USA Chicken Express

USA Chicken Express is a busy fried-chicken-led takeaway on South Street, the road that runs from the southern end of Ilkeston town centre down towards Nottingham Road. It is a multi-category shop in the standard Ilkeston independent style — chicken, pizzas, kebabs, burgers, wraps and a long sides list — but the chicken bucket and the meal deals are what bring most of the customers through the door.

The chicken comes southern-fried in the standard cuts, with hot wings, strips and a long burger list built around chicken fillets and beef patties. The pizza side runs to about twenty toppings on twelve-inch bases, with calzones, garlic-bread starters and a few meal-deal bundles aimed at family-sized orders. Kebabs cover donner, shish and mixed, served as wraps or in trays with chips and salad. Sauces are familiar — garlic mayo, chilli, BBQ — and the family bucket boxes are what drives the volume.

The shop trades from late afternoon through to late evening, picking up the post-pub trade from the streets around the Market Place. The USA Chicken Express website and Just Eat both handle online orders for delivery across central Ilkeston, Cotmanhay and Kirk Hallam, with substantial collection trade as well.