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.
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1 cup pickle juice, 2 teaspoons accent, 1/2 teaspoon white pepper, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 teaspoon potassium chloride(Morton’s Salt Substitute) and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. This gives you the Chik Fil A authentic experience. Marinate 6 to 12 hours, more if using drumsticks or thighs.
Just add 2 teaspoons of Accent or MSG for an even more authentic Chik Fil A taste. Trust me, they use it.
I wish we knew how much salt and pepper to add to make it taste just like the original.
LoL… my thought always when I read this in ANY recipe. Guess we know the amount on the second go-round.
Chick Fil A invented a real winner, brining their chicken breasts with of all things, dill pickle brine. If we could all be so brilliantly entrepreneurial. , we’d open our own franchises
Wow, made this last night. What a treat. I added cajun spices to the flour for extra flavour. The milk and pickle juice break down the chicken nicely, it remains juicy and flaky once its fried. (I used a deep fat fryer). Delicious, a slice of American Cheese and mayo with Brioche buns… Heavenly. Partner thought I cheated and used KFC fillets but said they tasted unusually better. Thank you!
Oh, one neat trick is to press the chicken into the flour really hard, used a big bowl with lots of flour) (I saw Chick fil a people doing that at the back of the kitchens on a youtube video) Makes it stick really well and flattens out the partially broken down chicken nicely.
For those of you that are having trouble getting the batter to stick, try this trick. After marinating, place chicken in the freezer for 13-15 min, remove and do your 2 dredges and then right into the oil.
I ran out of pickle juice…is there any ither substitution or can I leave it out?
It curdle the milk a bit on my batch I use all the right ingredients and measure mental did I do something wrong?
The vinegar in the pickle juice is an acid. Any acid will eventually curdle the milk.. Maybe it eas5the length of time you marinated for? Or if your milk was close to souring, it wouldn’t take long with an acid to turn it the rest of the way.
CHUNGAH-
I made this the other day without the milk, quite frankly I forgot it but the chicken came out very well and was a big hit. I’m on a second batch now with just the pickle juice again. I’m going to marinate this for two days. What exactly does the milk add to the recipe? I may add the milk for the second night of marinating if it makes a substantial difference.
Thanks.
The milk acts as a base for the marinade – but please do let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Just a small piece of input. The original CFA sandwich has butter on its buns which of course adds immensely to the flavor profile. I usually ask for it without when I’m order one, but would be tempted to do it at home just to add the extra “love” to my taste buds.
Doesn’t the sugar make it taste too sweet? Also, would cornstarch make for a crispier crunchier batter?
Not at all! As for the cornstarch, unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Yo all 🙂 I think the premise is correct like the marinade and all. to those who didn’t quite get the chick fil a affect, here’s what I’d recommend (I’m a professional chef of over 20 years so listen up! 🙂 you need to double batter it. So after you dip it in the milk/egg mixture, dredge it in the flour. THEN, dip it back in the milk/egg mixture a second time and then AGAIN into the flour. That’s the ultimate key to amazing southern style fried chicken and the same concept applies here. Cheers!
Thanks, I will try this next time. Mine tasted great (i did pound chicken before marinade)….but after sautee/fry in minimal avocado oil, batter slide off.
This was awesome! I added some paprika, and garlic powder in with the flour and it tasted great! We opted for just pickles and some chick fil a honey mustard. Thanks for the recipe!
Mine tasted delightful – hubby was delighted – but didn’t taste quite as good. Maybe because I didn’t use peanut oil?
Yum! Recipe turned out great! Instead of frying in peanut oil, I sprayed the coated chicken with a butter spray and used and air fryer to cook.
Wow this looks so good. Love a good sandwich. Thanks for sharing.
Simon
Mine was a complete fail. Followed exact instructions. Didn’t work out for me. No prob-my fault darn it.
I tried this last night but all my batter stuck to the bottom of my cast iron killet so it was a fail for me. I shoulda used my trusty nonstick pan but went against my better judgement
Sounds like you possibly didn’t have enough oil.
I am very anxious to try this! I’ve been playing around with a similar recipe using buttermilk, but it just wasn’t quite right. One thing I think may help is that a good quality (preferrably organic without hormones), never frozen chicken breast can make a HUGE difference in the flavor, tenderness and juicyness of your sandwich. For those not having great success, it might be worth trying a different chicken.
I tried it, and it was mediocre. Maybe I followed the recipe incorrectly.
I’ve never had chick-fil-a (gasp) but I just made this for dinner tonight and I don’t think I’ll ever need to visit the chain! I was so happy with how quickly this came together and what a crowd pleaser it turned out to be! Thanks for sharing!!
Where have you been in jail? ha ha