Mother Clucker

Mother Clucker is a Kansas City-grown Nashville-hot-chicken concept founded in 2018 by chef couple Derrick and Kylie Foster, who fell for hot chicken on weekend trips to Nashville and married there the same year. It started as a stall inside the Parlor KC food hall in the Crossroads and grew into a standalone brand with a brick-and-mortar in downtown Shawnee. Customizable heat levels, scratch craft, and a local-founder story make it the home-team answer to the national chains.

Tier classification

Tier 1. Mother Clucker is a Kansas City-originated, family-owned independent. Founders Derrick and Kylie Foster launched the concept in 2018 inside the Parlor KC food hall in the Crossroads and built it into a KC-area brand — the press consistently frames it as a “KC-based Nashville hot chicken restaurant.” This is a locally rooted, owner-operated business carrying clear pride and dedication to its KC base, which is what Tier 1 measures. It stands as the independent, home-grown counterpoint to the national chains (Dave’s) in the KC Nashville-hot-chicken field. Note: the Foster founders’ personal born-and-raised origins are not yet confirmed; Tier 1 is assigned on the strength of the KC-founded, family-owned, locally-built profile, and can be revisited if origin facts warrant. founder hometown / born-raised status

Ownership & history

Derrick and Kylie Foster met and fell in love at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. They made frequent weekend trips to Nashville, fell for the city’s hot chicken, and married there in 2018. That same year they opened the first Mother Clucker as a stall inside the Parlor KC food hall in Kansas City’s Crossroads district. The concept grew, and the Fosters expanded — opening a standalone restaurant in downtown Shawnee (5930 Nieman Rd; announced Jan 2022, opened February 2023) and, in July 2024, a Leawood location at Park Place (11635 Ash St).¹

Current footprint (verified 2026-06-23): two locations open — Crossroads/Parlor KC original and Shawnee — and the Leawood location closed. The Leawood/Park Place location (11635 Ash St) closed in December 2025 after roughly 1.5 years; the Fosters confirmed the closure by email, calling it “a devastating loss for our small, family-owned business,” and declined further detail.¹ Coverage confirmed at the time that the two other locations would remain open: the original Crossroads/Parlor KC stall (in business since 2018) and the downtown Shawnee restaurant.¹ As of 2026-06-23 both remaining locations are confirmed active — the Crossroads location’s Yelp page was updated June 2026 with current hours and is taking orders, and the Shawnee location is confirmed active via current listings.¹ The brand’s registry_status therefore stays active (it continues to operate two KC-area locations). The company has also publicized franchise opportunities.

[!warning] Stale official-site caveat — As of 2026-06-23 the official websites (mothercluckerkc.com and mothercluckerofficial.com) still present the closed Leawood/Park Place location as an open, orderable location card alongside Crossroads and Shawnee. This contradicts the Dec 2025 closure confirmed by the Fosters in local press and by the Yelp listing for that address (titled “Mother Clucker — CLOSED,” updated June 2026). The page footprint above follows the verified press + Yelp evidence, not the stale site cards.¹

Menu

Last verified: 2026-06-23 · Sources: official menu page (mothercluckerkc.com) + Uber Eats / Yelp delivery listings (Shawnee) · Confidence: Medium (item names and heat ladder verified on the official menu; prices sourced from delivery platforms, which typically run above in-store and rotate — treat as indicative)

The format is a build-your-own ladder: pick a heat level, then a chicken format (sandwich, tenders, or wings), then sides. Everything is Nashville-style fried chicken — boneless breast tenders, oversized wings, and the signature Comeback Sandwich.²

Heat ladder (six levels)

From no heat to inferno: OG Plain (no heat) → Weak Stuff (teensy heat) → Kicking It Up (hint of burn) → Cluck Yeah (blazing) → Mother Clucker (inferno) → What the Cluck! (no clucks given).²

Chicken

• Comeback Sandwich — fried chicken breast, slaw, pickles, cluck sauce, bun (the signature; ~$13.75).²³
• Jumbo Tenders — served with sliced bread, pickles, and choice of dipping sauce; Solo ($5.50) / Double ($10.75) / Triple (~$14.75).²³
• Wings — jumbo drums & flats with bread, pickles, and a dipping sauce; 4 / 6 / 12 / 24 piece (4 pc ~$10.75; 12 pc ~$26.00; 6 & 24 pc prices).²³

Sides & salad

• Crinkle Fries (~$4.50), Slaw, and Nashville Hot Fried Pickles (customizable heat; ~$8.50).²³
• Eat Yo’ Greens salad — mixed greens, tomatoes, red onion, cheese blend, housemade ranch or balsamic.²

Squad packs (3–4 people)

• Cluck Fries — fries, 2 cluckers, slaw, pickles, ranch, cluck sauce (Large ~$28.00).²³
• Bucket of Tenders — one dozen jumbo tenders with a chosen heat level.²

Shakes

• Crazy Cluckin’ Shakes — flavors set daily by staff (e.g., Classic Oreo ~$8.50).²³

Prices are indicative as of 2026-06-23, sourced from delivery-platform listings (Uber Eats / Yelp) which typically run above in-store pricing and rotate frequently. Heat-level names and item lineup verified against the official Shawnee/Downtown menu.

Sources

• Mother Clucker — official site
• Mother Clucker — About
• Mother Clucker (mothercluckerkc.com) — About Us
• Parlor KC — Mother Clucker / Derrick Foster
• Kansas City Magazine — “A Mother Clucker is coming near you”
• Johnson County Post — “Mother Clucker!, KC-based Nashville hot chicken restaurant, coming to downtown Shawnee” (2022)
• Johnson County Post — “Hot chicken restaurant Mother Clucker closes Leawood location” (Dec 2025)
• Yelp — Mother Clucker, Shawnee (updated May 2026)
• Yelp — Mother Clucker, Crossroads / 1707 Locust St (updated June 2026)
• Yelp — Mother Clucker, Leawood / 11635 Ash St — listing marked “CLOSED” (updated June 2026)

Footnotes

1. Operating-status verification (Pass 4), access date 2026-06-23. Asserts the current two-location footprint and the Leawood closure. (1) Johnson County Post, “Hot chicken restaurant Mother Clucker closes Leawood location” (Dec 11, 2025) — https://johnsoncountypost.com/2025/12/11/mother-clucker-leawood-closes-275751/ — confirms the Leawood/Park Place location (11635 Ash St) closed Dec 2025 after ~1.5 years (opened July 2024); Fosters confirmed by email, called it “a devastating loss for our small, family-owned business”; states the Crossroads/Parlor KC original (open since 2018) “remains in business” and the downtown Shawnee location (opened February 2023) stays open. (2) Yelp — Mother Clucker, Leawood — https://www.yelp.com/biz/mother-clucker-leawood — listing titled “MOTHER CLUCKER - CLOSED - Updated June 2026,” independently corroborating the closure. (3) Yelp — Mother Clucker, Crossroads/1707 Locust St — https://www.yelp.com/biz/mother-clucker-kansas-city — “Updated June 2026,” current hours (Tue–Thu 11am–10pm, Fri–Sat 11am–11pm, Sun 11am–9pm, Mon closed), taking orders → Crossroads confirmed open. (4) Official site — https://www.mothercluckerkc.com/ (accessed 2026-06-23) — stale: still presents Leawood/Park Place as an open, orderable location card alongside Crossroads and Shawnee; this contradicts the verified press + Yelp evidence and is NOT relied on for the closed-Leawood determination. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Mother Clucker official menu — Downtown / Shawnee menu — https://www.mothercluckerkc.com/menus/downtown-shawnee-menu — Asserts: heat ladder (OG Plain → What the Cluck!), Comeback Sandwich composition, Jumbo Tenders (solo/double/triple), Wings (4/6/12/24 pc), Eat Yo’ Greens salad, sides (crinkle fries, slaw, Nashville hot fried pickles), Squad Packs (Cluck Fries, Bucket of Tenders), Crazy Cluckin’ Shakes. Verified 2026-06-23. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. Mother Clucker — Shawnee delivery listings (Uber Eats / Yelp) — https://www.ubereats.com/store/mother-cluckers/iCToLGnvU8eTh_eflj00NQ and https://www.yelp.com/biz/mother-clucker-shawnee — Asserts: indicative prices — Comeback Sandwich ~$13.75; Solo Tender ~$5.50 / Double ~$10.75 / Triple ~$14.75; Wings 4 pc ~$10.75 / 12 pc ~$26.00; Small Fries ~$4.50; Fried Pickles ~$8.50; Large Cluck Fry ~$28.00; Classic Oreo Shake ~$8.50. Delivery-platform pricing (above in-store), verified 2026-06-23. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶