Week 8: Chick-fil-A on a Sunday

Chick-fil-A Spicy Chicken Copy Cat

Rarely does hubby ever request a certain food or dish. But a couple weeks ago he hands me his iPad and says “I want this”. I was intrigued, so I played along. And I quickly grew excited. It was a recipe for making Chick-fil-a sandwiches at home! Political hoo-hah aside, Chick-fil-a makes a damn good chicken sandwich. Just not on Sundays, which is probably the only time I crave it. Or at 10:32 a.m. when I want a chicken biscuit… Rules!?! I’m still not sure how I have never thought of trying to copy this at home, but I’m thrilled he came across this & am even more thrilled to share it with you. I made spicy because I wanted to, but I’m sure the non-spicy is just as good. I’m a bad blogger because I didn’t try both. But we ate Chick-fil-a on a Sunday & broke the rules!!

2 chicken breasts, halved (see time saver tip below)

1/4 cup pickle juice

1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional for spicy version)

1 egg

1/8 cup milk

1/2 cup white flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon of each:

garlic salt

celery salt

basil 

paprika

salt

pepper

cayenne (optional for spicy version)

1/2 cup peanut oil

4 hamburger buns, buttered & toasted

8 pickle slices

Heat peanut oil in a skillet (cast iron preferred) to about 350 degrees. Marinate halved chicken breasts in pickle juice & hot sauce for 45 - 60 minutes (hot sauce optional for spicy version). Mix together dry ingredients for breading. Whisk together leftover pickle juice, eggs & milk. Dip chicken in flour mixture, egg mixture, then flour mixture again. I find it easiest to bread all of the chicken breasts before frying & lay them out onto a wire wrack. 

Fry (sheesh I hate frying because it sounds so indulgent!). But if you were going to eat Chick-fil-a anyways, it would have been fried. So… fry the chicken breasts for about 3-4 minutes per side, or until the internal temperature reaches at least 162 degrees. 

Butter and toast hamburger buns. Place 2 (or if you are me, closer to 5 or six) pickle slices on the bottom bun. Top with cooked chicken.

Serve with any Chick-fil-a sauce pouches you managed to not consume last trip and waffle fries. We enjoyed these with baked sweet potato fries. Because I have a dream that one day Chick-fil-a will make, in honor of me, sweet potato waffle fries. Also, I didn’t think the chicken was quite spicy enough, so I’d recommend adding a full teaspoon of cayenne if you can take the heat. Dish up!

Time saver tip: Split chicken breasts in
half for quick freezing/thawing

Time saver tip: Since it’s just the two of us, one of the only things I will buy in bulk is chicken. Any time chicken breasts are on sale, I’ll stock up and use this trick for easy freezing/thawing/portioning. It requires a little work up front, but is especially convenient when you are in a dinner rush. I’ll halve each chicken breast like this (I did not make this video, nor did I select the audio). Then place the split chicken breast in one quart size freezer bag. Push the air out & zip tight. Freeze the bags laying flat, & the next day you can stack them or store in the freezer door. Take these out of the freezer when you are ready to cook, and they thaw evenly, in about half the time. What’s even better? Thin filets cook much faster. You can also use the same method to freeze soups, stocks, ground meats, etc.