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Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken

Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken Brings Back Spicy Bourbon Dippers

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Spicy Bourbon Dippers are back on the menu at Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken for a limited time.

Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken is bringing back its Famous Fan favorite Spicy Bourbon Dippers at 45 of the brand’s locations. The popular menu offering was introduced for the first time last year as an innovation of one of Lee’s longtime franchisees.

“We appreciate our creative thinking operators who can take proven menu items and develop new and different flavor pairings,” says Lee’s CEO Ryan Weaver. “Who better than local franchisees to know what established products appeal to their customers? While this product was initially ideated in the Dayton market, we saw last year that it had much broader market appeal. Tossing our already delicious Spicy Jumbo Dippers, which are big bites of our famous boneless chicken, in this Kickin’ Bourbon Sauce with a side of cool ranch for dipping is the perfect fall pairing no matter where you live and enjoy your Lee’s.”

Spicy Bourbon Dippers take Lee’s signature menu item of Spicy Jumbo Dippers and toss them in a spicy bourbon barbeque sauce with a side of ranch for dipping. Lee’s dippers are always freshly marinated in a special blend of seasonings, then hand breaded twice.

All Lee’s Dippers are made with big bites of boneless chicken that are freshly marinated in a special blend of seasonings, then hand breaded twice before hitting the fryer.

You can find Spicy Bourbon Dippers at 45 participating Lee’s locations through November 14, 2021.

Luminaries of Dayton: Harold K. Omer

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L to R: Harold Omer, Ray Danner and Lee Cummings. Danner was the owner of Shoney’s, which at the time owned the Famous Recipe franchise.

The founding of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken.

Lee Cummings, the nephew of Colonel Harland Sanders, spent his childhood in the kitchen of his Henryville, Indiana home. Lee hit the road with his Uncle Harland in 1952, selling their own special blend of spices along with their famous pressure cookers, which later became part of KFC’s “secret Recipe”. In three years, Lee and the Colonel opened over 800 KFC stores. In 1962, the Colonel sold KFC to John Y. Brown.

After the sale of KFC, Lee Cummings started developing his recipe later to be known as “Famous Recipe.” In 1966, Lee along with Harold Omer started “Harold’s Take-Home” in Lima, Ohio where Lee first introduced Famous Recipe Chicken.

By 1967, Lee and Bob Burick in Springfield, Ohio opened the fifth franchise store. Later that year, stores followed in Dayton and Cincinnati as well as in Michigan.

In 1972, Famous Recipe had 100 stores and by 1979 the number had doubled to 200. In 1981, Lee Cummings sold the chain to Shoney’s Restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee and in 1995, it was sold to RTM Restaurant Group in Atlanta, Georgia.

Locally, there are two major franchisees in the Miami Valley that keep the tradition of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken in the community.

Harold Omer was also a manager of aerospace engineering at Lima’s Westinghouse plant. Sometimes he would leave the office and go straight to his second job of frying chicken.

Harold K. Omer died in 1999. He is located in Section 100 of the Woodland Mausoleum.