The Persistent Myth Behind Chick-Fil-A's Chicken Preparation

Reverse-engineering secret recipes from fast food is a long tradition at this point, going back to KFC's famous 11 herbs and spices, but few fast food items have been subject to as much interest as Chick-fil-A's chicken. The chain's sandwiches and nuggets aren't just tasty; they are inexplicably tasty. While you can point to the seasonings, sauce, or crispy breading on something like the Popeye's chicken sandwich, the classic Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich is simple and sauceless. Sure, there are a few pickles, the peanut oil Chick-fil-A fries its chicken in, and the batter, but some fans aren't convinced that this is where that signature flavor comes from. There are endless hypotheses about some secret ingredient and at least one popular myth that it turns out is not true: that the chain brines its chicken in pickle juice.

Look at any copycat recipe for Chick-fil-A chicken, and you'll find they almost all utilize pickle juice as a brine. It's a long-running hypothesis that has evolved into fact for many people that pickle juice is the company's secret weapon. But it turns out that it isn't true, or at least it's not true anymore. One look at the sandwich's (long) ingredient list shows there is no vinegar in the chicken, only the pickles themselves and the bun. The same goes for the nuggets. And while the company has never confirmed or denied the rumors, Chick-fil-A employees on places like Reddit have repeatedly shut down these rumors when asked. So, where did this idea come from?

The most obvious guess for where the pickle brine rumor came from is that the pickles themselves, or maybe the vinegar in the bun, just trick people into thinking the chicken itself has more of a vinegar taste. However, there is also the possibility that one of the recipes actually did use a pickle juice brine at one point; after all, some celebrity cooks, including Ree Drummond, do add the tangy ingredient to their fried chicken.

While there are many posts from employees saying Chick-fil-A does not brine in pickle juice, they are mostly from more recent workers. But in some Reddit threads, multiple employees who worked there in the '90s or earlier say the chicken tenders used to be brined in-store in a seasoned pickle juice mixture. And while there is no evidence that is currently the case, the current-day Chick-fil-A tenders have powdered vinegar as part of the recipe, which the sandwich and nuggets don't. This leaves open the possibility that Chick-fil-A once used a pickle brine on the tenders but changed the recipe sometime after the '90s, keeping some powdered vinegar in the seasoning blend to preserve the flavor. And that use of pickle brine then became the basis of the rumor that all Chick-fil-A chicken was made that way.

As for modern-day Chick-fil-A, the real secret ingredient that's so hard for you to replicate at home is MSG. It's an umami-flavor enhancer that is totally safe to eat, and along with other things like pressure frying, lends the sandwiches a uniquely savory flavor.