9 Chick-Fil-A Menu Items That Had Customers In A Tizzy
Fast food fans can be an intense bunch that don't always have the most measured reactions. Exciting new fast food items are great, but sometimes that turns into a Szechuan sauce incident. And don't even get us started on when items get pulled from the menu. Fan backlash is often so loud that items will come back as soon as they left — like when Taco Bell removed potatoes in 2020 before bringing them back less than a year later in 2021.
When it comes to Chick-fil-A, the fans are as diehard as they come. The fried chicken joint has expanded its menu considerably in recent years and also made many changes. Over the years, they have added and removed a number of items that have stirred up fans nationwide, in both good and bad ways.
From the debut of new homestyle sides to test market offerings to discontinued items, all of these are fan favorites. And either adding them or taking them off the menu caused Chick-fil-A fans to go ballistic. In some cases, fans have even petitioned to get a number of the discontinued items from this list back on the menu. Each of these Chick-fil-A menu items has had customers in a tizzy for one reason or another at some point in the recent history of the fast food chain.
Mac and Cheese
Chick-fil-A has been around since the 1960s, but it's only in the past 10 years or so that the franchise started to experiment more with its menu. Case and point is the mac and cheese, which feels like a no-brainer for a side with fried chicken, but this American classic was only added to the menu in 2019.
Mac and Cheese recipes can go in a few different directions, whether it be creamy, crispy or funky. Chick-fil-A has opted for a traditional route with their extremely gooey blend of cheeses including cheddar, Parmesan and Romano. While it seems basic enough, Chik-fil-A fans have been losing their minds over it ever since it soft launched in August of 2019.
When the item was rolled out to the menu at Chick-fil-A locations in Dayton, Ohio, restaurants could not keep up with the demand from customers. Local Dayton Chik-fil-A owner Marla Davis said on the first weekend of rolling out the Mac and Cheese that "all of the restaurants in the Dayton market were running out of product. Our distribution center in Columbus has been scrambling to get us extra cases on our trucks." It sounds like the entire state of Ohio had to try and get a bite of Chik-Fil-A's buzzy new side dish.
Spicy Chick-n-Strips
The Chick-fil-A Chick-n-Strips have been a fairly recent addition to the chain's menu at some locations, but already rank among the best fast food chicken tenders you can get. The presence of nuggets on the menu hasn't stopped the item from becoming popular enough for the minds at Chick-fil-A to start testing out a variant of these strips in a handful of markets. This super special item was the Spicy Chik-n-Strips, and let us tell you, those who got to try them out are still impatiently waiting for them to be added to the menu.
These spicy tenders have been tested out a couple of times. First, in 2017 and 2018, the Spicy Chik-n-Strips were rolled out to a handful of test markets in select states across the country. By 2020 this had been expanded to many locations across Pennsylvania, Texas, and Arizona. In 2021, the chicken chain expanded this test market yet again to include locations in Florida, Illinois, and other cities in central Texas.
Despite years of slowly testing this item and hearing loads of good feedback on places like Reddit, the Spicy Chick-n-Strips have still not been rolled out nationwide as a full-time menu item at Chick-fil-A. The best we can do is cross our fingers and wait.
Spicy Chicken Biscuit
This item has got to be the hardest loss that Chick-fil-A diners have had to endure. If you ask people what they miss most from the Chik-fil-A menu, you are going to see the Spicy Chicken Biscuit come up time and time again. And for good reason. This delicious sandwich gave a spicy edge to one of the chain's tastiest options.
In 2016, the Spicy Chicken Biscuit was removed from the menu and fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment. One even got a response from Chick-fil-A's official Twitter account, saying the item was removed to make room for the Egg White Grill, a completely different sandwich altogether. This reasoning got around and didn't do the company any favors.
Mashed polled 600 Chick-fil-A diners to determine that the Spicy Chicken Biscuit was the most missed discontinued item by a wide margin. Fans nationwide want this one back, but for the time being it's only available at certain locations. That's right, as of 2022 the Spicy Chicken Biscuit is back on the Chik-fil-A menu at select locations. We hope this is a sign of a bigger menu change in the works.
Cinnamon Cluster
An age old struggle of fast food breakfast has always been, "What do we offer people who don't want to eat eggs?" Okay, maybe not — but the truth is many fast food breakfast menus are lacking in quality and quantity when it comes to offerings on the sweeter side. Chick-fil-A is certainly not lacking when it comes to savory breakfast items — the inclusion of chicken as a desirable protein in addition to the usual bacon and sausage is an added bonus. But when it comes to offering early morning sweet treats, the chicken chain recently let its best option go. We are talking about the ever so sweet and gooey Cinnamon Cluster.
The Cinnamon Cluster was on the Chik-fil-A breakfast menu until 2016 after being on there for 11 years. This item was essentially a bunch of mini cinnamon rolls clustered together and topped with icing, but it filled a certain sweet-tooth craving that nothing else on the Chick-fil-A menu really does. For this reason alone, fans have been clamoring for the return of the Cinnamon Cluster ever since it was taken away from them.
Asian Salad
Despite what you may believe, Chick-fil-A does have salads on its menu — although they differ from location to location. Once upon a time, there were even more, including one salad that was a fan favorite for the handful of years it graced the menu. Sure, a rebrand of an item called the "Asian salad" was an inevitability, but that didn't mean it had to be taken off the menu entirely. This item came with lettuce, pieces of grilled or fried chicken, red cabbage, almonds, oranges, and wontons, all topped with the sweet and savory Honey Sesame Dressing.
The Asian salad was removed from the Chick-fil-A menu in 2016, after only being on the menu for a few years. In that time, diners had taken a liking to the Asian salad as not only one of the healthiest items on the menu, but one that was satisfying and had a different flavor from the rest of the menu.
Cole Slaw
Cole Slaw is one of the most traditional sides to serve alongside the fried chicken that Chick-fil-A has built its nationwide brand on. So why is it nowhere on the menu? The answer can be traced back to 2016 when the chain took Cole Slaw off the Chick-fil-A menu despite it being a staple item since 1967. After nearly 50 years, this side was removed and has not made any trace of a return since.
Chick-fil-A dropped the classic Cole Slaw in January 2016 in favor of expanding the menu and adding new healthier options like a Kale Salad. Thankfully, the company realized that fans might not take that news in stride and took one measure to address the backlash that followed. When the chain discontinued the Cole Slaw, it did its best to please fans by releasing the recipe online and letting diners make that sweet, mayo-based Cole Slaw in their own homes. The only downside to this information now being public knowledge is that it pretty much puts the nail in the coffin on Chick-fil-A ever bringing the item back to its menus.
Tortilla Soup
The Tex-Mex inspired tortilla soup at Chick-fil-A isn't like anything else on this list. It's a special type of item at the chain that is rarely on the menu. The tortilla soup is a seasonal item that is available for limited times throughout the year at participating Chick-fil-A locations. Typically you can find it at restaurants in the Fall and Winter months. The hearty seasonal soup comes loaded with chicken, beans, corn, green chilies, cilantro, and sour cream — all topped with tortilla strips you can only get with this item. The tortilla soup becomes a go-to for cold customers who want something no other fast food joint can offer.
If Chick-fil-A's tortilla soup sounds good to you, you aren't alone. Those who tried it in Winter of 2022 were big fans of the warm and tasty addition to the chicken fast food establishment's menu. If you think this sounds as delicious as it looks, mark your calendars for around November and be sure to check at your local Chick-fil-A to see if it offers this hearty option.
Sunflower Multigrain Bagel
Real Chick-fil-A heads show up for breakfast. At least, that was true before the chain managed to cut some of its best early morning offerings. Not only is the Spicy Chicken Biscuit no longer on the menu, but the fast food brand has also knocked off a healthier fan-favorite breakfast option; the Sunflower Multigrain Bagel. This bagel could be served plain, with cream cheese, or as the bread on your breakfast sandwich. Regardless of how they liked to eat it, Chick-fil-A fans everywhere took the loss of this item to heart.
In April 2021, Chick-fil-A announced they would be removing the Sunflower Multigrain Bagel (as well as Decaf coffee) from its breakfast menu. While you can still get egg sandwiches on biscuits and English muffins, the removal of the only bagel option definitely upset a good deal of diners. It has even driven hundreds of the most dedicated Chick-fil-A fans to sign a Change.org petition to bring back the item. While it might not seem like a big deal, the Sunflower Multigrain Bagel was a go-to for many early-risers stopping by the Chik-fil-A drive thru and its absence has certainly been felt.
Cauliflower Sandwich
Chick-fil-A is always here to cash in on one of the latest food industry crazes, and the latest is cauliflower. And although we've seen chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and Noodles & Company add cauliflower to their menu to varying degrees of success, what the chicken brand is trying is on another level. In an attempt to finally corner the herbivore market, Chick-fil-A has started to roll out its signature Chick-fil-A Cauliflower Sandwich.
Certain locations have been enjoying this item since February, when it was first introduced in a handful of test markets including Denver, Charleston, and North Carolina's Greensboro-Triad area. The item is what you imagine it to be, a standard Chick-fil-A sandwich with buttered bun, pickles, and of course a breaded and fried filet. Only, this sandwich swaps out chicken with a tender, whole cauliflower "filet" style cut.
This vegetarian offering has received praise from those who have tried it thus far. Mashed tried the cauliflower sandwich and had extremely positive things to say about the item. They said the flavor was similar to the seasoning on the chicken, but slightly sweeter, and the texture was a "perfect balance of tender, but with a little bit of a bite."
Static Media owns and operates Daily Meal and Mashed.