Skip navigation
MenuMasters 2015 Best New Menu Item: Chick-fil-A

MenuMasters 2015 Best New Menu Item: Chick-fil-A

Presented by Nation’s Restaurant News and sponsored by Ventura Foods, the MenuMasters awards honor outstanding foodservice research and development. See all the winners here>>

Chick-Fil-A Grilled Chicken Sandwich

What makes the item a winner:

1. The chicken breast: The patty is boneless, 100-percent breast meat chicken, marinated in a combination of “secret sauce” and such seasonings as sea salt, lemon, garlic and savory herbs. Chick-fil-A has set a five-year goal to serve only chicken raised without antibiotics in all of its restaurants. The chain installed new grills with cast-iron grates to fit a 12-inch cooking space and cook the chicken in a way that gives it a “backyard grilled” flavor without an open flame.

2. The bun: The sandwich begins with a toasted multigrain bun.

3. The fixings: The sandwich is served with green leaf lettuce and tomato. Each sandwich comes with a side of Honey Roasted BBQ Sauce.

The story behind the item

What comes first, the recipe or the grill?

The product development team at Chick-fil-A set out seven years ago to create a grilled chicken sandwich that could be as popular as its original fried chicken breast sandwich. After extensive testing and a $50 million investment, the quick-service chain last spring rolled out its new grilled chicken recipe along with new technology to cook it.

“Our goal was to create something that was grilled and as craveable as our original hero sandwich,” said Amanda Norris, senior director of product development for the Atlanta-based company. “We wanted it to have a backyard grilled flavor, yet be able to create it in a quick-serve environment. It wasn’t easy.”

The team worked on hundreds of recipes and used multiple taste panels of customers as well as employees, but the biggest hurdle was the grill technology, Norris said. The chicken should have that open-flame flavor, but without being cooked on an open-flame in the tight kitchen spaces of Chick-fil-A’s more than 1,800 locations.

Garland Grills created a proprietary grill that is able to sear the chicken on cast-iron grates. Once Chick-fil-A had the technology to cook the chicken that way, the chain could perfect the recipe, Norris said.

The final result was grilled chicken that could be used not only for the sandwich, but also for other menu items, including nuggets, wraps and salads.

For the rollout, Chick-fil-A created a website — grilledlove.com — for customers to share their experience with the grilled chicken. The company also hosted a Twitter party among mom bloggers, inviting them to come in and taste the sandwich.

“It’s still early but [customer response] has been positive,” Norris said.

TAGS: Menu News
Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish