8 Cracker Barrel To-Go Orders That Don’t Travel Well in Alabama

Do you assume your Cracker Barrel to-go order will be the same at your kitchen table as it did in the restaurant’s dining room?

Some don’t.

That matters. Cracker Barrel told investors in early 2023 that takeout, delivery and catering had grown to 23% of a quarter’s sales.

These are the Cracker Barrel to-go orders that don’t travel well in Alabama, and the same orders fall apart the same way in every other state the chain serves.

1. Chicken n’ Dumplins

Cracker Barrel’s Chicken n’ Dumplins come out of the kitchen simmered low and slow, what the chain’s menu calls tender, pillowy perfection.

That description holds up at the table.

Seal that broth inside a to-go container, and the trapped steam keeps cooking the dumplings the whole ride home.

They turn gummy fast.

Dumplings that felt light in the dining room thicken into something closer to paste by the time you’re back at your kitchen counter.

The broth around them turns starchy and thick instead of loose.

2. Hash Brown Casserole

Cracker Barrel’s Hash Brown Casserole comes out of the oven bubbling, a cheesy, buttery block of shredded potatoes.

That bubble doesn’t survive a car ride.

The cheese and cream sauce holding the dish together re-set as they cool.

Soft, hot potatoes turn into a dense, gummy block by the time you’re home.

It sets like concrete.

A microwave brings the heat back.

It doesn’t bring back the crisp, browned edges the casserole had straight out of the kitchen.

3. Country Fried Steak

Cracker Barrel breads its Country Fried Steak and fries it golden, then covers the whole plate in sawmill gravy before it reaches the table.

That gravy is the problem in a to-go box.

It never stops.

Sealed in with a hot, breaded cutlet, the gravy’s steam softens the crust before you’re even out of the parking lot.

The breading keeps soaking up gravy the longer the drive runs.

Order it to go, and you’re ordering steak with soft breading, since the crust is already sinking by the time it leaves the building.

4. Chicken Fried Chicken

Cracker Barrel’s Chicken Fried Chicken is a wide, thin cutlet, breaded and fried the same way as the steak next to it on the menu.

That extra surface area works against it.

Speed is everything.

More crust means more places for trapped steam to soften, so a thin cutlet loses its crunch faster than a thicker piece of fried meat would.

Order it fresh at a table, and the crunch holds through the whole plate.

Order it to go.

You’re racing the clock from the moment the box closes.

5. Fried Okra

Cracker Barrel's Fried Okra carries the thinnest coating of anything fried on the menu, a light cornmeal crust over small-cut pods.

That thinness is exactly why it doesn't travel.

It goes first.

A side with heavier breading holds its crunch longer, but okra's coating is so light it drops from crisp to soft within minutes inside a closed container.

It's usually the first thing to go soft in the bag.

By the time the rest of a family meal has cooled, the okra has already lost the fight.

6. Buttermilk Biscuits

Cracker Barrel bakes its buttermilk biscuits fresh, with a flaky crust that holds up as long as air can get to it.

A sealed to-go bag takes that air away.

The crust never returns.

The steam trapped inside softens the crust within minutes, so a biscuit that was flaky at the table turns tough and a little chewy by the time you're home.

Biscuits and cornbread have been on Cracker Barrel's menu since the chain's very first day, so this is a texture problem the company has lived with for decades.

7. Momma's Pancake Breakfast

Cracker Barrel's Momma's Pancake Breakfast comes with a short stack, and the syrup and butter usually ride along in a separate cup.

Keep that cup sealed until you're home, and you're still in trouble.

Trapped steam does the damage.

That steam turns the pancakes rubbery inside the closed container, and they go from fluffy to dense before the syrup ever touches them.

Add the syrup on top of that.

Everything underneath turns soft together, and the eggs riding alongside the stack cool quickly too.

8. Fried Catfish

Cracker Barrel's Fried Catfish gets a thin, cornmeal-style breading, the same style of coating as the fried okra sitting next to it on a to-go plate.

That breading doesn't hold up either.

It fades fast.

The fillet keeps cooking from its trapped heat after it leaves the fryer, and the crust softens at close to the same pace as the okra's does.

By the time you unwrap it, the crunch that sold you on it in the dining room is mostly gone.

The $5 Meal's Catch

Cracker Barrel has leaned harder into to-go food over the past few years.

Stores in the state have followed the same national shift.

The chain told investors in early 2023 that catering revenue jumped 40% in a single quarter, with a goal of building annual catering sales to $100 million.

That push now includes a newer $5 meal, a protein and a side meant for the fridge, not the road.

There's a catch, though.