Babe's Chicken

Babe’s Chicken Dinner House is a family-owned restaurant group with 12 locations operating under three different concepts throughout Texas. Known for their family-style service and made-from-scratch recipes, Babe’s has built a loyal following by serving classic comfort food with a commitment to quality and consistency.

Among their signature offerings is a homemade oil vinaigrette salad dressing served family-style in 24-oz. portions. With each location preparing enough salad dressing for approximately 2,000 people daily, maintaining consistency while managing labor-intensive prep work had become a significant operational challenge for Babe’s.

Before implementing AyrKing’s Mixstir, Babe’s relied on a manual mixing process using three-gallon buckets and hand-stirring. This labor-intensive approach created several operational pain points:

• Labor intensity: Preparing salad dressing for high-volume service required hours of manual stirring. Each location spent three hours daily on salad dressing preparation alone.
• Consistency issues: “Before Mixstir, if the dressing wasn’t stirred properly, the oil and vinegar ratio was off,” explained Wayne Reynolds, corporate chef at Babe’s. “The black pepper and salt/seasonings would settle at the bottom.”
• Ongoing maintenance: Even after initial preparation, the dressing required re-stirring before being served in family-style portions, adding another layer of labor to an already time-consuming process.

Babe’s had been using AyrKing’s BBS (Breader Blender Sifter) for years to bread their signature fried chicken. When AyrKing suggested Mixstir could help streamline their sauce preparation process, Reynolds was intrigued.

“We saw it in action at NAFEM and had to try it,” Reynolds said. After a one- to two-month testing period, the decision was clear: “We immediately got one for every single store.”

The Mixstir provided Babe’s with an automated mixing solution specifically engineered for batters, seasoned oils, and sauces. Unlike conventional blenders that inject air and disrupt flavor profiles, Mixstir’s slow-RPM motor and proprietary wing-shaped blade design maintain consistent mixing without foaming.

The Mixstir transformed all Babe’s sauce and dressing processes. “Although our biggest seller is the oil vinaigrette homemade salad dressing, we use it for tartar sauce, honey mustard, basically all our sauces,” Reynolds explained.

• Dramatic labor savings: “The Mixstir cut the labor on our homemade salad dressing in half,” Reynolds said. “It used to take us three hours, now we’re down to an hour to and hour 15 max.”
• Perfect consistency, every time: With Mixstir’s continuous automated mixing, settling became a thing of the past. “With Mixstir, the seasonings don’t settle. It’s consistent every time,” Reynolds noted.

Babe’s relationship with AyrKing extends beyond Mixstir. The restaurant group relies on two BBS units in every location for breading their signature fried chicken.

“When we first tested it, we saved 30-35 50-lb. bags of flour per month, easily saving 250 bags of flour a month across all our locations,” said Reynolds.

The consistency benefits extended to the final product. “Breading the chicken is easier, and it’s more consistent coming out of the fryer. Employees love it,” Reynolds added.

Throughout their partnership, Reynolds has been consistently impressed with AyrKing’s customer service.

AyrKing’s Mixstir delivers continuous, automated mixing tailored for commercial food prep:

• Low-RPM motor prevents foaming while maintaining proper suspension
• Proprietary wing-shaped blade design ensures even mixing
• Stainless-steel construction for durability and easy cleaning
• One-button operation simplifies training
• Consistent results batch after batch
• Available in 7-quart and 8-gallon vessel sizes

For Babe’s, the Mixstir has become an indispensable tool across all locations, fundamentally improving how they prepare their signature homemade sauces and dressings:

• 50% reduction in labor time for salad dressing preparation
• Perfect consistency in every batch, eliminating settling issues
• Simplified workflow with no need for re-stirring before service
• Scalable solution successfully deployed across all 12 locations

Combined with AyrKing’s BBS for chicken breading, Babe’s has built a foundation of reliable, efficient equipment that supports their commitment to made-from-scratch quality at scale.

Learn more about the Mixstir.