Chick-Fil-A Chicken (And Nuggets) Copycat

exzentriker's Note:

After looking on the internet for days for a Chick-Fil-A copycat and finding only plain old fried chicken recipes, I decided to try and imitate it myself. It came out pretty darn close I think! There are two crucial ingredients chick-fil-a uses that most recipes dont have- pickle juice and sugar. They also use MSG- but its also ok without it if you dont like it. Just cut up the breasts into chunks and follow recipe for nuggets. (Edit: I also have to say I love Chick- Fil-A and that I think they're a great company. I encourage anyone to visit if they can, the staff is always so nice and polite at every location I've been to! Its just too bad they don't have more locations!)

• Total Time: 1 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 4

Yield: 4.0 sandwic ...

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 cup pickle juice (use dill pickles, great way to use up that empty jar!)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon msg (Accent, leave it out if you prefer)
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• peanut oil

Directions:

1. Pound chicken breasts till they are thin enough for your taste. (I find a lot of breasts are really too thick for a sandwich so I pound out the thick part a little) Cut into chunks if you want nuggets.
2. Place chicken in plastic bag with pickle juice and marinate for an hour (preferably overnight).
3. Mix up eggs in seperate bowl for the egg wash.
4. Mix flour and remaining spices in another shallow bowl.
5. Remove chicken from the pickle juice maranade and drain well. Dip into the egg wash and then into the flour mixture.
6. Fry the chicken however you prefer here. I pan fried mine in a few tablespoons of oil and it turned out fine. Chick-Fil-A deep fries theirs in a pressure cooker, so you can try that if you are feeling adventurous.

Reviews

[vdm86]

My husband had been wanting Chik-fil-A, but we refuse to eat there anymore. He also recently had to begin eating gluten-free, so eating fried chicken is usually out. I substituted the flour in this recipe with a gluten free all-purpose flour mix and the basil and oregano with 1 tsp total of italian seasoning, and the chicken came out very close to Chik-fil-A's. I don't like their chicken, but my husband was very excited to be able to have a gluten-free version of their original chicken sandwich, and he said it tasted almost like theirs. Thanks for a good recipe!

[luvmybge]

After an hour in the dill pickle juice, I think it started to cook my boneless breasts. I silced two breasts in half horizontally and marinated them in the pickle juice for one hour. While the taste is ok and they look very nice... I had a problem when I cut the chicken. The breading slid off. So... all that work and I have my chicken on one side of the plate and the breading in a heap next to it. This would be a good recipe if I could figure out how to get the breading to stick. It's not Chick-Fil-A but it's still tasty. Thanks for the idea.

[asheragold]

I loved it! So close to the original too. Next time though I am going marinate it under an hour to lessen the pickle taste, but still good.