Homemade Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich With Pickle-Brined, Crisp Chicken

It is 12:25 on a Saturday, the drive-thru line is out of the lot in your head, and the pickle jar in your fridge is about to be useful. This homemade Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich is a home riff on the fast-food favourite, not the official recipe and not affiliated with the restaurant: a pickle-brined chicken breast, a flour crust, a buttered toasted bun, and 26 minutes from start to plate. A craving is a crush. This is how you meet it properly, at home, with the lights on.

Brine, dredge, fry, butter the bun: four moves and a sandwich.

The recipe is a short chain of simple moves. Pound four boneless chicken breasts flat, let them sit in a cup of pickle juice for 15 minutes, dredge them in seasoned flour, and fry in 350F oil for 4 to 5 minutes a side. Butter the buns, toast them cut side down for a minute, stack on three dill pickle slices, and cook a bag of waffle fries alongside. It serves four.

How to make it

1. Pound the 4 boneless chicken breasts to even thickness and marinate in the 1 cup pickle juice for 15 minutes.
2. Coat the breasts in the 1 cup all-purpose flour seasoned with salt and black pepper.
3. Heat the 4 cups vegetable oil to 350°F and fry the chicken for 4 to 5 minutes per side until golden and cooked through.
4. Butter the 4 hamburger buns with the 2 tbsp butter and toast cut-side down on a skillet for 1 minute.
5. Place each hot chicken breast on a bottom bun, top with 3 of the dill pickle slices, and add the top bun.
6. Serve hot with the 1 lb frozen waffle fries cooked according to package directions.

Notes

Cooked leftovers keep three to four days refrigerated, per USDA FSIS. Keep the chicken, the buns and the fries in separate containers so nothing goes soft, and reheat the chicken on a rack in a hot oven rather than in a microwave if you want any crunch back.

A homemade Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich is best the minute it is built. By day two the crust has softened, though the chicken is still good sliced into a salad or tucked cold into a roll. Freezing the fried chicken is possible, but the coating does not come back the way it was.

Pound the chicken first. A breast is thick at one end and thin at the other, and left alone, the thin end overcooks while the thick end is still raw. Put each breast between two sheets of plastic wrap or in a freezer bag and flatten it with a rolling pin or the bottom of a pan until it is even.

The pickle juice is the marinade. The method gives it 15 minutes, and that is enough to season the meat and keep it juicy. Lift the breasts out and let the excess drip off before they hit the flour, so the coating sticks instead of turning into a paste.

Season the flour with the salt and black pepper, then press each breast into it firmly on both sides. Shake off the extra. The method uses flour only, so the crust is thin and crisp rather than thick and shaggy.

Heat the 4 cups of vegetable oil to 350F and keep a thermometer in the pot, since the temperature drops as soon as the chicken goes in. Fry one or two breasts at a time, 4 to 5 minutes a side, until golden and cooked through. USDA's safe minimum for poultry is 165F, so check the thickest part of one breast to be sure.

Butter the buns with the 2 tbsp of butter and toast them cut side down in a skillet for 1 minute. That small step is the difference between a sandwich and chicken on bread. Place the hot chicken on the bottom bun, add three pickle slices and close it.

Swaps that actually work

The pickle brine is the point of a homemade Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich, and it is what gives the sandwich its tang. Leave it alone, and use the juice from a jar of dill pickles.

Chicken breasts can become thighs, which are more forgiving and stay juicy. Boneless thighs fry in about the same time.

Hamburger buns can become potato rolls or brioche buns. Soft, slightly sweet rolls suit the salty chicken, and they toast well.

Vegetable oil can become peanut oil or canola oil, anything with a high smoke point. Do not use olive oil for frying at 350F.

Swap whatever the week demands. On SwipeCart a craving is a crush, and the agent never judges how often you come back to the same one.

Waffle fries can become regular fries or a bag of tater tots. They cook in the oven while you fry, so the sandwiches and the fries land on the plate together.

The swap that costs you the dish is baking the chicken instead of frying it. You lose the crust, and the crust is the sandwich.

If it goes wrong

The coating falls off. The chicken was too wet when it hit the flour, or you moved it too early in the oil. Let the excess pickle juice drip off, press the flour on firmly, and leave each breast alone for the first minute of frying so the crust sets.

It is dark outside and raw inside. The oil was too hot or the breast was too thick. Pound the chicken flatter next time, and if a piece is already browned but not done, finish it in a 350F oven until the thickest part reads 165F.

It is greasy and pale. The oil was too cool or the pot was crowded. Keep the temperature at 350F, fry in small batches, and drain the chicken on a rack so the bottom does not steam.

It is too salty. The pickle brine and the seasoned flour both carry salt. Keep the marinade to the 15 minutes the method gives it, and go lighter on the salt in the flour the next time.

What to serve with it

The default for a homemade Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich is the waffle fries, as the recipe says, and a cold drink with plenty of ice.

The better version of the default is a quick slaw of cabbage with lemon and salt on the side, which cuts through the fry. A few extra pickle slices do no harm.

The thing in the fridge that lifts it is a sauce: mayonnaise and a squeeze of honey or mustard, stirred together in under a minute.

It works as lunch the next day if you take the leftover chicken off the bun and eat it cold over greens.

Why this one earns its place

A homemade Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich has the pull of the drive-thru without the line, and the flexibility of a kitchen: you control the salt, the thickness and the pickles. A craving is a crush you can cook for, and this one never leaves you idling at a window. For a Saturday when you want comfort food and a small win, it delivers both.

Swipe it into your week and the agent shops the chicken, buns and pickles for you. If you are going to be in a frying mood, try the fried chicken sandwich or Nashville hot chicken, and the food Tinder app is the read if you like the swipe idea.

More like this: all American recipes in Crave Corner.