Looking for Champs Chicken vegetarian options? There are a few real ones, but the menu is built around fried chicken, so you have to know which sides are safe and which ones aren’t. Mac and cheese, a buttermilk biscuit, and sweet corn survive. The fries and wedges don’t, because of how the kitchen fries them. If you eat at gas stations and travel centers on road trips, we built this site to answer exactly this question for every chain you’ll pass on the way, one honest menu breakdown at a time.
A Quick Look at Champs Chicken
Champs Chicken isn’t a stand-alone restaurant chain in the usual sense. It’s a fried chicken program that convenience stores, grocery stores, and truck stops install inside their existing building, the same idea as Krispy Krunchy Chicken or Hunt Brothers Pizza. Shawn and Julie Burcham founded the parent company, Pro Food Systems Inc., in 1998 out of their home in Willard, Missouri. The Champs Chicken brand launched the next year, and the first location opened on April 30, 1999, inside a Show Me Oil Co. store in Auxvasse, Missouri.
The company, now known as PFS Brands and headquartered in Holts Summit, Missouri, became 100 percent employee-owned in 2017 when the Burchams sold the business to an employee stock ownership plan. Trade press covering the brand’s 2025 franchise-program launch put Champs Chicken at more than 520 branded locations across 29 states, almost all of them tucked inside a host convenience store or grocery chain rather than freestanding. In March 2025, Champs Chicken opened its first stand-alone corporate location, in Columbia, Missouri, a shift away from its usual store-within-a-store model.
The core menu leans hard into fried chicken. Tenders, chicken dippers, bone-in pieces, a Premium Chicken Sandwich, even a fish sandwich, a breaded pork loin sandwich, and a pulled pork sandwich round things out, plus dipping sauces like honey mustard and a sweet and smokey BBQ sauce. None of that helps if you don’t eat meat, which is exactly why the sides carry this guide.
Champs Chicken Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here’s the honest rundown of Champs Chicken vegetarian options, side by side, so you’re not guessing at the counter. Marks are conservative on purpose. When a side shares a fryer with chicken, fish, or shrimp, it’s marked “check” even though the recipe itself has no meat in it.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Macaroni & Cheese | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy, egg) |
| Sweet Corn | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (buttered/seasoned) |
| Buttermilk Biscuit | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Cinnamon Apples | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (prep method not confirmed) |
| Mashed Potatoes & Gravy | ⚠️ Check (gravy is likely chicken-based) | ❌ No |
| French Fries | ⚠️ Check (shared fryer with chicken, fish, shrimp) | ⚠️ Check |
| Seasoned Potato Wedges | ⚠️ Check (shared fryer) | ⚠️ Check |
| Hushpuppies | ⚠️ Check (shared fryer, contains egg and dairy) | ❌ No |
| Green Beans | ❌ No (smoked ham and bacon) | ❌ No |
| Collard Greens (where available) | ❌ No (ham) | ❌ No |
| Ranch, Honey Mustard, BBQ dipping sauces | ✅ Yes (most) | ⚠️ Check (some contain egg) |
Sides That Actually Work
Four sides are genuinely vegetarian at Champs Chicken, no asterisk needed. Macaroni and cheese is the easiest order, a straightforward dairy-and-egg dish with no meat in the recipe. Sweet corn is next, seasoned and buttered but never touched by chicken. The buttermilk biscuit is dairy-based bread, safe for vegetarians even though the name gives away that it isn’t vegan. Cinnamon apples round out the list, a sweeter side with no dairy or meat flagged on the official nutrition guide, though the chain doesn’t specify whether they’re fried or steamed, so we can’t confirm they skip the shared fryer entirely.
Mashed potatoes and gravy is trickier. Champs Chicken sells both a “Chicken Gravy” and a “White Pepper Gravy” as separate items, and neither the menu nor the allergen sheet spells out whether the gravy poured over mashed potatoes contains meat drippings. Given the name of the chicken gravy option, treat the standard mashed potatoes and gravy as likely non-vegetarian unless a specific location confirms otherwise.
Why the Fries Aren’t a Safe Bet
This is the one most people miss. Champs Chicken’s own nutrition and allergen guide states that the chain uses the same shortening to fry items across its menu, which means French fries and seasoned potato wedges go into the same oil as fried chicken, fish, and shrimp. Neither the fries nor the wedges have a meat ingredient in the recipe, but strict vegetarians who avoid cross-contact with animal products should treat both as off-limits. Hushpuppies fall into the same category, fried in that shared shortening and also carrying egg and dairy in the batter itself.
Skip the green beans and, where they’re on the menu, the collard greens. Champs Chicken’s own site describes the green beans as “infused with smoked ham, bacon, and onions,” and the collard greens as seasoned with “salty ham.” Both are clearly not vegetarian, no cross-contact caveat required. Collard greens also appear to be a regional or limited-time item rather than a fixture at every location, so check before you order.
What’s Vegan at Champs Chicken?
Not much, honestly. Sweet corn and cinnamon apples are the closest things to a vegan pick, and even those come with a “check first” asterisk since seasoning, butter, and prep method aren’t fully spelled out on the public menu. Everything else on the vegetarian list, mac and cheese, the biscuit, most dipping sauces, contains dairy or egg. If you’re strictly vegan, Champs Chicken is a tough stop. Call ahead or ask the counter staff how the corn and apples are prepared before you count on them.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Champs Chicken publishes a nutrition and allergen guide that flags egg, milk, soy, wheat, and gluten across different sides, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, hushpuppies, and the biscuit all carry one or more of those. The same document is where the shared-fryer disclosure comes from, so anyone managing a shellfish or fish allergy needs to know that fries and wedges cook in oil that also fries shrimp and fish fillets, not just chicken. Because Champs Chicken locations operate inside a host convenience store or grocery chain, preparation can vary slightly by location. When an allergy is serious, ask the counter staff directly rather than relying on the national menu alone.
Tips for Vegetarians at Champs Chicken
- Order mac and cheese, sweet corn, and a buttermilk biscuit together for a full vegetarian side plate.
- Skip the French fries and potato wedges if you avoid cross-contact with meat, since they share a fryer with chicken, fish, and shrimp.
- Never order the green beans or collard greens. Both are seasoned with real ham and bacon.
- Ask before ordering mashed potatoes and gravy. The gravy is likely made from a chicken base.
- If you’re vegan, stick to sweet corn and cinnamon apples, and confirm how they’re prepared at that specific location.
- Because Champs Chicken sits inside gas stations and grocery stores, check the host store’s other food options too. Some locations sell packaged salads or fruit at the front register.
Conclusion
Champs Chicken vegetarian options come down to four dependable sides: macaroni and cheese, sweet corn, a buttermilk biscuit, and cinnamon apples. Skip the fries, wedges, and hushpuppies if cross-contact matters to you, and skip the green beans and collard greens outright since both contain real ham and bacon. For more on eating vegetarian and vegan at chains like this one, see our full guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, browse every restaurant guide we’ve written, or check what’s vegetarian at Krispy Krunchy Chicken, Hunt Brothers Pizza, or Popeyes, three more chains built around the same convenience-store or fast-food fried menu.
