This Is The Only Flour Chick-Fil-A Uses For Its Biscuits
It's been said that the best recipes start with the right ingredients. This might be especially true when it comes to baking. According to Eat Wheat, different types of wheat are used to create different types of flours, which can vary by wheat variety and protein level.
It's no surprise then, that Southerners, and Southern restaurant companies for that matter, are particular about the type of flour used in their biscuits. Southern Living magazines points out that using the wrong flour is one of 11 different pitfalls that could destroy your biscuits and keep them from living their best, softest, flakiest, and most delicious lives.
Chick-fil-A — whose chicken biscuits have a large fan following ("the best chicken biscuits to ever exist," according to one reddit forum) — is particular about the type of flour used in their breakfast items. Wing Lau, Culinary Expert at Chick-fil-A, recently walked Southern Living through the biscuit-making process, which includes tips such as not twisting your biscuit cutter in order to ensure biscuits that rise straight up.
This flour isn't a secret in the South
Another essential part of Chick-fil-A's biscuits is their "secret" ingredient (it actually isn't so secret if you're a Southerner), which is self-rising White Lily brand flour. White Lily has been in business since 1883, according to the company's website, and what sets the brand apart is that it uses 100% soft red winter wheat.
Southern Kitchen explains that the reason this particular flour is well suited for biscuits is that it is low in protein and gluten than all-purpose flour. Because biscuits are a type of quick bread, using an all-purpose flour can result in tough, dense results. White Lily has a protein content similar to pastry flour, providing softer results.
The website Healthy Happy Life tested the importance of flour in biscuit-making and found that using Chick-fil-A's "secret" ingredient did in fact produce superior results. They experimented, making biscuit batches with White Lily's self-rising flour and Bob's Red Mill pastry flour. While the Bob's flour resulted in a "nuttier" and perfectly fine result, the White Lily flour confirmed what Southern bakers have always said: White Lily produced a "spongy, fluffy, flaky, very tender biscuit."