We’re a week away from Thanksgiving, so it’s kind of timely to put up our ninth month post of our Clucky Dozen fried chicken eating tour here on MBIP.

This month takes us to Donnelly’s Irish Pub, an iconic Peoria pub whose roots go way back to the historic Shamrock bar!

Okay, let’s get the cluck over there and start month number nine of our fried chicken tour!

Here we are at Donnelly’s Irish Pub, it’s looking nice and festive out here! It’s also starting to get cold, let’s get inside where it’s warm!

I made reservations for a booth in the bar area and it looks like my fried chicken eating friends have arrived before me…

There’s my brother Tom and my cousin Jeff! Great to see them and now we can let this fried chicken evening commence!

Kim was our friendly and pretty waitress and here she is delivering Jeff and I a beer. Perfect timing!

We started off with an appetizer order of onion rings. They were a crispy and golden treat!

Now while our chicken is being fried up, I’ll take some photos in here.

They have an outstanding bar in here and as you can see, the Christmas decorations have been hung with care. Ho, ho and ho!

There’s the beers on tap with Stella hiding down at the end. Stella!

There’s tables opposite the bar, gaming machines in the corner and a nice round table over in this corner.

Here’s the spacious front dining room with tables and comfortable booths up in front and off to the side.

And now, my patent-pending Donnelly’s Irish Pub, oh deer photo.

“Oh deer!”

Meanwhile, back at our booth…

Our dinner is arriving.

Tom and Jeff got salads to start off with and I got an order of cole slaw. That was a nice start, but now it’s time for the star of the show…

The fried chicken dinners! Tom and Jeff got a baked potato and I got a side of their homemade potato chips.

The meals look fantastic, time to dig in!

The fried chicken was absolutely delicious.

The batter was really crispy and seasoned to perfection. Inside it was tasty, tender and really juicy. This is some fabulous fried chicken for sure!

There’s Tom and Jeff enjoying the meal and as always…

Jeff is the winner of the Fried Chicken Clean Plate Award!

No one can clean fried chicken off the bones like Jeff! He never disappoints!

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The Fried Chicken Dining Experience

Donnelly’s Irish Pub is a wonderful place to enjoy a meal and a drink or two. The bar area is relaxed and comfortable and the front dining area is spacious and inviting.

There’s fun and interesting art, photos and lights on the walls and there’s a welcoming vibe in here always.

Everyone is super-friendly and it’s always a nice place to dine and relax at.

We’ll give Donnelly’s a nice rating of three point five Colonel Sanders for the dining experience.

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The Fried Chicken

(As always, the fried chicken rating is my personal rating, we’ll have shared ratings on the last post of this tour.)

I really loved the fried chicken this month. We each ordered the Irish Countryside Fried Chicken, Donnelly’s signature fried chicken dinner.

The batter on the outside of the chicken was super crispy and very nicely seasoned. Inside the meat was tender, juicy and had a wonderful flavor.

I’ll give Donnelly’s Irish Pub’s fried chicken a high rating of three point six Colonel’s, tying them with Agatucci’s for the top spot on this tour!