Enjoying fried chicken makes me wiggle with delight. I don’t have it often, as it isn’t the healthiest meal option. However, when I’m exhausted, hungry, and being an absolute low blood sugar nightmare, fried chicken is my go-to meal of choice. I’m not sure if my obsession with fried chicken is due to living around the block from KFC when I was younger, but it’s an obsession nonetheless. However, it wasn’t until later in life that I discovered the fried chicken sandwich. A thing of beauty.
National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day
A day dedicated to the fried chicken sandwich makes absolute sense to me. Who doesn’t enjoy a crispy, juicy piece of chicken topped with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and a beautiful bun? What always gets me down about this amazing fried sandwich: pickles. I hate pickles. Almost every fast food place, as well as sit down restaurant brines their chicken in some kind of pickle juice for chicken sandwiches. I get why everyone seems to do this nowadays, but I hate pickles.
Depending on where one dines, a fried chicken meal instead of a sandwich, doesn’t often have the overwhelming pickle flavor. However, the fried chicken sandwiches are overwhelmingly pickle tasting. Chick-fil-A is notorious for this, and with the amount they charge for their food, it annoys me to no end. To avoid this issue, I had to learn how to make my own fried chicken sandwich and adjust the ones with pickle brine, replacing the pickle brine with something else.
Fried Chicken Sandwich Recipe Roundup
Classic fried chicken, crispy fried chicken, spicy fried chicken and more! Regardless of which type of fried chicken sandwich you’re jonesing for, you’ll find the perfect one in this recipe roundup.
- Classic Fried Chicken Sandwich from Something About Sandwiches. I like this one because it doesn’t incorporate pickle juice in the chicken coating, so there’s no need for substitutions! But if you love pickles, you can add it to the mayo spread (I don’t, I leave that out since I hate pickles).
- Food & Wine’s Super-Crispy Fried Chicken Sandwich. Changing up the oil is a subtle flavor change, and this one calls for peanut oil for frying. It works.
- DIY Popeyes Chicken Sandwich from Gimme Delicious. When you’re aching for some Popeyes fried chicken but they’re closed, you can make your own at home.
- Cookerru’s The Best Spicy Chicken Sandwich. This one brings the spice to everyone’s favorite fried chicken sandwich.
- Umami Girl’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich. I’m not sure if this one is so crispy and not as oily-tasting because of the safflower oil or not, but I like this one a lot.
If frying chicken is a problem, there’s absolutely no reason you can’t opt to prepare it in an air fryer or even baking the chicken in the oven. Growing up we always baked our chicken cutlets in the oven, which worked. I always enjoyed them. Now I either deep fry, pan fry, or throw them in the air fryer. It just depends on my mood, because let’s face it…. when you’re experiencing doom and gloom, deep fried is comforting. As long as it’s not an every day choice, and it’s done in moderation, you don’t have to feel guilt on top of the gloom and doom and truly embrace the ‘comfort’ part of comfort food.
