Chick-Fil-A Menu Hacks You Need To Try

Whether you call them secret menus or menu hacks, it's all basically the same thing: You use what's offered to make something new and different. Look up any popular food chain and you're bound to find more than a couple customers sharing their favorite menu hacks or secret menus on social media and the blogosphere. I investigated Chick-fil-A, the mega popular chicken fast food chain with only two U.S. states without a single location, to find some great menu hacks worth a try on your next visit, just in case you're interested in switching up your usual order.

To make ordering and picking up these items as easy as possible, I chose to place my order ahead of time and picked it up in the drive-through line. I found this decreased the pressure and stress I typically feel when ordering items that require several parts, and I could also be sure that my order went in correctly. Plus, going through the Chick-fil-A drive-through always brings me just a little extra joy. Nearly no one (except maybe Portillo's) does drive-through quite as well and efficiently as Chick-fil-A.

When I first started researching Chick-fil-A hacks, I kept seeing the recommendation of putting your chicken patty in the sandwich bag with sauce and giving it some good shakes. A few of my favorite hacks used this simple trick, so I've done it a few times now. As a result, I can tell you that there is a surprising amount of skill needed. 

For one, you'll need to make sure that you put your chosen sauce in the bag first. It may seem reasonable to put the sauce over your chicken, but I found that creates a little less coverage. Instead, pour your sauces into the bag, and allow them to run down the sides of the bag. This way, you can use the sides of your shaking bag to help create contact between the chicken and the sauce. Then, put in your chicken and shake, shake, shake. While shaking, hold the bag on either side, rather than holding it on the top and bottom. My first time shaking my chicken, I held the bag at the top and bottom, and the chicken nearly flew out a hole that formed on the side of the bag. So, learn from my mistakes, and hold on to the weaker sides. While you're doing that, be sure that you have the top folded over a couple of times so you have the sturdiest top edge.

One of my favorite hacks I tried used my favorite two sauces: Polynesian (victim of a Chick-fil-A sauce recall in early 2024) and Chick-fil-A sauce (which once experienced a sauce shortage that brought the nation to its knees). Together, they are tangy and sweet coming through nicely on the shaken chicken. If I were to make this Polynesian chicken sandwich again, I'd do two Polynesian sauces and one Chick-fil-A sauce for an even better flavor and coverage.

Perhaps the most obvious shaken chicken sandwich would be a Buffalo chicken mixture. For this one, order a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich with two Buffalo sauces and one ranch. If ordering over the app, you can only select two sauces per item, so you may need to ask for a second Buffalo when you arrive to pick up your order.

To make your Buffalo chicken sandwich, shake your chicken patty in the bag with Buffalo sauce and then place it on the butter bun. Top that with your ranch sauce. I tried the sandwich made with one Buffalo sauce packet, and then added another to it because the one sauce simply wasn't enough. So, again, learn from my trial and error, and go for two sauce packets out the gate. You'll find a better flavor balance. When I do this one again, I'll also want to make sure that I ask for more pickles. If you want to add even more spice, this would also be a great hack for the spicy chicken sandwich.

For a Honey BBQ Chicken Sandwich, you'll follow a similar process as you did for the Polynesian and Buffalo chicken sandwich, but here, you'll use a packet of honey and a packet of barbecue sauce. To get started, order a chicken sandwich with a honey packet and BBQ sauce packet. Put both sauces in the bag first, and then put your chicken in after. Be sure to shake well, but still hold the bag in a way that protects the sides from breaking open.

I enjoyed how strongly the honey comes through on this sandwich, but I found that it could've used a little bit more zing with the BBQ sauce. I think next time, I would add more BBQ sauce in there with the honey, otherwise, it's missing a little bit of the zip that BBQ can add. The best thing about a hack is that you can adjust it for your specific purpose, so if you, like me, really enjoy honey, you might want to add even more of the sweet stuff to this mixture.

If you're interested in Chick-fil-A menu hacks, there's a good chance you know about the Chick-fil-A bowl order that some say is life changing. Basically, it takes everything that's good and delicious about Chick-fil-A and piles it into a bowl. If you love a casserole, you'll enjoy this one. If you're planning on embarking on this flavor journey, be sure you snag a container of some kind to mix it in. I used the same type of Tupperware style containers my family packs away leftover food after a meal, but basically any container with a lid will do. In a pinch, you may even be able to ask for a salad container from Chick-fil-A, but I would plan to bring your own.

Begin by deciding how big you want this mixture to be. If it's serving one, you can get away with ordering smalls for all parts, but if you're serving two or more, it's best to consider a medium or large. To create this mixture, you will need waffle fries, nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and Chick-fil-A sauce. The process is as simple as dumping everything into your chosen mixing vessel, and mixing until all parts are combined. My first time making this up, I put everything in all at once, but if I were to do it again, I would mix the waffle fries, nuggets, and macaroni and cheese together first before adding the sauces to give it one last mix. I feel this would give the sauce a better coating to all of the individual items. For the purposes of this tasting, I ordered a small waffle fry, the smallest nuggets I could find, and a side order of the mac and cheese. Two sauce containers were plenty, but if you, like the rest of the nation, is obsessed with sauce, you may wish to add more.

If you love experimental and slightly strange foods, this one's for you. A cookie chicken sandwich is absolutely the way that cookie monster would enjoy a Chick-fil-A sandwich, and I must say, it was surprisingly tasty. Simply order two chocolate chip cookies and a chicken patty. When ordering, be sure you order the chicken patty on its own, without a bun, that way you're not paying for anything other than the protein. Assembly here is simple, and it'll just require you to place the chicken patty between two cookies.

In my case, the camera ate before I did, giving the chicken and cookies just enough time to sit together for a few extra minutes. As a result, the heat of the chicken warmed up the cookies just enough that the chocolate actually began to melt a little bit. I liked how this changed the texture of the sandwich. So if slightly melted chocolate is your bag too, I recommend leaving it to sit before chowing down. Funny enough, the chicken here is very subtle. The cookie takes a majority of the flavor profile, so it's a surprisingly sly way to sneak in a little protein in your dessert.

I love Chick-fil-A's breakfast. It's an unexpectedly good fast food menu for the a.m., but Chick-fil-A stops serving breakfast at 10:30 a.m. So if a breakfast sandwich is something you desperately want, definitely make sure you wake up a little bit earlier so you don't miss the menu and roll up as it's being switched to lunch.

While you could order everything I did on my breakfast sandwich on a typical Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwich from the menu, you would be saddled with the biscuit rather than the bun. Plus, even with all of the additions, this cheesy breakfast sandwich is less expensive than a Chick-fil-A biscuit sandwich. My mixture was $3.54 before tax, but a typical Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit is $3.69. Plus, this one includes egg, cheese, and even pickles. The $3.69 Chick-fil-A charge doesn't even include egg.

For this cheesy breakfast sandwich, you're going to find it easiest to order on the app. Under breakfast, scroll all the way down to breakfast protein. Go on over to toppings and select two cheeses. I chose colby jack and pepper jack and added an egg (egg whites are also an option). Then, if you like pickles, go to town on the bottom pickle option. I added three, but my store added quite a few more than that. You won't hear me complaining. Unfortunately, you can't select a buttered bun from the app, but when you go in to pick up your order, it's easy enough to have one added right to your order.

Yes, it's true that there are many fast food places you can find that offer actual saucy boneless wings, but Chick-fil-A offers something mighty close. You'll just need to make a couple of tweaks, of course. Order your chosen size of nuggets and sauce, and plan to do this one over a sink or with lots of napkins.

Once you get your food, pour the sauce right in your nugget box, close as well as you can, and gently shake. If you can shake over a sink, that would be best as your sauce will inevitably fly out of the container. You're not dealing with a bag here, after all. If a sink isn't available, or you're performing this little maneuver on the run, take some napkins and wrap them on the outside of the box before you get to shaking. This way, whatever comes out of the box will get the napkins saucy rather than the inside of your car. These will likely be some of the smaller boneless wings you've had, but if you've got a craving for a cross between nugget and wing, these will do well.

If you typically enjoy covering your waffle fries in ketchup, you might like wet fries. Like the shaken chicken sandwiches, these fries will require a little bit of preparation on your part. Of course, you can order any sauce with your fries, but I opted for poly sauce. Since it's one of my favorite sauces at Chick-fil-A, it stands to reason that it would be my favorite sauce on wet fries. If I were to try this again, I would likely go with a mixture of poly and Chick-fil-A sauce for a creamier coating.

Begin by ordering your fries. It doesn't matter the size here, but with a larger amount of fries, you'll definitely want to add more sauces. Since the waffle fries come in an open top container, dump your fries in the paper bag that held your food, pour the sauce on top, and shake. Be careful not to shake too aggressively as a paper bag is definitely a little more rippable than the typical sandwich bag that you would use on some of the other hacks. To avoid over-shaking, you might consider using more sauce to get a really nice coverage. I used one sauce packet for a small, but when I do this again, I'll use two sauce packets.

The Port Saint Lucie, Florida Chick-fil-A shares a sandwich it calls the Birch Island Madness Burger. Even though the name would suggest it, this sandwich has nothing to do with beef burgers. Instead, like some of the other hacks, it involves some mixing. Like the legendary mixture, you're going to want a bowl or container to prepare this in. So, it requires a little forethought, but with the flavor of the sandwich, it's definitely time worth taking.

To create your mixture, order nuggets, mac and cheese, and waffle fries. Be sure to get some Chick-fil-A sauce and ask for a buttered bun too. Although you won't be able to order the buttered bun from the app, if you order in person, or request the change when you pick up at the drive-thru, the staffer will gladly add it to your order. For this one, break apart your nuggets into smaller pieces. I broke each nugget into about three bites. Then, mix those nugget pieces together thoroughly with macaroni and cheese, adding some Chick-fil-A sauce too. I only added one packet, but I can imagine adding more if you really like the flavor of Chick-fil-A sauce. Spread this mixture on top of a buttered bun and top with waffle fries.

Though not such a new trend anymore, it doesn't seem too long ago when hot honey was everywhere. As a person who loves honey on nearly everything, hot honey is certainly a favorite flavor of mine. I like to put it on pizza, french fries, and apparently now, chicken strips.

To make hot honey strips, order chicken strips with a packet of honey and a packet of Buffalo sauce. To make the honey strips extra spicy, you could also add in some hot sauce, or to make it sweeter, add an additional packet of honey. You know your tastes best, so augment as you see fit.

Drizzle the honey and sauce over your strips in a box and give them some good shake time to allow the honey and sauce to thoroughly coat the strips. If you feel that you're not getting enough space to shake the strips within the box, this would be another good place to utilize the paper bag, but be sure to shake it carefully as you would have done with the wet fries.

My favorite menu hack of any I tried from Chick-fil-A was a combination of a few different hacks. Fair warning about this sandwich: It is big, and it is messy, but it is delicious. Begin by ordering a chicken sandwich and a side of mac and cheese. For the sauces, get Buffalo and ranch.

You'll first shake up the chicken patty in its bag with the Buffalo sauce, as I did with one of the earlier sandwiches. Put that patty on the buttered bun, scoop out the mac and cheese and put it right on top. The ranch goes on top of the macaroni and cheese as a nice drizzle. I loved the way the individual flavors and textures played off of each other while still retaining so much of their individual deliciousness. After all, one bite of Chick-fil-A macaroni and cheese is delicious on its own, but paired with other items, it just becomes that much better. This one truly feels like a meal on a bun, and if you're in a pinch and looking for a quick, filling bite, this one will do it.

Using what I know about the way menu hacks work from my experiences at Starbucks, I went on the hunt for various hacks I could try at Chick-fil-A. I focused on finding ones that were unique from others that you may have seen. Though I gathered the hacks from many sources, I found the most through the social media accounts of a Port Saint Lucie, Florida Chick-fil-A.

When I was vetting hacks, I looked for ones that could be easily ordered and didn't require employees to do anything that they wouldn't be allowed to. For example, some drink hacks out there seemed to be questionable in terms of the likelihood a staff member would agree to do them, so I avoided those. As a result, most of the hacks I chose require some assembly by the customer. In the end, my favorite hacks were ones that were easy to order, create, and eat.