Copycat Chick-fil-A Sandwich
You won’t believe how easy this copycat recipe is, and it tastes 100000x better than the original! You can’t beat that!
When you live 1.34 miles away from Chick-fil-A, it’s only natural to pick up a Chick-fil-A sandwich on a weekly basis. But since I have already tried re-creating their nuggets, I finally gave their sandwich a try, and I am happy to report back that we may never have to go through that drive-thru lane ever again.
The sandwich is made similar to their nuggets, except you’ll be using thin sliced chicken cutlets here. You can also use chicken breast, butterflied and pounded out, but either way, this sandwich will knock your socks off.
It’s amazingly crisp, juicy and tender, and you can load up your burger with plenty of pickles, greens and tomatoes, which are all three toppings they tend to skimp on! You can also prep the chicken beforehand, pop it in the fridge, and cook it right before serving. Easy peasy!
Copycat Chick-fil-A Sandwich
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup dill pickle juice
- 1 ½ cups milk, divided
- 1 cup peanut oil
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For serving
- 4 hamburger buns, split
- 1 head green leaf lettuce, leaves separated
- 1 beefsteak tomato, sliced
- Dill pickle slices
Instructions
- Place a chicken breast on a cutting board. With your hand flat on top of it, carefully slice the chicken in half horizontally. Trim excess fat as needed.
- In a large shallow baking dish, combine chicken, pickle juice and 1/2 cup milk; marinate for at least 30 minutes. Drain well.
- Heat peanut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- In another large shallow baking dish, whisk together remaining 1 cup milk and egg. Stir in chicken to coat and drain excess milk mixture.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine chicken, flour and confectioners' sugar; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Working in batches, add chicken to the skillet and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Serve chicken immediately on burger buns with green leaf lettuce, tomato and pickles.
Did you make this recipe?
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I followed the exact recipe and my chicken came out amazing !!! I added some paprika and went heavy handed on salt and pepper but it came out just right ! I didn’t have the issue of the breading falling apart….
This was the BEST chicken sandwich we have ever had. Perfect seasoning, nice light breading. Thank you for recipe!
Good work.
I followed this as closely as I could and it came out ok… but definitely not like Chick fil a and definitely not better. Not sure where I went wrong but it seemed like all the breading just fell off in the peanut oil. It ended up something like a cross between the fried and grilled sandwiches. Was it bad? No. Was it ‘surprisingly easy’ to recreate Chick fil a? No. I’ll have to research where I went wrong (I almost never deep fry or bread). I did follow the recipe as closely as I could because of that though so if you have any tips that’s appreciated.
The key to the breading is in part having ths oil nice and hot already! A good test is to take a couple drops of cool tap water and drop it into the oil. If it reacts, the pil is hot and ready! If it barely even fizzles, turn up the heat and wait another couple of minutes!
I myself found this recipe to be very tasty! My only issue is that I love fried chicken that has a batter breading, so its nice and thick! However, I found that the chicken was very juicy and cooked through without problem, so I’m happy!
Sorry, but you should never drop water (any amount) into hot oil. It will cause the oil to sizzle and pop and could cause an oil fire. Much too dangerous. Oil temperature should be at 350F for good results; use a thermometer to check temperature of oil.
This is good in theory, but not everyone can afford a thermometer. Plus, the water trick has been done in my family for GENERATIONS and not one single grease fire because of it. Regardless, I agree that you should always remember “safety first, safety always” and be careful when testing the oil temperature.
For those not using peanut oil…Y’all do realize who the single largest buyer of peanut oil is right?!?!
Who is the single largest buyer Mac?
Chik fil a, that’s what they try all their chicken in, it’s part of the taste.
Domain name checks out, that was damndelicious! I like spice and added cayenne to the flour mixture. Double dredged the chicken and toped the bun with a mix of mayo, hot sauce and diced pickles.
Hi! Just curious how much cayenne you put in. I don’t want to put in too much and make it inedible… but I love the spicy chicken sandwich
Delish!!! Better than chick fil a. Easy and quick.
Honestly I am not one to even write reviews but this was very disappointing.. the breading was not thick at all, almost non existent, when I read that there were no seasonings it gave me a red light but I persisted with the recipes.. there definitely should’ve been seasoning.
DAMN DELICIOUS!
Loved it! I double dipped the chicken breasts and added extra spice like suggested in the comments. Next time I will marinate for 24 hours. I also ran out of All-Purpose flour and used Wheat and it was fine. Used mixture of Peanut oil and Canola oil. Made the sauce that was shared in the comments and it was delicious. I would love to try a baked version though, so if anyone does try please share results! This recipe was easy to follow with excellent results!
Love the recipe but can never get it the crispy texture. Help
Have any Celiacs tried this with an alternate flour? I’d love to try a Chick Fil A. My kids (non-Celiacs) love them!
Yes, I did this with potato flour for a friend and it came out great! Any starchy flour will work though.
Very good, but I would back off the milk to 1/2 C in the egg mixture. 1 Cup caused the crust on the chicken to be too thin.
Surprisingly very good! All I was missing was the sauce.
Google copy cat sauce, I found one and it was perfect.
Can anyone verify a way to make this in the oven? Even a quick fry on the stove is fine, that then moves to the oven, but I never have good luck with making good totally fried large chunks of meat.
Amazing. Followed recipe exactly except added paprika to flour mix. Tasted a lot like Chic Fil A, except in my opinion it was better. Buttered buns and placed in oven to crisp. Absolutely recommend this recipe!
Just did this recipe since we are stationed in Japan and have no access to a Chik-fil-A. I’ll say it did have that hint of a true Chik-fil-a sandwich and I think it was mostly because of the pickle juice marinade. It’s still not the real thing though, but was a nice “teaser” that will help restrain the cravings til we get back home!
Thank You for your service. Get home soon:)
Turned out soooo yummy! I made it with chicken thigh. Added onion powder and some garlic powder and cayenne for a kick. Pickle juice blew my mind! So tasty!
I used crushed pork rinds instead of flour. They came out amazing.
Oh wow, great idea!
Doesn’t taste like chick file but it’s decent. I substituted white vinegar for pickle juice because I didn’t have any. It’s like marinating chicken in buttermilk, pickle juice or vinegar.
It tastes like chick fila if you follow the recipe; the pickle juice is key for the flavor.
Tastes very close to the original and my kids love it. Yes, must follow the recipe.
The pickle juice gives it that yummy taste.
The pickle juice is key. Without it, you’ll have a nice sandwich but it definitely won’t taste like chik-fil-A.
Before finding this recipe, I tried with vinegar (different types) and all sorts of citrus, but , surprisingly, the pickle juice is the only thing that worked.
How do you describe PERFECT!
My son told me it was a grand slam!
Let me first start off with I never write reviews , well until now . As I was putting the recipe together I thought, no ways just going to taste like Chick-fil-A, then I thought after cooking in the peanut oil there is no way this is going to taste like Chick-fil-A. I bought a package of four chicken breasts which I cut in half long ways and then cut in half sideways which gave me 16 chicken patties for sandwiches.
I, My wife and daughter ate a total of 6 chicken sandwiches for dinner and I thought maybe they didn’t like them. When I packed a sandwich for lunch, when I came home today from work my daughter had already ate two chicken sandwiches for lunch, when my wife got home I asked her what’s for dinner and she said chicken sandwiches because they were delicious. Needless to say we ate all 16 sandwiches within two days.
I will definitely make these again, maybe when my family is over for the football game.
This is a tasty chicken sandwich. It does not resemble a chick fil a sandwich at all. Still, delicious for what it is!
Have you ever had a chic fil a sandwich then? They may not be spot on but pretty damn close! Maybe you should have one before you comment.