Last fall we introduced you to the women of Merinac, the fictional Southern town that serves as the setting for Hallmark’s adaptation of the beloved, best-selling novel by KJ Dell’Antonia, The Chicken Sisters. Originally, the series premiered on the network’s streaming service, Hallmark +, but have y’all heard the good news? The series is finally making its network debut. 

On Sunday, March 30, The Chicken Sisters premieres on Hallmark Channel and if you didn’t get to see it on Hallmark +, now is your chance. You will not want to miss this series, y’all. It’s got everything. Feuding families, a fierce food competition show, and estranged family members who may or may not be ready to mend fences. 

The show centers around the small town’s two chicken shops, Mimi’s and Frannie’s and the complicated history between the two families that own them. The town is divided into two camps. You are either Team Mimi’s or Team Frannie’s and you cannot cross enemy lines.

Mimi’s is owned by the somewhat prickly Augusta, or Gus Moore, played by Wendie Malick. Gus has soldiered on in keeping her shop open despite her daughter Mae (Genevieve Angelson), leaving for a new, much more glamorous life as a television host, and her other daughter Amanda(Schuyler Fisk), while still in Merinac, defecting to the other side. When Amanda married Frank Jr., son of Frannie’s owner Nancy Hillier (Lea Thompson), it was seen as choosing the other side and Gus then banned Amanda from Mimi’s. Amanda works alongside her mother-in-law Nancy whom she finds to be a more natural mother figure. Together they run Frannie’s. But business for both shops has been tough and Amanda is feeling unsettled until she gets a wild idea. 

Amanda writes into a TV food competition show and much to her surprise, the show reaches out. And the next thing she knows, a television crew has descended upon her tiny town and is set to pit her against her own mother in the ultimate fried chicken show down. 

As we meet Mae, things aren’t going as well for her as she presents to the world either. So when she gets word of this TV show featuring her family business, she sets off to return to the town (and the Southern drawl) she left behind so many years ago. 

Southern Living visited the set last summer and sat down with each of the four leading ladies. Of Mae’s return to Merinac, Angelson said, “I think that my character in particular tells a distinct story because she has sort of a shameful relationship to her past. And so much of her identity is founded upon being a New Yorker now. I think what you’ll see over the course of the season is the ways in which she sort of rewrites her relationship to things about being from the South that she really loves.” 

Of the complicated place her character finds herself in, Fisk told us, “I feel like people can really identify with the [idea that] people you love the most, you can hurt the most. And you can get the most mad at. But it’s because you love them so much and you care. Those relationships are really complicated and really complex and I just love that the show is going there. Nothing is simple. It’s not glassed over. These are complicated relationships with complex women. Strong women. They’re all coming from something. From somewhere. They all have a backstory that informs why these relationships are the way they are. It’s been really fun to sort of uncover those backstories and find where this all came from and how we can figure it out.”

Will Gus and her daughters find a way back to each other? Will these two feuding families ever find peace? Which chicken shop will be crowned the best in Merinac? You’ll have to tune in to find out. The Chicken Sisters will now air on Hallmark Channel on Sunday nights at 8:00/9:00 p.m EST.