This is the best fried chicken sandwich you have ever tasted! It’s crunchy, crispy, and you’ll never hit Chic-Fil-A or the KFC drive through again! Buttermilk-soaked Southern-inspired spicy fried chicken served on soft brioche buns, topped with dill pickles and Chick-Fil-A sauce.
While this is the best chicken sandwich you will ever eat, it does require a little extra preparation and hands on cooking, but it’s totally worth it! I altered my southern fried chicken recipe to turn it into our favorite fast food!
If you have kids who like tenders, then try my buttermilk fried chicken tenders recipe! They will fall in love. Another KFC copycat is my popcorn chicken recipe.
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🍗 Ingredients:
- all-purpose flour
- coarse sea salt or kosher salt, coarse black pepper, paprika, onion powder – these pack some great flavor in the batter, adjust to include your favorite seasonings
- buttermilk – see the tips section for how to make your own buttermilk if you don’t have store bought.
- Cholula or Tabasco hot sauce
- dill pickle slices and dill pickle juice
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts – boneless skinless chicken thighs can be used as well.
- vegetable oil or shortening – for frying
- hamburger buns
- butter
- Chick-fil-A sauce or your favorite sauce
For a full list of ingredients and their measurements, 📋 please view my printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Optional Garnish:
We love adding Chick-Fil-A sauce to this crispy chicken sandwich recipe. If you don’t want a creamy sauce, you could also drizzle it with hot honey.
Substitutions and Variations
- Buns: instead of a regular burger bun, you can also use butter buns, whole wheat, potato buns, or a soft brioche bun.
- Lower calories: Opt for a low-fat or non-fat sauce or mayonnaise.
- Veggies: this juicy chicken would also taste great with sliced tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, or red onion.
- Gluten Free: use gluten-free flour for the breaded chicken and opt for gluten-free sandwich buns.
- Air Fryer: Instead of deep frying you can cook in the air fryer. Cook for 20-25 minutes at 390 degrees. Spraying the chicken with nonstick cooking spray (like Pam) can help crisp up the batter.
- Bread and butter pickles: some like to add the sweeter pickles as a topping, but I recommend using dill pickle juice in the marinade.
- Spicy Chicken: If you’d like a hot chicken version, add 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to your flour coating.
🔪 Instructions:
Step 1: Use a meat mallet to pound out the chicken breasts to ½″ thick. Slice them in half to form smaller “sandwich size” pieces.
Step 2: In a large bowl, mix together buttermilk, seasoning, and hot sauce and then immerse the chicken into the buttermilk marinade to soak.
Step 3: Mix flour with the remaining seasonings in a shallow dish.
Step 4: Take each piece of chicken from the wet batter, dredge it in the flour mixture, dip it back into the buttermilk, and then coat it a second time with the flour.
Pro Tip: It’s best to let the chicken soak in the buttermilk for at least 4 hours and overnight is better. You can definitely tell a difference, but if you don’t have time, at a minimum let it soak while you fry in batches.
Step 5: Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pot (I like to use my Dutch oven) or a large skillet until it reaches 350°F over medium-high heat. Carefully drop the chicken into the hot oil and fry until deep golden brown.
Step 6: Once done, remove the pieces of chicken from the oil using a slotted spoon. Let the excess drip off, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate or wire rack. Repeat until all of the chicken has been cooked.
Step 7: On a rimmed baking sheet butter the buns and pop them under the broiler for just a few minutes to toast.
Step 8: Add the pickles to the bottom bun, add the chicken, them add the sauce over top of the chicken and serve.
SERVE: Serve with ranch dipping sauce or your favorite side like french fries or onion rings.
Recipe Tips for Fried Chicken Sandwiches
- Make sure that your chicken pieces are about ½” in thickness once pounded, which will ensure perfectly fried chicken pieces.
- Use a large enough pot so that you don’t overcrowd the chicken pieces otherwise they won’t fry as well. Alternatively, cook your chicken pieces in batches – this is especially applicable if you are making larger quantities of sandwiches.
- Maintain a decent depth of oil for adequate frying and use a deep-frying thermometer to check that the temperature of the oil is exactly at 350℉ before adding the chicken.
- To ensure the juiciest of fried chicken pieces, allow your chicken to soak in the buttermilk mixture for at least 4 hours (overnight is even better)! While this does add on to your overall prep time, you’ll definitely notice the difference in moistness and tenderness. If you don’t have time though, simply allow the chicken to soak while attending to the other preparatory steps in this recipe.
- If you don’t have buttermilk, then you can use 1 cup of milk mixed with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar as a good substitute.
- Any remaining chicken can be enjoyed as leftovers in freshly assembled sandwiches, wraps, or salads.
- It’s a good idea to use a kitchen thermometer to make sure the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees before serving.
Recipe FAQs
You can store your fried chicken pieces in the refrigerator for 2-3 days when kept in an airtight container. With that said, the crispy fried coating of the chicken will always taste the best when served immediately after cooking.
If you do store leftovers, be sure that you don’t store fully assembled chicken sandwiches otherwise the sandwich bun will become soggy from extended contact with the other sandwich components.
Similar to a burger, the following sides would be a perfect addition to your Fried Chicken Sandwiches:
– Creamy coleslaw
– French fries
– Air Fryer potato wedges
– Leafy green salad
– Pasta salad or a Rice a Roni Salad
– Onion rings
Let’s not kid ourselves…this Fried Chicken Sandwich is definitely a treat meal. With that said, it’s far healthier to make your own fried chicken sandwich than the takeout version.
If you’re still looking for ways to make this sandwich a little healthier, consider the following options:
– Use whole-wheat buns instead of brioche buns or skip the bread altogether;
– Opt for a low-fat or non-fat sauce or mayonnaise;
– Add in some extra veggies such as sliced tomatoes and finely sliced raw red onions for your sandwich toppings.
– Use avocado oil for frying instead of peanut oil, vegetable or canola. Bake or grill the chicken instead of frying.
Yes, you can! Prepare your chicken as you would to fry the conventional way but instead of dropping your chicken pieces into a heated pot of oil, place them on your Air Fryer rack and set to cook for about 17-22 minutes until these are as crispy as you would like them to be. You may need to spray generously with nonstick cooking spray occasionally to get a crispier coating. Double check that the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165°F before serving.
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Fried Chicken Sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ¾ teaspoon onion powder
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 dashes Cholula or Tobasco hot sauce
- 2 tablespoons dill pickle juice
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- vegetable oil or shortening for frying at least 4 cups
- 6 brioche hamburger buns
- 2 tablespoons salted butter softened
- 1 Dill pickles for serving
- 1 Chick-fil-A sauce or your favorite sauce
Instructions
- Use a meat mallet to pound chicken breasts between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap until they are ½” thick. Slice chicken breasts in half to make two smaller pieces.
- In a bowl, stir together buttermilk, hot sauce, and pickle juice. Place chicken into the buttermilk mixture and leave to soak while preparing the next steps.
- Whisk together flour, salt, pepper, paprika, and onion powder in a shallow bowl.
- Heat oil (at least 4” deep preferably 6” or more) in a Dutch oven. Heat oil to 350°F. The oil takes 15 minutes or so to heat to temperature. Use a candy or food thermometer to check the temperature. It must be the correct temperature before frying the chicken.
- Remove the chicken pieces from the buttermilk mixture, dip into the flour mixture, coating both sides. Then dunk each side once more into the buttermilk and back into the flour mixture. (Two full coats of buttermilk then flour.)
- Carefully drop one chicken piece at a time into heated oil and fry on both sides until cooked through (the center/internal temperature should reach 165°F). The outside should be deep golden brown and crispy. Maintain an oil temperature of 350°F for best results. Chicken cooks up in about 5 minutes.
- Place cooked chicken on paper towels or brown paper bags to soak up excess oil.
- Meanwhile, prepare buns. Open up each bun and lay face up on a cookie sheet. Spread a bit of butter over each bun. Broil for 2-3 minutes or until buns just begin getting toasty.
- To serve, place several pickles on the bottom half of a bun. Top with a piece of fried chicken, Chick-fil-a sauce, and the top bun.
- Serve immediately.
- Storage:
- Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Fried coating is best right after cooking.
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Notes
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