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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I’m making these now …I will repost after dinner!!
Sounds delicious can’t wait to give this one a try!
Do you need the sugar? Just wondering if leaving that out well make a huge difference in taste.
You can omit as needed.
My daughter is a chic-fil-a expert as she suggests we eat it 2-3 times a week. I fried whole breast and cut into nuggets. When my daughter popped the first piece in her mouth, the smile on her face said it all!!! Thank you!!!
This recipe did not deliver a Chick-Fil-A “clone.” Don’t get me wrong, it was good. I will give it another shot with coconut flour which delivers a subtle sweetness and a healthy fiber alternative.
Yeah I’m not able to replicate it either. I found the egg wash/milk bath did not lend itself very well to having the flour stick.
I have tried a chic file clone before, letting my chicken sit in a sugar/ salt solution with water for over 6 hours. I found that it made the chicken extremely tender after cooking. Maybe you should try this and then follow the recipe.
This is so good… We placed ours in the oven sprayed with butter cooking spray, place on broil setting. It is a instant family hit. Thanks for sharing
What would you recommend if I wanted to bake it instead of doing it over the stove top? I’m not big into frying.
Elisha, you can certainly bake these but they won’t taste quite the same as deep-frying!
No Chick-Fil-As here in Oregon so I tried this recipe. Amazing! Hubby and I are both hooked and call it Pickle Chicken. Thank you for sharing!
Tried this and the chicken had a strong pickle taste. We liked it, but mine didn’t come crispy.
The coating was too soft, my fault I guess.
Your oil was not hot enough. You should hear a resounding sizzle when sprinkling a little flour. If its not making a noise you need to hold off. Also be sure to heat your oil on medium high, wait until its hot and the chicken then turn up the temp to bring the oil back to temperature.
There’s a Chick-Fil-A practically on every corner around here but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to recreate their sandwich. Yum!
This instantly made my Fry-day better =) The batter looks so crunchy! Definitely going to give this a try soon. Yumm! =)
This was fantastic! Chicken was so tender and juicy. Was made even better by the Chik Fil A sauce I bought today at the grocery store.
Even my VERY skeptical 15 year old couldn’t believe how good it tasted. She told me I should have made more chicken. I consider that a win.
Question – shouldn’t the fry time be 5 mins per side? With only 1 cup oil, it seems like they’ll need to be flipped and 4-5 mins total doesn’t seem right….? Hoping to make this tonight 🙂
Kristin, if you are using a shallow pan, 1 cup oil should be more than sufficient. As for cooking time, I recommend 5 minutes total, but that may need to be adjusted as needed depending on the size of your chicken breasts.
Just curious, but can pickle juice be purchased at a local grocery store? I don’t even know if we have that here in Canada =S
Rick, you can purchase pickles from the local grocery store and use the pickle juice from there.
Really Rick? Do they not teach common sense in Canada?
Common Sense is an American book. That’s were the word and word meaning came from so if u say common sense to a non American speaker it will mean nothing.
Roy, apparently you were taught to be a rude ahole.
Unfortunately, too often America forgets to teach manners.
Hi, Heather. I felt the need to comment because that is a very unfair statement. Don’t group the rest of us Americans in with the ones that lack manners.
Really Roy? Do they not teach people to be kind where you’re from (In America, I’m assuming, since you so rudely dissed an honest question)?
Roy has a Sense of HUMOR. Geeze..
No pickle juice…lmao..
I thought the comment was funny, Roy. Thanks for making me laugh. Some people are uptight and take everything way too seriously. .
So excited to try this! Will a different oil (perhaps canola or coconut) change the flavor?
Using peanut oil will add a very subtle peanut flavor, but the difference in oils should be very minimal. Here is a great article on difference kinds of oils: http://www.wholeliving.com/133738/choosing-healthier-oils.
Can you substitute cashew/almond milk or does it have to be regular milk?
Cashew/almond milk should work just fine, although there may be a teensy bit of a flavor change.
What would you recommend using for a spicy version of the sandwich?
You can add about 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more, to taste) for a spicy sandwich.
Add a slice of pepper jack cheese as well.
These sandwiches look amazing!! I have never heard of Chick-fil-A.. maybe it’s an American thing? But at least I have the option of making their sandwich 🙂
It’s an American southern thing. Georgia couldn’t thrive without chick-fil-a .
Just a quick question – isn’t pickle juice high in vinegar? doesn’t that curdle the milk?
Nope, there shouldn’t be any kind of curdling here.
Even if it sours the milk, it’d just further resemble buttermilk which is an excellent marinade as well
we just got some now in the state but the wait time to get in is about two hrs. I will try this instead
Yum!! Thank you for posting this delicious copycat recipe on a Sunday. (The day of the week my Chick-Fil-A cravings are at their highest since I can’t have any!!) can’t wait to try!
Would you believe I’ve never been to a Chick-Fil A? The closest one is over 80 miles away! That wouldn’t stop me from trying this sandwich though! I don’t need to try the original to see how good this one is.