It’s a story that dates back to 1934. It’s been featured by The New Yorker magazine, Travel Channel’s “Food Wars”, BBC Travel, among others. Now, the cluster of fried chicken houses in Crawford County in Southeast Kansas has inspired a fictional novel recently named Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick of the month and a New York Time’s Best Seller.

About a year ago, I stumbled upon the book The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell’Antonia as I looked for novels for my summer reading. The more I read, the more I knew I had to read this book. The setting of the book, two fried chicken restaurants in Merinac, Kansas, caught my eye. You see, we live about 45 minutes from two fried chicken restaurants, Chicken Annie’s and Chicken Mary’s, that sit right next door to each other near a small town in Southeast Kansas named Frontenac.

Learn the real story behind “The Chicken Sisters”, as well as the real story behind Southeast Kansas chicken: Kansas fried chicken drives narrative of novel.

How immigration, ingenuity and the American spirit shaped a US fried chicken “war” that’s been simmering for four generations.

Camille Ford visits the chicken dinner road in Pittsburg, Kan., and warring fried chicken joints, Chicken Annie’s and Chicken Mary’s.