12 Facts You Didn't Know About Chick-Fil-A's Chicken

There's much debate about which fast food chain offers the best chicken sandwich, but it's clear that Chick-fil-A is a top contender. The brand's deliciously juicy chicken and famously friendly staff are a favorite for many — even despite the chain's history of being vocally anti-LGBTQ+. And chances are, you've had a chance to try it out for yourself. After all, you can now find a Chick-fil-A in 48 states across the country. And although a large majority of those locations are clustered in the Southeast, it's becoming more and more ubiquitous across the country.

Advertisement

Maybe you've visited the chain once or twice, or perhaps you find yourself at a drive-thru several times a month. You may be the kind of person who always opts for the spicy chicken sandwich, or maybe you're more of a grilled nuggets kind of person. But even if you're a regular Chick-fil-A-goer, there are probably some things you don't know about the fast food chain's chicken. We've collected 12 facts you probably don't know about Chick-fil-A's chicken and put them all in one place so you can get the 411 on your next fast food run. Maybe, just maybe, you'll appreciate that juicy chicken even more the next time you take a bite of a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich ... or maybe it'll prompt you to try something totally new from the chain. Either way, you'll be a bit more informed the next time you order.

Advertisement

It took the founder four years to get the recipe right

Following a recipe can be tricky enough, but if you've ever created your own recipe, then you know that figuring out all the ingredients you're going to use and choosing a cooking method that will yield the most delicious possible dish can be even more difficult. After all, you have to consider how to balance flavors and textures to create a dish that can be replicated again and again. It shouldn't surprise you, then, that the recipe for Chick-fil-A's iconic fried chicken didn't come together overnight. But you may not realize that it took a whopping four years for the recipe to come to fruition.

Advertisement

The original recipe was created by the founder of Chick-fil-A, Truett Cathy, who spent a whole four years perfecting the ideal blend of herbs, spices, and other ingredients to create a chicken sandwich that's crispy on the outside and nice and moist on the inside. This recipe, according to the company, "revolutionized the chicken sandwich." We don't know if we would go quite that far since, despite its deliciousness, it's still a pretty basic sandwich at its core, but it's undeniable that it's a recipe that has won over the hearts and taste buds of many chicken lovers out there.

The recipe has been around for almost 60 whole years

There are many ways to tell if anything, including a recipe, has been successful. One of those ways is to see if a recipe can stand the test of time, and Truett Cathy's fried chicken sandwich recipe certainly has. That's because Chick-fil-A's iconic chicken sandwich has been around for 60 years. The recipe the chain is using to make your lunch now is the same recipe it used back when the restaurant was just starting to rise to prominence. And it makes sense — why change something that's already widely beloved and regularly keeps customers coming back for more?

Advertisement

The sandwich is one of the simpler chicken sandwiches on the fast food market. It consists of that signature spiced chicken, breaded to crispy perfection, pressure-cooked in oil, and adorned not by a slew of toppings but with just two pickles. Those pickles provide the sandwich with a bright acidity that complements the crispy coating on the chicken. It's all served on a toasted bun that has a subtle butteriness to it. These three components come together to create a very simple but undeniably delicious chicken sandwich.

It was originally made to feed shift workers quickly

A lot of people work a nine-to-five schedule, and many restaurants cater to that schedule specifically. You might grab breakfast at your favorite bakery before you go to work and stop by the same pizza place or fast-casual restaurant once you get off work and need to get a quick bite to eat. But for people who work outside of a typical nine-to-five schedule — particularly back several decades ago when restaurant offerings weren't quite as robust as they are today — finding a way to fuel up on something delicious can be a challenge.

Advertisement

That's exactly why Truett Cathy decided to create the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich. He viewed it as a simple and relatively fast way to supply shift workers with a meal that would fill them up and give them the energy they needed to get their jobs done. These days, of course, shift workers have more options than a simple chicken sandwich, and anyone with any type of schedule can snag a chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A, but knowing about the sandwich's roots may help you appreciate it more than you already do.

The chicken is all hand-breaded at each location

Go to a lot of fast food restaurants out there and order a chicken sandwich, and you may feel like you're getting something that was clearly mass-produced and perhaps frozen before being heated up and served to you unceremoniously through a window. Chick-fil-A is still fast food, of course, but it seems to have a bit more of a human touch to it. For example, the chicken that goes in the chicken sandwich is hand-breaded, completely from scratch, at each Chick-fil-A location. That makes it feel like you're actually getting a dish that's freshly prepared instead of one that's been preserved for days or weeks before it reaches your plate.

Advertisement

If you ask us, Chick-fil-A is regarded as one of the best chicken chains on the market specifically because its chicken tastes so fresh. So, next time you order this sandwich, maybe you should spend a little extra time considering — and appreciating — the worker who crafted it for you from scratch.

The pickles are crucial to the recipe

When you're making a recipe with a lot of ingredients, you may be able to leave a few things out and still end up with a decent-tasting dish. But when you're working with fewer elements in a recipe, they become all the more important. Such is the case with the pickles on Chick-fil-A's chicken sandwiches. The chain's deluxe offerings are loaded with veggies and other ingredients to provide different flavors and textures in every bite, but the original version of the chicken sandwich contains just three elements: chicken, bread, and pickles.

Advertisement

It makes sense, therefore, that the pickles are an incredibly important part of the sandwich as a whole. In fact, Chick-fil-A calls them "crucial" to its chicken sandwich recipe. The pickles are actually made in-house, soaking in a pickling liquid for three days before finding their way onto your sandwich. You'll find two of these pickles on every original Chick-fil-A sandwich. With a chicken sandwich that's otherwise relatively rich, fatty, and buttery, the acidity of those pickles really brightens things up, pulling every component together in one delicious bite.

The brand sometimes offers a spicy grilled version of its chicken sandwich

We love the original version of Chick-fil-A's chicken sandwich, but for people who love some heat in their food, the spicy variety is even better. But if you're looking for a healthier or lighter option on the menu (or you're just not a fan of breaded chicken), the grilled chicken may seem like a better option. Most of the time, you'll have to choose between spicy and grilled chicken, but at some points, the brand offers a spicy version of its grilled chicken sandwich. That way, you can enjoy some heat in addition to the light and tender flavor and texture of the chain's surprisingly juicy grilled chicken.

Advertisement

The chicken in the recipe for the spicy grilled deluxe chicken sandwich is marinated in peppers, giving it its subtle heat, and it's then adorned with lettuce, a tomato slice, and Colby Jack cheese for a flavorful combo of flavors. At the time of writing, this sandwich is available through March 15, 2025, but once it goes off the menu again, it may be a while before you can snag this special, spicy offering.

The fried chicken is cooked in peanut oil

You already know that Chick-fil-A hand-breads its chicken in-house, and after that, workers fry it fresh to ensure you can dig into the hot, juicy chicken sandwich of your dreams. But you may not have thought about how the brand fries its chicken. Unlike other fast food brands that use canola or sunflower oil, Chick-fil-A cooks its chicken in peanut oil instead. According to the brand, using this kind of oil "enhances the flavor of the chicken," apparently making it an ingredient to achieve the flavor Chick-fil-A fans know and love.

Advertisement

But what about people with peanut allergies? Well, the brand says that since the peanut oil it uses is so processed, it's not "considered [a] major food allergen." However, those with peanut allergies may still want to refrain from eating at Chick-fil-A if they are concerned about a potential reaction. Ultimately, whether you have a food allergy or not, it's a good idea to take a closer look at the ingredients in your favorite fast food dishes. You may just be surprised at what you find.

The chicken is pressure-cooked

Most of us have never gotten the opportunity to see what goes on inside a Chick-fil-A kitchen, so it may not occur to you to ponder how, exactly, your Chick-fil-A chicken is cooked. But whether you're just curious about the process or you want to try making your own Chick-fil-A sandwich at home, you should get the scoop on how your sandwich is made. According to the brand's website, Chick-fil-A chicken is cooked in a pressure cooker.

Advertisement

What is a pressure cooker? For the uninitiated, it's a kitchen appliance that basically traps the steam that would normally escape from an average pot, creating a high pressure that cooks your food at a speedy pace at a high temperature. It's a big part of why the chicken has the juicy, tender texture it does. If you want to try a pressure cooker at home, whether to make a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich dupe or just utilize it for other dishes, you should give it a try. But even if you have no interest in using a pressure cooker at home, knowing how your chicken sandwich is made might just make you appreciate it a little bit more the next time you go through the drive-thru.

The grilled chicken nuggets took seven years and $50 million to create

Chicken nuggets seem like one of the simplest possible dishes you could make. But if you've tried a wide variety of fast-food nuggets out there, you'll know it's not that simple. Most fast-food chicken nuggets taste wildly different from one another, and you'll find varying levels of quality at different restaurant chains. If you ask us, though, Chick-fil-A has some of the best chicken nuggets in the game. Unusually, it offers both breaded and fried nuggets along with grilled nuggets, the latter of which is ideal if you're looking for a lighter option or are trying to reduce your carb intake. Although small pieces of grilled chicken may seem boring and lacking in flavor, Chick-fil-A's grilled chicken nuggets are actually pretty appetizing. And that makes sense considering the fact that it took seven years and $50 million to create this product.

Advertisement

A part of the reason these nuggets took so long and were so expensive to develop is because the creators had to invent a special grill designed just for nuggets. Still, we're guessing that the recipe development portion of the project wasn't especially easy either. All that time and money seem to be worth it, though, for the grilled chicken lovers of the world.

The recipe for the chicken is actually hidden in a safe

There are some home cooks who love to share their recipes with other people. Maybe you've visited a friend's house who assembled a particularly delicious salad or a surprisingly tasty homemade tiramisu. When you asked for the recipe, they gave you a list of every ingredient and explained all the steps in detail just so you could make it at home for yourself. Other people, though, are more hesitant to share their recipes, preferring to keep that info to themselves so others can't imitate their cooking.

Advertisement

Of course, restaurants have a particular interest in not sharing their recipes. After all, they don't want other businesses to copy them and threaten their livelihoods. But Chick-fil-A takes this protection of their recipes especially seriously. The brand has even admitted that the recipe for the original Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich is hidden in a safe. That safe is located in Atlanta, Georgia, at the company's home office. Of course, you can always try to make your own Chick-fil-A dupe at home, and you may even come close to the real thing. But you're not likely to ever get the full details on how this beloved chicken sandwich is made.

At one point, you could get a honey pepper pimento sandwich ... and it may be coming back

Pimento cheese is an absolute Southern staple, with the peppery cheese mixture adorning everything from crackers to sandwiches. (And you can easily make some yourself with our simple recipe.) And since Chick-fil-A is a Southern company, it only makes sense that the brand would sell a pimento cheese-slathered sandwich (which we tried and reviewed). The honey pepper pimento sandwich upgraded Chick-fil-A's basic chicken sandwich with a hefty dose of pimento cheese, in addition to a drizzle of sweet honey. Pickled jalapeños gave it an extra boost of flavor, playing up those peppery notes even more. The pickles are missing from this sandwich, but with that extra bit of acidity from the jalapeños, you don't really need the pickles, too — it all balances out.

Advertisement

Unfortunately, though, the sandwich isn't around all the time. It was first available in late summer through fall of 2024. As of now, you're not going to see the sandwich on any Chick-fil-A menus, but there is a chance that it'll come back at some point — and we certainly hope it will. Chick-fil-A's chicken sandwich is already a Southern classic, and the idea of honing in on those Southern traditions even more with this pimento cheese-adorned version seems extra delicious.

The brand tested over 1,200 recipes to perfect its grilled chicken

Chick-fil-A's fried chicken is delicious, yes, but let's be honest: Fried chicken almost always tastes good. It's a uniquely delicious food, packing a variety of textures into one dish, offering a saltiness and crispiness that's appealing to just about everyone. So, the fact that the chain offers delicious fried chicken isn't surprising, considering that it's its whole focus. But grilled chicken, if you ask us, is much harder to pull off. It can be tough and dry, and without that crispy breading, it can often fall flat on the texture front as well.

Advertisement

Perhaps Chick-fil-A realized that grilled chicken had the potential to be relatively unappetizing, because the brand was serious in its attempts to develop a grilled chicken sandwich. In fact, the brand tested out over 1,200 different grilled chicken recipes just to perfect the final product. This process took seven years. You're probably not going to get your hands on this recipe, either, but reportedly, the marinade for the grilled chicken contains garlic, lemon, salt, and a blend of herbs.

Recommended

Advertisement