The Secret Ingredient You Should Add To Chick-Fil-A's Egg White Grill

Out of all the restaurant chains we know, Chick-fil-A is certainly the most dedicated to promoting the idea of chicken as a breakfast food. When it comes to breakfast sandwiches, though, there's little doubt that the egg really did come before the chicken, so even this most chicken-centric of chains bows to that convention in that they, too, offer a few egg sandwiches of sorts. When we say of sorts, we're referring, in a non-yolking way, to the fact that one such sandwich, the egg white grill, is made with whites alone. (Otherwise, it would just be called the less-euphonious "egg grill.")

The egg white grill is a partial mother-and-child reunion in that the sandwich also contains chicken as well as a slice of cheese. It is one of the CFA breakfast menu's lower-calorie options, with its 290 calories coming in just about the yogurt parfait's 270 and with less than half of the 700 calories found in the hash brown scramble burrito. If you don't mind tacking on a few extra calories to add an extra dimension to the taste, though, one Chick-fil-A employee interviewed by the chain's Chicken Wire blog suggests that strawberry jam (35 calories per packet) adds some sweetness. This element can balance the slightly citrusy flavor of the sandwich and help to offset the blandness of the egg whites.

While Chick-fil-A does not actually offer a breakfast sandwich that comes pre-made with jelly, it does offer both strawberry, raspberry, and grape jam as optional condiments along with savory options such as salsa or its standard range of dippers like Polynesian, honey mustard, garden ranch herb, and fan favorite Chick-fil-A sauce. If you prefer your eggs complete with yolk, you could always add jam to your chicken, egg, and cheese biscuit or any other CFA breakfast sandwich.

Chick-fil-A isn't the only restaurant to have caught on to the fact that jelly and eggs hit that breakfast sweet (and savory) spot, particularly in combination with cheese and meat. The bodegas of Baltimore have long been serving their bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches with jelly, typically grape, while grape jelly is often paired with ketchup in similar sandwiches sold by New Jersey delis. (This combo goes well in breakfast sandwiches made with the state's signature Taylor ham/pork roll, as well.) DC, NYC, and Philly have been credited with originating the idea of jelly-enhanced breakfast sandwiches, while others apparently feel these are a Southern thing. One blogger with Feed the Malik relates how their Nigerian dad always used to put jelly on Mickey D's sausage and cheese Egg McMcmuffins, while even Thomas', the English muffin and bagel people, suggest making a scrambled egg and American cheese bagel and topping it with grape jelly.