How The Famous Chick-Fil-A Chicken Biscuit Came To Be

The Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit is a breakfast classic. Simple but satisfying and flavorful, the sandwich is a breakfast-sized portion of the classic Chick-fil-A breaded chicken breast served in one of the restaurant's famous, warm buttermilk biscuits made every morning at each Chick-fil-A location.

According to Chick-fil-A, the restaurant chain sold 133 million of the tasty biscuits in 2018 (via The Chicken Wire). With the addition of some breaded chicken, how did this menu favorite come to be?

The first Chick-fil-A opened as a mall restaurant in Atlanta in 1967 and operated strictly in shopping centers for the next 19 years. The chicken biscuit breakfast was developed in 1985, a year before the fast food company opened its first stand-alone location and nearly a decade after McDonald's and other fast food restaurants brought breakfast staples to the menu (via CNN). 

Chick-fil-A's Senior Manager of Menu Development Shona Jonson explains that the company wanted to bring in breakfast customers, "And being in the South, a biscuit was a natural fit," she said in a post on The Chicken Wire, Chick-fil-A's official blog.

Jonson said that while the idea of a fried chicken-and-biscuit breakfast sandwich wasn't that outlandish in the South, their Northern customers, as Chick-fil-A expanded their geographical footprint, sometimes met the idea with some skepticism.

The chicken biscuit is the best-selling item on Chick-fil-A's breakfast menu, according to The Chicken Wire. The Atlanta-based chain's Senior Manager of Menu Development Shona Jonson said the biscuit is what makes Chick-fil-A's chicken breakfast sandwich unique.

Chick-fil-A's biscuits are made beginning at 4:30 each morning by employees who go through special training to make the fluffy creations. This instruction involves learning not just the recipe but time-honored techniques for mixing, rolling, cutting, and baking. It's a combination of science, art, and love, claims Jonson. To make sure each biscuit served throughout the morning is warm and fresh, a new batch is started every 30 minutes.

In developing the perfect biscuit for the chicken biscuit sandwich, Jonson said Chick-fil-A worked on the recipe until they had a biscuit that could hold up to various fillings — eggs and cheese, sausage, or the hearty chicken breast — while still being tender and flaky. Moreover, Jonson said, Chick-fil-A tweaked the recipe until they achieved the perfect balance of salty, sweet, buttery, and sour flavors.

The sandwich has struck up conversations among fans on Reddit. Favorite condiments? "The only way to make it better is a small drizzle of honey," opined one Redditor, while others in the same forum say they like theirs with honey butter or even grape jelly. If you haven't tried the chicken biscuit yet, put it on your "to eat" list. In one Reddit forum, a commenter called it "like eating a gift from heaven."