Copycat Chick-fil-A Sandwiches (with the special sauce)

This is the recipe you need when you wake up on a Sunday late morning and the first thought in your head is “I could go for some Chick-fil-A right now” and yes I know we have ALL been there before. While nothing can beat the real thing in my opinion, this is a seriously good copycat option for when you simply need some fried chicken. I also will give you the scoop on how to make your own special Chick-fil-A sauce to go with, and again, maybe not an exact original but it is pretty darn close.

I went with chicken thighs just because that generally is my preference, I like dark meat and find it stays juicier, however breast would be perfectly fine as well. You will want to soak the chicken in buttermilk (tip - if you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own by combining 1 tablespoon of lemon juice with 1 cup of milk.) Add the buttermilk plus 1/4 cup of pickle juice into a bowl and submerge your chicken. Cover and pop into the fridge for at least 40 minutes, an hour to two hours would be ideal. The acidity in the buttermilk will help tenderize the chicken as it brines and the pickle juice will add a really nice vinegary/pickley flavor to the finished product.

I did a shallow pan fry for my chicken - so that the oil just came up on the sides of each piece. Add any neutral oil (I used peanut) to a pan that has high sides to it, and allow it to slowly heat. Cooking tip - a good way to check if the oil is ready is to put a wooden stick or the handle of a wooden cooking utensil into the oil. If there are bubbles forming around it, you are ready! If the bubbles are pretty ferocious, it may be an indicator to turn the burner down slightly.

While the oil is heating, you can prepare your flour mixture. For mine, I mixed together the following:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoons hot paprika

2 tablespoons chili powder & 2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons salt

You can pull the chicken from the brine mixture and dunk right into the flour - the buttermilk will help adhere it to the chicken. Once coated in flour, add the chicken gently into the hot oil. For a shallow fry, I found that I needed about 12 minutes per side. This may vary depending on how thick your pieces of chicken are and how deep your oil is. The finished internal temperature of the chicken should be 165 degrees but it will continue cooking as it rests, so I would recommend pulling it out of the oil when it’s at about 155-160. Worst case, it will not hurt the chicken to take it out and rest, then pop back into the oil for a few more minutes if needed. (the double fry will actually help crisp the skin up even more anyway)

While the chicken is resting, if you are like me, you are going to want to mix up some of your very own Chick-fil-A sauce. I use pretty much 1 sauce packet per nugget when I get Chick-fil-A so this is a must! Just simply add the following into a bowl and whisk together until completely combined.

1/2 Cup Mayonnaise

1/3 Cup BBQ Sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s)

1/4 Cup honey

2 Tbsp Yellow Mustard

2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

This will likely make more than you need for this serving, but it stores in the fridge just fine and is delicious on grilled chicken and burgers.

At this point, you can assemble your sandwich! I used potato buns because they are just so delicious, a nice dollop of the “Chick-fil-A sauce”, lettuce and tomato, homemade pickle chips and then a piece of the fried chicken. I am telling you, this is the real deal and will leave you throughly satisfied, not to mention time saved not having to fight those long drive through lines!

Give it a try and let me know if you think it tastes as close to the original as I do. (P.S., the chicken makes for excellent chicken and waffles for breakfast the next day if you have any leftover!)