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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do you think you could make this in an air fryer also?
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. But if you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Yes I have and they are great. Just spray both side with a spray oil. They brown beautifully and are crunchy.
I made a couple of changes to the recipe based on what I had on hand at home, but my family loved it so much, their friends are asking me to make it for them. I used boneless, skinless chicken THIGHS, and marinated them in the pickle juice and milk. (I doubled the recipe for the amount of chicken I had). Although this step seriously grossed out my 6 and 11 year old, later on, there were NO complaints. I ran out of milk for the milk/egg mixture so I mixed 2 eggs with a cup of plain whole fat Greek yogurt and added a tiny bit of water. After dipping the chicken in that mixture (and letting it sit in that a bit), I mixed seasoning salt, garlic powder, paprika and black pepper in a bowl and sprinkled that on the chicken before tossing it in the flour/powdered sugar mixture. I fried them for about 10 minutes in vegetable oil. I had mini brioche burger rolls on hand, so I sliced those in half (as you would Hawaiian rolls for a slider dish) toasted both halves, and then put the bottom half in a baking pan. Topped the bread with mayo, the chicken, havarti cheese slices, and mixed greens (in place of lettuce). I mayo-ed the top half of the buns and sandwiches it all together. After cutting the buns to separate them, I served it with French fries and a glass of homemade lemonade- pure Chick-fil-A style! Thank you for the inspiration for a delicious dinner that we all loved!!
Trying this tonight however using vegetable oil instead of peanut.
Has anyone tried to bake the chicken?
I listened to some of the comments.
Added some paprika and chili powder to the batter.
Doubled the egg wash and batter, so I could double dip. The batter stayed on the chicken, nice and crisp.
Make sure oil is very hot – heat on medium high, check with flour for a sizzle, then turn back to medium heat to cook.
Used a whole bottle of peanut oil in a cast iron pan. The oil completely covered the chicken pieces.
Cooked 2 pieces of chicken at a time. Only took 5-6 minutes to cook each piece.
My breasts were large, so 1 breast actually made 4 sandwiches. (I butterflied, then cut in half again after frying, to fit the sandwich.)
Served with lettuce, tomato, pickle.
Melted butter brushed on the toasted buns.
This was really good! Absolutely will make again. It was fast and easy and yummy.
I cooked mine for 7 minutes each side in an iron frying pan. Maybe my chicken was thicker even butterflied? My dad LOVES Chick-Fil-A but it’s an hour drive to the closest one. This is such a treat for him (age 89). Thanks for recipe.
Aw that’s so great! Thanks for sharing.
Family loved them! The chicken crisped up great, was juicy, and the marinade really made the flavor.
The only problem i had was the breading didnt stay on to good i went by the steps i believe theres other steps or something miss out any one know what it could be ???
Your oil probably wasn’t hot enough.
Flour before eggwash then flour again
Amazing! It tasted just like the real thing!
Tastes good and is tender. The breading just came off half of the chicken breasts in full sheets of breading when cooking. Some stuck and some didn’t. Don’t know what the difference was.
Definitely tasty and you can feel the essence of Chik-fil-a, but I wouldn’t mistake it for the real thing. I accidentally cut my chicken cutlets too thick but it didn’t end up being an issue – it seemed that as long as it had a golden-brown exterior, the interior was fine.
Question though – any recommendation so I don’t have to use pickle juice? Husband and I really don’t like pickles and though the taste wasn’t too strong, I’d hate to waste pickles just for the juice.
The pickle juice is actually a key ingredient here so I do not recommend using a substitute.
You can just buy a bottle of pickle juice. I got some from Amazon. No pickles = no waste.
I will be totally honest in saying I had all kinds of doubts about this. I felt the recipe was way too simple. But I followed it just like the instructions say and I am extremely pleasantly surprised of how similar this does taste to the real thing. I don’t know what else to say other than I am totally impressed! I will definitely be using this recipe again and again!
Can I sub almond milk for whole milk? I have a dairy allergy
I made this for dinner last night. It was fantastic. I stuck to the recipe, I have been saving my pickle juice as it makes delicious caesar’s. I did double dip and double coat the chicken breast in the egg and flour. I kept the lid on the pan wile heating the oil and cooking – it was hot and the steam helped cook the chicken – which turned out nice and tender. I let the steam off a few times and checked on the chook. The sugar in the flours helps them brown and the hot oil crisped the crust up. Delish! thanks for sharing – also easy and quick.
Would vegetable oil work just as well as peanut oil
Yes.
So simple, so yum ❤️ thank you for the quick go to for when I need to satisfy EVERYONE in the fam Truly identical to chick Fil a ! And actually we prefer it over theirs !
As a long-time CFA employee I note two differences here: first, a fried Chick-fil-a sandwich does not use marinated chicken. Marinade is used only for grilled chicken and chicken strips. Second, you can add a little paprika to the flour mixture for more authenticity. Finally, I recommend upping the flour from 1/2 cup to 1 cup; my typical mixture is 1 c flour, 1 Tbsp powdered sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper.
Finally: be generous with the peanut oil. If you have a fryer use it.
Thank you sooooo much!!
It is important to marinate the chicken. The pickle juice and milk combination is the same as buttermilk and always makes the fried chicken extra moist and tender.
Does it matter what pickle juice. W/wo garlic
You can use a pickle juice of your choice.
I will be trying this tomorrow for sure. I saw that Lucas added cajun spices. Are those what Chick-Fil-A to spice up their Spicy Chicken Sandwich?
I believe they use something similar to Cajun spices such as paprika and chili powder.
Here’s a link to a Chick-fil-A sauce recipe to go with 🙂 https://houseofyumm.com/copycat-chick-fil-a-sauce/ The recipe isn’t mine.
I made this just now and OMG GIRL you nailed it
#CHUNGAH, is it possible to make a video of this recipe, step-by-step. It will be far better us to learn. Thank you.
Yay! Love Chik-Fil-A but find the owner’s policies vis-a-vis gay people and his ardent support of The Big Orange Bigot objectionable in the extreme, so I won’t patronize them.
Why did you even click on this article? Was it just to bitch. Move along ding dong.
obviously because they love the chicken. They don’t want to give money to the restaurant. They can get their chicken fix with this recipe. By making it at home. Which is exactly what I’m also here. Who cares bootlicker
Also thanks for the recipe OP I’ll be trying this this weekend! Looks yummy
ANGELA, please keep your political statements off of a cooking website. KELLY was right… MARI shouldn’t call ppl “bootlickers” either… We are here to learn and not be “triggered”. Chick-fil-A rocks!!
I used buttermilk and Cajun spices in my marinade and double dipped. Also, I only had boneless thighs and they came out great. I will use breasts for this recipe next time we go to the store. Thanks
Exactly! Well said…..
Hahahaha! You’re an idiot. Why would you think it necessary to regurgitate your political beliefs in the comment section of a recipe? You are a prime example of what is wrong with America.