@wunami: My style is to butter BOTH sides of both slices of bread - makes it extra good. Most people I know only butter the outside of the bread though.
Another tip - don't try to be healthy and use Smart Balance or other type of 'butter substance'. That stuff will never brown and just gets the bread soggy.
Houston for sure - the best of all worlds of Mexican cuisine. San Antonio is fantastic as well, but with far fewer options (they're a strong second).
Don't forget that CFA also offers the wheat bun option - yum. Plus, the customer service is exponentially better than McD's in my experiences.
I've eaten the sandwich for Breakfast & lunch at McDonald's. It is tasty, if you like the flavor of pickle juice. It was very consistent in browning & texture, but I will tell you I don't like condiments & the one thing I didn't like was the taste of PICKLES!!!
Today, my dad took my daughter to McDonald's, not one close to me & raved about this sandwich. They ordered them to be made to order. When my daughter got it, she said it tasted like it had something on it. My dad looked it over & wasn't happy that she was complaining, it had nothing on it. She told me when she got home it tasted like pickles. I thought maybe they prepped it with pickles & pulled them off when they made one ordered without condiments. Like I said, the breakfast one tasted like the juice as well. I decided to blog & this site came up when I mentioned pickle juice. Does anyone work at McD's that can confirm this. It actually really caused an argument.
I agree with fivrforfun. I live in Bend and the Mexican food at Pepe's rocks. My friend Marcos has a restaurant called La Rosa that is also a locals favorite.
Some really awesome burritos de carne asada can be found at El Grullense in Salem OR. In fact when I'm there I get a cooler and ice and load up before driving home... yes, that good!
Aw, man! I totally need to learn how to deglaze plans! In Poland we're too lazy to butter four sides of bread, so we just make grzanki - an open faced grilled cheese toasted in the oven, then slathered with mayonnaise (ew) and ketchup (double ew). American grilled cheese is WAY better. Especially with Sriracha.
Sigh... why does no one get the true secret to a perfect grilled cheese sandwich? The trick is this. Butter ALL FOUR SIDES of two pieces of bread. Then put the two pieces of bread in the pan until the pan-sides are crisp.
Then, flip both slices of bread over and put the cheese on top of one of the slices THAT WAS JUST COOKED. Then put the OTHER cooked side on top of the cheese. Cook sandwich as you normally would.
By putting the cheese between two HOT sides of bread instead of between cold sides, the cheese is perfectly melted by the time the bread is crisp on the outside.
Two advantages -- you don't have to wait so long or constantly check to see if you are burning the bread AND you get even more of the delicious crispy crunch, which is the true joy of a grilled cheese sandwich.
Houston? What you have there is Tex-Mex. Chicago? I think not. I have lived in both cities. San Diego, CA which is 15 miles north of the Mexican border by far, has the best Mexican in the US. Old Town is dedicated to offering you one Mexican restaurant after another in addition to all the other Mexican restaurants and taco stands located around the city. Real Mexican food is found there.
Just thought of something else.... I bet CFA's Sandwichs are less fats then mcdonalds, im not sure on that one, i forgot how many calories and fat is in a CFA but know that its really not to bad considering its fried and its fast food.
I just noticed all my spelling errors on those comments, i spelled sandwich wrong like 100 times. sorry
Oh yeah and the CFA that i work at uses homemade biscuts, i know that some CFA's use frozen biscuts but not all of them.
I would just like to comment to the person who said that the secret to the CFA sandwhich is that they marinate the chicken in pickle juice. I have worked at a CFA for 6 years now i have been a manager for 3. We do not marinate are CFA Sandwhichs in pickles juice. Our Grills and our old strips are marinated in pickle juice but the regular CFA is not. The secret to our Sandwhich and what makes it 100 times better then Mcdonalds is that its FRESH! not frozen, we bread ALL of our chicken (except the Chargrills of course). When i think of Country fried Chicken Sandwhich, i think of fresh chicken, not a frozen patty that gets reheated. We also have a timed holding system, if the chicken has been sitting for to long we can't serve it. I dunno that all Chick-Fil-A's follow this holding system but i know that they are supposed to and the CFA that i work at in Kentucky does follow the rules.Also, our bun is evenly buttered, the mcdonalds sandwhich above looks as if they used a squirt bottle to spray the butter on. Something i did notice about the CFA sandwhich above is the pickles, they are supposed to be evenly placed on the bun, not over-lapping. Something else that makes the CFA sandwhich is the foil steam bag that we put are sadwhich in, it keeps the sandwhich hot and very moist. I do find it alittle bit weird that the Mcdonalds sandwhich costs more then our CFA sandwhich though considering that its a frozen patty and also its MCDONALDS arn't they supposed to be really cheap? Well with the quality of there food the whole menu should be 99 cents. I have worked at CFA for 6 years now and yes i am tired of eating there 5 days a week, (i eat chargrills everyday almost) i would still, hands down, chose CFA over mcdonalds.
We do have a new limited time coffee carmel milk shake that is out of this world and you should try it. Also we have new chicken strips (no longer marinated in pickle juice) that are amazing as well. Oh and our new Chicken Salad recipe! yummy!
Side note- KFC is the only other place that i know that breads their chicken but i know that not all of their chicken is breaded, i know that the popcorn chicken is frozen, not sure about the rest.
vox8light: I wanted to ditto what you say. We live in Atlanta too, there is just no comparison between Mc Copy and Chick Fil A. Ill take Chick Fil A. Their biscuits rock too. When ever I have to go down to Macon, I stop at Chick fil a for breakfast. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
I moved to an area without any Chick-fil-a and I count the days between trips back home where I can feast on their delicious food. Needless to say I was shocked and curious when I saw the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich (S.S.C.S) appear on the menu at my local McDonalds, it being such an obvious knock off. I decided I had to try one and was pleasantly surprised that the taste was a some what accurate reproduction. However upon closer examination I noticed several differences that make all the difference in the world.
1. The breading.....when I took off the bun of the McDonalds version the breading was unnaturally ridged and gave the appearance that it was added for effect. The Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich has a golden brown coating, thin in some spots thick and crunchy in others, delicious all over.
2. The pickles....the whole reason I took the bun off was to remove the pickles, I just don't like pickles, but I didn't like the appearance of the McDonalds pickles even more. They were perfectly round (no crinkle cut
) with little or no seeds which again gave it an unnatural appearance. While I don't like the pickles I always did like the slight pickle juice that soaked into the bun of the Chick-fil-a sandwich. By placing the pickles on top the same thing does not happen with the S.S.C.S. so to me the pickles become useless as well as an eyesore. A Chick-fil-a employee once told me I could get it without the pickles, but that just wouldn't be the same.
Overall the pickes and breading on the McDonalds sandwich contributed to the feeling that this was another mass produced fast food item and didn't add a thing.
3. The butter.....while removing the pickles from my S.S.C.S. I noticed a yellow substance covering a small portion of the bun and mostly coating the pickles which I tasted and recognized to be butter. This was the first time I realized there was supposed to be butter on this type of sandwich. The point of this is that the Chick-fil-a sandwich is so expertly crafted that I never even noticed the butter after eating it for the last 30 years. And don't forget I ALWAYS take off the pickles so I have been looking closely at the inside of the bun for many, many years.
4. The packaging....the Chick-fil-a sandwich comes in the foil lined sleeve that seems to keep the tender moistness locked in with every bite. I often pick up a Chick-fil-a sandwich right before heading out on the turnpike to head home and I will eat it protruding out of the wrapping as I drive. I got the S.S.C.S. on a trip and ate it on the road and by the time I finished it was no longer all that moist or warm.
Finally, the verdict. While McDonalds sandwich will hold me over, I will never buy it when a Chick-fil-a is within a half hour driving distance. (My boyfriend made me type this, he is freakishly obessed with Chick-fil-a and from reading the comments above I can see that he is not alone. Isn't that the true testament to the greatness of Chick-fil-a?)
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