In Praise of the Chick-Fil-A Spicy Chicken Sandwich

Posted by Iroquois Plisken

Yesterday, the heralded Southern chicken franchise Chick-Fil-A unveiled their Spicy Chicken Sandwich. For those of you unfortunate enough to live outside of the range of these gods of the restaurant industry, first of all, fall to the floor and weep for your sake. Seriously. It's that good. However, you may also know them from the Peach Bowl or from the cow ads.

A brief overview: first, the chicken is soaked in what I believe to be a dill mixture, presumably to complement the pickles on the sandwich. Next, it's breaded and fried in a peanut oil, to 1) lower the cholesterol content and 2) make it taste like heaven. Finally, the sandwich is served on a buttery bun with two dill pickle chips. Then, you can sauce it however you want, with a traditional BBQ sauce, a Polynesian sauce, regular catsup, or you can go with the Chick-Fil-A sauce (renamed from the honey-roasted BBQ sauce, so that's the hint of what it tastes like there).

What makes this sandwich so special, you may ask? It's hard to put in words. Perhaps it is how the breading is light enough to where it doesn't interfere with the natural tastiness of the chicken. That's probably why the spicy sandwich works so well. Apparently, in this piece by the AJC, Chick-Fil-A has been working on this monstrosity for over five years. Clearly, this move has not been hastily considered, and with good reason. Customers (like myself) have been demanding this for many years and while a non-successful spicy sandwich would not be enough to stop me from going, it would be out-of-character for Chick-Fil-A to fail.

Anyhow, they've really been milking the publicity like it was some sort of debut from Apple. You could even reserve your sandwich online at www.getspicychicken.com. The closest I had ever come prior to making a reservation was telling my buddies to "save a sandwich for me" if everyone was going to get food. I did happen to get a reservation (seems like the blue hairs in my home town aren't too keen on eating at 1 PM) and here was how it went.

I walked in and I was shown to a table (in a typical fast food restaurant!) I sat down and was asked what I'd like to drink (a Coke Zero, please. Yes, I have no problem drinking beverages since banned in Venezuela). They then asked if I wanted the Spicy Regular sandwich or the Deluxe, with lettuce, tomato, and pepper jack cheese. Of course, I wanted fried. They bring out the meal, which consists of the sandwich, any sauce I wanted (I elected for Chick-Fil-A sauce), a side of cole slaw, and a sample of the peach milkshake. It gets consumed. They ask me how it was and I respond positively and ask for the bill. Turns out, if you made the reservation, it was FREE. That's right. F-R-E-E. Wouldn't even accept my gratuity.

The spice wasn't all too intense, but you know it was there. It would start out subtle and build ever so slowly. It shouldn't be enough to turn anyone away from it, unless you just can't handle heat in any fashion. My only complaint is that it's a bit salty. Clearly, Chick-Fil-A did all their homework in crafting a great recipe.

All in all, if you can get one, go and get it. You won't regret it. And yes, this is a slap to Slate because he can't acquire one. Take that.