Crispy Peach Chicken Sandwich Recipe

Some foods immediately conjure a certain kind of event or a special time of year. These fried chicken sandwiches, with their slices of ripe peach and a creamy honeyed peach aioli (with just a touch of heat), immediately transport us to a summer picnic. Bees are abuzz, potato salad is piled high, and you're gathered with friends sharing food and good company. A single bite into this spicy and juicy sandwich is just what you need to transport you to a perfect summer day, any time of the year.

According to Ksenia Prints from At the Immigrant's Table, peach and chicken are a great combination that we love exploring over and over again. Marinate and season the chicken with a touch of heat, and it's perfection in a bun — a combination that southerners have been enjoying for generations.

This crispy peach chicken sandwich recipe is perfect for when you're craving an extra-special fried chicken sandwich — one that adds freshness, complexity, sweetness, and spice to an iconic favorite. It's a great way to bring something special to the meal when you want to impress friends at a summer picnic. It's also simpler to make than it might seem, and easy to make ahead — perfect for a potluck, picnic, or any other kind of summer festivity.

For the fried chicken & marinade, you'll need buttermilk, hot sauce — we recommend using Frank's hot or Cholula — boneless, skinless chicken breasts, all-purpose flour, salt, and vegetable oil, for frying. For the spicy peach aioli, you'll need mayonnaise, a ripe peach, sriracha, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. For the sandwich assembly, you'll need brioche buns and another large ripe peach.

Whisk 2 cups of buttermilk with 3 tablespoons of hot sauce.

Submerge the chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour to overnight.

Mix the flour and salt.

Place the remaining 1 cup of buttermilk in a separate dish.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the marinade.

Dredge each piece of chicken in flour, then buttermilk, then flour again. Rest them on a rack.

Fill a large pot with about 3-inches deep of vegetable oil, and preheat the oil to 350 F.

Fry the chicken, turning occasionally, until the internal temperature reaches 165 F and the crust is golden, about 6-8 minutes.

Drain the chicken on paper towels and season it with salt and pepper.

Combine the mayonnaise, minced peach, sriracha, lemon juice, and salt. Adjust seasoning.

Spread the spicy peach aioli on the buns. Layer the bottom bun with fried chicken and fresh peach slices. Top with the other half of the bun.

Serve immediately.

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This spicy-sweet chicken sandwich leaves a lot of room for experimentation and can easily be adapted to your tastes. First, we love adding peppery arugula for some crunch and freshness. You can even skip some of the carbs by removing the bun and turning the whole thing into a big bowl salad with a hefty layer of arugula and spinach at the bottom. You'll need to thin out the aioli slightly to make it into a salad dressing, which you can easily do with a drop of water.

If you're sensitive to spice, you can skip the hot sauce in the aioli or the marinade, but you may want to add a dash of red wine vinegar to the dressing just to give it a bit of a kick. If you want more heat, add a few pickled jalapeño slices to the sandwich.

And finally, a little cheese makes most things a whole lot better. We love adding a few slices of Havarti cheese to the sandwich, or even crumbling on some blue cheese to add some funky tanginess. It's honestly hard to go wrong when the starting point is so delicious!

The sandwich doesn't take a ton of time to make, but if you're prepping it ahead for a potluck or picnic, we recommend breaking the recipe up into a couple of days of prep. First, start by marinating the chicken a bit longer, with an 8-hour overnight marinade being ideal. Make the aioli in advance as well and store it in a little jar or well-sealed container.

The next day — the day you plan to serve the sandwiches — fry the chicken up to four hours before serving. Store all the components separately and assemble them only when you're ready to serve the sandwiches. Another trick we love for turning this sandwich into a perfect make-ahead meal to feed a crowd is to turn it into sliders. All you'll need to do is cut the chicken breasts into four pieces — half lengthwise and then each half again into a smaller piece. Spread slider buns on a baking sheet or tray, pile them with chicken and peaches, and dress the entire tray of sliders in one go right before serving. Then, separate the sliders with a sharp knife, and you've got yourself party-sized tray of crispy peach chicken.

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