Chick-O-Stick: The Candy That Has Nothing To Do With Chicken

So, any guesses what something called Chick-O-Stick is?  Lipstick for game hens?  A balm for chapped beaks?  A new KFC fried chicken snack?  No? What about a candy bar?

What is it about the humble chicken that inspires confectioners to use it as inspiration for the name for a new candy?

The granddaddy of this genre was the Chicken Dinner.  That one came from the Sperry Candy Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1923.  Nobody seems to know how the chocolate-covered nut roll with the roasted chicken on the wrapper it got its name, but those same sources are pretty sure this product was the inspiration for the old phrase “Winner, winner Chicken Dinner!” However it got the name, it remained a steady seller until Sperry was bought by Pearson’s in 1962. Unfortunately for that confection’s fans, that sale cooked Chicken Dinner’s goose and the candy bar was no more.

The Chick-O-Stick’s name has an equally murky past.  The consensus is that this confection with a crispy peanut butter center coated with an outer shell of toasted coconut got the name just because someone at the Atkinson Candy Co. liked the name.  Or liked the name better than the original idea of “Chicken Bones”. Maybe people in Texas just had fried chicken on the brain? 

The candy seems to date to the 1950’s, and the idea seems to have been a candy bar that could avoid the melted chocolate that must have been common in southern summers before air conditioning became common. And who wouldn’t love the mascot, a happy looking chicken with a lawman’s badge!

So many old candies are given new leases on life after their manufacturer has been, well, gobbled up by a bigger company. The Chick-O-Stick is an anomaly, because its originator (Atkinson Candy Co.) still makes them. Along with some some adopted stalwarts like the Mary Jane and the Slo Poke.

We found ourselves with a package of the bite-sized version in our pantry. Marianne likes candy with coconut in it, and one of us who shall not be identified decided to bring home a bag. I had never tried these and decided to grab a few for myself. And if we are going to try a new candy experience, it was only right to share the results here.

The innards of the Chick-O-Stick are a lot like a Butterfinger or a Clark bar, except that the outer crispy shell is coated in coconut instead of in chocolate. Personally, I am not a coconut candy kind of guy, although I am man enough to take it if my sweet tooth is nagging me bigly enough. I will confess that one Chick-O-Stick had a tendency to lead to two, which led to a third, and so on. Marianne was more discerning and prefers to stick to her preferred Mounds or Zagnut bars. So thanks dear, I will eat the rest of the Chick-O-Sticks.

There are, of course, worse fates than to finish off a bag of candy completely unmolested by others in the house who insist on a fair share. For me, the Chick-O-Stick represents an odd place in my taste buds. I like them well enough that I did not throw the bag out or let it go stale, but not well enough to polish it off in two or three days as would be my habit with other confections.

And I suppose I should take solace in the Chick-O-Stick being a little more healthy than some other options. It is vegan, if that sort of thing is important to you, and it also uses natural food colorings in place of earlier ingredients that made for a more vividly colored product. I guess I should take my healthy dietary habits where I can find them, and if I can find them in something from the candy aisle, well that’s something. I just wish it had more in the way of nuts and chocolate and less of the coconut. But then it would be something else and not a Chick-O-Stick. Which should be celebrated for its diversity from the normal choices offered by the big companies.

23 thoughts on “Chick-O-Stick: The Candy That Has Nothing To Do With Chicken”

  1. These have entered my orbit a time or two and they are indeed enjoyable. It was likely my grandparents who had acquired them. Like you, they were enjoyable but not enough to purge on.

    A tangent of sorts…until recently I would have been dismissive of these being advertised as vegan. Sounds like so much of a marketing ploy. Then I learned about the process of whitening sugar (at least by some manufacturers) which led Mrs. Jason to buy some vegan sugar. It’s real and it tastes better.

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  2. I’m trying to decide if I’ve ever heard of these, or more likely have Chiclets and Chuckles on the brain. Regardless, I’m having a hard time reconciling coconut and peanut butter. These don’t strike me as flavors that belong together. Also, does the toasted coconut really keep the stick together or is there some sort of cookie membrane? I’ll try anything with coconut, and despite my move to healthier brands of chocolate a Mounds bar will always tempt me. Finally, I note your fifth photo shows a weight of 1lb 8oz. That’s a mighty big Chick-O-Stick! 😉

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    • The combination of peanut butter and coconut is not one I would think to try either, but it is surprisingly good. It is one of those things that grows on you after you try one or three.

      The coconut is ground really finely and is set very solidly into the hard candy underneath, so it is not really messy.

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  3. I have never heard of these before, but they sound great! They do sound a lot like Zagnut bars, one of my favorites. That they replicate the experience of eating chicken bones….well, there’s that.

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  5. This must be a midwestern thing, because I have never heard of Chick-o-Sticks before. They sound like Zagnut bars, which were the first Halloween candy that I turned over to my father.

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    • I figured it was a southern thing, given the product’s longtime base in Texas. And yes, Zagnuts were never my favorite either. My Mrs., however, loves them!

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  7. Peanut butter and coconut – a strange combination. I’ve traveled all over north America in my career and I’ve never seen anything like this. Sounds and looks absolutely terrible. But once upon a time peanut butter and chocolate probably seemed like a bad combination too! If its anything like a Zagnut bar, well, I’ll withhold my opinion, as there are some folks that like them, although I can’t remember seeing a Zagnut bar in a long time too.

    Winner winner Chicken Dinner! I’d never have dreamed that this is where that originated. I learn something new and useful every day!

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    • I had heard my Mrs. talk about eating them during her childhood, but I don’t think I had ever had one until recently. It is indeed a strange combination, but it kind of works.

      That is my mission – to disseminate interesting but completely useless information!

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  8. Well this was something new to me, (that is not a Jazz sound, song or artist), but I would definitely try it as I am a big peanut butter fan. I’m trying to imagine the combo of peanut butter and coconut though … salty and sweet works for other treats, so why not for this treat too? I do love the puns and quips you put in this post … they left me cackling, er … chuckling JP.

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    • If you ever get to a Cracker Barrel restaurant, I think they carry these (along with many other obscure old-time candies from small confectioners). It is not something I would go out of my way to search out, but they are not bad at all.

      Life would be pretty dull without a decent smattering of puns!

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      • I haven’t been to a Cracker Barrel in a while but I remember they had old-fashioned candies. You can also find hard-to-find candy (and other hard-to-find items) at the Vermont Country Store. Yes, puns make life better!

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    • It may have boosted sales after the 1929 onset of the depression, but the bar had been named several years earlier during the boom years of the 1920’s. I think the name’s inspiration will have to remain a mystery.

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