Ken Rothwell started selling chicken pot pies last December as a way to keep busy in the slow months of his catering business.

A year later, he's sold 35,000 pies and counting.

Rothwell and business partner Chris Ingemi opened Ken's Kickin' Chicken as a retail store for prepared foods and pies at the location of Rothwell's other business, Rothwell's Custom Catering, on Franklin Street behind the North Street gas station and across from HMA.

The only complaint from customers, Rothwell says, is the business is hard to find. Once they come for one of his chicken pot pies, they always come back.

Rothwell, who owned Taste of Thyme in Salem before founding his catering company six years ago, said his pies "blow the competition away."

He backs up his bravado, by pointing to positive reviews on Yelp! and the thousands of fans he has on his Facebook page, plus good reviews in the Boston Globe and North Shore Dish.

After checking out the competition by sampling their pies, Rothwell says, he made one of his own with fresh cut carrots, big chunks of white chicken, gravy, and a crispy crust.

"I'm looking at it and I'm thinking — that looks pretty... good," he said. "We don't put sodium [or] nitrates in them.  Everything is fresh."