of the homemade corn fritters.

These were so sweet and tasty we ordered a second batch!

Here’s our fried chicken dinners, the first of a dozen to come in the next twelve months!

Tom and I got a side of their delicious homemade onion rings and Jeff got a baked potato.

Jeff’s chicken wing trick, he puts the whole wing in his mouth and only the bones come out! Very impressive!

Speaking of bones, no one can eat and clean chicken off the bones better than Jeff!

One fried chicken dinner down, eleven to go!

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The Fried Chicken Dining Experience

We had a wonderful fried chicken dinner experience at Schooners.

Schooners has been an iconic family-owned Peoria tavern and restaurant since 1981. The atmosphere is fun and friendly and it’s always a blast hanging out in there with friends and/or family!

We really enjoyed our chicken dinner and our waitress Angie was friendly and the service was outstanding!

We split one order of their homemade corn fritters and those were so tasty, sweet and delicious, we ordered another one!

Tom and I each got an order of their homemade onion rings and they were a delightful treat. The onion rings are crispy and lightly breaded and seasoned to a salty perfection. Jeff got a baked potato and it was cooked perfectly.

They have a lot of selections on the menu and I highly recommend Schooners for lunch, dinner and drinks!

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The Fried Chicken

The fried chicken was cooked to perfection. It was lightly battered and fried to a crispy delight on the outside. Inside the chicken was tender and juicy.

There’s was just one thing missing though, seasoning and flavor.

We all agreed that the overall taste of the chicken was fairly bland and could’ve used a little more zing from some additional seasoning. The onion rings were seasoned to perfection, maybe they could add some of that to the fried chicken.

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The Fried Chicken Dinner Experience gets a rating of three and a half Col. Sanders (out of four).