Click on this link for the recipe

Here is the nugget version: http://damndelicious.net/2014/07/18/copycat-chick-fil-nuggets/

i made them about a year ago. They were pretty good. The secret is the pickle juice, people. Chick-fil-a uses pickle juice in there marinade so I highly recommend it.

I ate there once to see what the fuss was all about. Never again, the stuff was plain old nasty.

pkramer--do you really think your comment is pertinent or helpful?

Many years ago, when Chick-fil-a opened their first location outside of Atlanta, my best friend (who was a chiropractor) had their founder as a patient. The guy gave us a pile of free lunch coupons and we headed over there to try out the goods. At the time, the sammich had a massive piece of fresh cooked chicken breast, fresh lettuce, and a freshly baked bun. Recently, I tried it again after all those years and found nothing similar to the original - pure krap.

If you're going to duplicate the current recipe, you'll be disappointed.

I've never had it or want to but i see no reason not to try Kenji's recipe in the link. Certainly much better at home and using one chicken breast cut in half is very economical. I don't care to use, or stock, MSG at home but a quick brine using some pickle juice would be a nice added ingredient or add as well other spice you like to the flour.

Same with a fish sandwich like mentioned in another post. Tap in spiced flour just one side, egg, then spiced panko, then bake in the oven. Do the same with a chicken breast. You might just like it better. You should once you get it your way. Make a dozen, then take out 10 a bit early and freeze. Easy to take them out and bake or toaster oven close to fast food.

I ate there once...It's fast food in a shopping mall...It's better than Mickey D's and that ubiquitous salty MSG Chinese stuff. But I wouldn't go out of my way to copy the recipe. I make a pretty damned good deep fried chicken breast!
I think the clue is a sour bath before breading....either pickle juice, lemon water, vinegar water, dryw hite wine....whatever.

I love chick fil-a, it's my favorite fast food restaurant. That said, it is still fast food, but I understand the following. I think it's a Southern thing too. They have the best chicken biscuits, kale salad and of course, I am a fan of the mainstay sandwich.

I rarely eat there, that kind of unorganic/fried/bad- for- you food isn't what I eat these days but I do think it is very tasty.

Thank-you, Linda. I'd learned about the pickle juice on a previous thread but was baffled. It's for the sour like buttermilk! Duh!

I agree that it's been changed. Here in Michigan, I'd never even heard of Chick Fil-A until I met Elery and we went to visit his relatives in Tennessee. That was 10 years ago and we ate a Chick-fil-A. It was fast food, but it was better than McDonald's or whatever. There's only so much you can do with a chicken sandwich, I guess.

Fast forward 10 years and one just opened in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about an hour away from me. It is definitely NOT the same, now it seems much more like nearly every other fast food chicken sandwich. I do like the waffle fries, though.

I have also heard that brining in dill pickle juice is the key, and that makes sense, as LindaC mentioned, an acidic brine/marinade is not unusual, my acid of choice usually being buttermilk.

Annie

The pickle juice (like I posted above) tenderizes the chicken to make it so good. It's hard to exactly copy Chick-Fil-A though, even if you got the secrets down.

Well, the pickle juice bath explains the off-the-charts sodium in their sandwiches.