The Fast Food Fried Chicken Sandwich That Inspired An Ina Garten Recipe

When someone mentions Ina Garten, you think of home-cooked meals, elegant dinner parties, and the Hamptons-based specialty food store where she got her start. The last place you'd picture the Food Network star dining is a fast food joint, but it turns out even the Barefoot Contessa can't resist a good fried chicken sandwich.

Garten has long been vocal about her love of the Chicken Shack, Shake Shack's signature fried chicken sandwich. Made with a crispy, white-meat chicken breast, the sandwich is served on a toasted potato bun with buttermilk herb mayo, lettuce, and pickles. It costs about $9.49, depending on the location, and customers have the option of adding avocado and bacon.

Garten posted a picture of her order on Instagram in 2016, calling the sandwich "crazy good." As she revealed in her 2018 cookbook, "Cook Like a Pro," she first discovered it when her husband Jeffrey brought her to a Shake Shack on a day she was feeling cranky. The crunchy coating and tangy mayo lifted her mood and made her a Shake Shack convert.

During an appearance on "The Drew Barrymore Show," Garten called the Chicken Shack her number one fast food, saying she "just [adored]" it. She even created her own version, which a friend once told her was the best dinner she ever made.

Garten shared her Chicken Shack-inspired recipe in "Cook Like a Pro" and on an episode of "Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics." In a clip from the show shared on Facebook by Food Network UK, she explains that Shake Shack's chicken has a double coating, which she replicates by double-dipping the fried chicken in both marinade and flour before cooking.

The breasts sit in the marinade, which contains buttermilk, garlic, jalapeño and shallot, for at least eight hours before the dredging process begins, and Garten fries them in a Dutch oven filled with canola oil before serving. Like Shake Shack, she stacks the chicken on potato buns with flavored herb mayo, lettuce, and pickles.

John Karangis, Executive Chef and Vice President of Culinary Innovation at Shake Shack, showed Garten how to make the mayo on "The Drew Barrymore Show," where he combined buttermilk, thyme, parsley, chives, lemon juice, white vinegar, salt and pepper with homemade mayonnaise. He said that a lot of the elements of Shake Shack's food are inspired by fine dining, thanks to the background of the chain's founder, restaurateur Danny Meyer. The Chicken Shack is no exception, so it's no surprise that it remains a favorite among everyday customers and culinary stars alike.