The home of the original chicken sandwich is testing its first plant-based meal, as Chick-fil-A announced on Thursday a new “cauliflower sandwich.”
The Atlanta chain will launch the offering on Monday at various locations, including in Denver; Charleston, South Carolina; and Greensboro, North Carolina.
“Cauliflower is the hero of our new sandwich, and it was inspired by our original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich,” Leslie Neslage, director of menu and packaging at Chick-fil-A, shared in a statement. “Guests told us they wanted to add more vegetables into their diets, and they wanted a plant-forward entrée that tasted uniquely Chick-fil-A. Our new sandwich is made with the highest quality ingredients and whole vegetables, and we hope it offers customers another reason to dine at Chick-fil-A.”
Neslage told USA Today that customers’ feedback will determine the sandwich’s future. “We really want to make sure it’s the right thing for our customers, it’s the right thing for operators, it works well for our team members, it makes sense for the business,” she said. If it’s a success, the item could go national in six to 12 months. “If we have to make some tweaks and changes, it takes a little bit longer.”
Chick-fil-A’s culinary developer Stuart Tracy assures customers the fast food chain has put its own “delicious spin” on the cauliflower sandwich, which took Chick-fil-A’s in-house chefs nearly four years to perfect.
“We explored every corner of the plant-based space in search of the perfect centerpiece for our plant-forward entrée,” Chick-fil-A’s culinary developer Stuart Tracy said. “Time and time again, we kept returning to cauliflower as the base of our sandwich. After a significant amount of development, we knew we had a one-of-a-kind entrée.”
As far as the sandwich’s viability for vegetarians, Neslage told USA Today, “This is made with cauliflower, pickles, bread, milk and eggs. If that works for your definition of vegetarian, awesome. But it is not isolated in our kitchens. We have chicken all day, every day, and that’s not going away, so we want to be very candid and open and honest with our customers.”
The newspaper points out Chick-fil-A is “is meticulous about food safety, but there are no areas specifically reserved for vegetarian or vegan meal prep in its kitchens.”
