This week, I’m writing about LONG crispy chicken-focused sandwiches that require a 7-inch-long bun. I’m also recreating a version of this long chicken sandwich that was very popular, but has been discontinued from menus. We’re bringing back a tiny bit of sandwich history, and you can get the recipe to make these in your own kitchen.
What is this sandwich?
For this sandwich, we’re taking inspiration from a menu item that’s not technically called a Long Chicken sandwich in the United States, but at the same time, a lot of people all across the world call it that. This is a sandwich that’s officially called the Original Chicken Sandwich, and the fast-food empire of Burger King has had it on their menu since 1979. But because of the sandwich’s length and shape, people sometimes refer to it as the Long Chicken Sandwich.
Since I’m now actually writing about the Looong Chicken Sandwich, that means at some point I might write about my own original creation, the Loooooooong Chicken Sandwich. Stay tuned.
In the US, Burger King promotes this sandwich as the Original Chicken Sandwich as they always have, but they’ve embraced the Long Chicken moniker on their menu and even trademarked it in many other countries/territories like Puerto Rico, Estonia, Malaysia, and Switzerland.
The sandwich in question is a fried chicken sandwich, but it’s not made from a whole piece or filet of chicken. It’s a ground chicken patty that’s seasoned, formed, breaded, and fried. Basically, we’re talking about a long chicken nugget tucked inside a soft 7-inch-long bun.
The toppings for a traditional Long Chicken or Original Chicken Sandwich are simple. Just a spread of mayonnaise and some shredded lettuce along with the crispy chicken patty inside of a 7-inch long soft, sesame seed bun.
New Burger King mayonnaise?
I’ve seen some people on the internet claim that the Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich is heavy on the mayonnaise, and because of this, I did some research. While I didn’t come up with too much about that particular mayonnaise topic, other than some social media posts and Reddit comments, it seems like Burger King made a major shift in the brand of mayonnaise that they use back in 2020.
And people got mad.
According to this Washington Post article (archive link – no paywall), Burger King started a campaign to remove preservatives from their food. Specifically for the mayonnaise, this meant removing the ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (also known as EDTA – probably the longest word used on this blog so far). EDTA is a preservative used in food that will help to stabilize and/or prevent color changes.
I’m not sure exactly what brand of mayonnaise Burger King uses now, but during this time, they swapped out the old mayonnaise with a new version that is unbranded and arrives at the restaurant in large tubs, but they do offer Kraft Simply branded mayonnaise in packets if you ask for them. I do not eat at Burger King enough to have noticed, but I did end up getting a light smear of mayonnaise on my Original Chicken Sandwich that I used in a taste test, and it tasted ok to me. But clearly, some regular BK customers did not like the swap.
Other long chickens
Burger King embraced the 7-inch rectangle or oval size/shape for their chicken sandwiches, and they have released several different variants throughout the years. One in particular that people seem to remember and wish would come back is the Italian chicken sandwich. This might or might not be a spoiler at this point, but I’m also making the Italian version, and sharing a recipe for it down below.
I have fond memories from the 1990s of the Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich, but honestly, I haven’t had one in more than 20 years. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Burger King, but when I was in college, if BK was the selection, I would more often opt for the chicken sandwich over a burger.
Since I haven’t had one of these in many years, I decided to go buy one and give it a shot.
Long chicken taste test
Against all odds, I left my house and went to visit Burger King this past week to try a fresh Original Chicken Sandwich. This was my first visit to a Burger King since September 19, 2019, just after the Impossible Whopper was introduced (I learned the exact date from photos in my personal Google Photos account). And as I said, this was probably my first long chicken sandwich since the early 21st Century.
This wasn’t the best sandwich. It’s not bad for fast food, but it sort of felt like a high school cafeteria sandwich, with just a bit more crunch. The chicken patty is very thin, but the exterior does retain some crispiness.
I went to Burger King about a half mile from our house and got the food to go. The time from picking up the food to getting home was around 5 to 10 minutes. Everything was still warm, and the fact that it was still a little crispy after 10 minutes in the bag felt like a win to me.
There was very little mayonnaise on the bottom roll, but just a little visible on the top part of the bread under the lettuce, which was ok with me. The lettuce didn’t look great, but it was about what I expected from fast food. The bun was soft, and the sandwich seemed like it was in pretty good shape.
I took some measurements, and the sandwich was about 6.5 inches long with a patty that was around 1/2 inch thick. The meat inside the breaded patty was somewhere around 1/4 inch thick. So it’s really thin.
I’ve already established that I’m not a big Burger King fan, but if I were with a group and it was chosen that we were getting food from BK, I would probably consider ordering this sandwich again. For me, it would likely end up being a coin flip between the Original Chicken Sandwich and one of their burgers. But I’m not likely to go out with the sole purpose of getting this sandwich based on the experience I had with it this time. I do like the concept, though, and I know we can do better.
Now that I’ve tried an official long chicken sandwich, it’s time to talk about a version of one that you can’t order anymore.
Italian chicken sandwich
I’ve been on a bit of a kick lately, writing about and making old sandwiches that seem to be fairly positively received, but they are discontinued from restaurant menus. I strongly feel that we can simultaneously remember those sandwiches and make them way better by creating them ourselves.
Basically, the Burger King Italian Chicken Sandwich is a Chicken Parmesan sandwich that’s exactly the same as the Long Chicken Sandwich or the Original Chicken Sandwich, except it has no mayonnaise or lettuce, and the sandwich has marinara and melted mozzarella cheese added. This sandwich was introduced along with two other International Chicken sandwiches into the Burger King lineup in 1988. Those other two sandwiches were a chicken club sandwich with bacon, lettuce, and tomato, and a French chicken sandwich, which was basically a chicken cordon bleu sandwich with ham and Swiss cheese.
The Italian chicken sandwich was an on-again, off-again menu item for most of the 1990s, and then it was fully removed from Burger King menus in 2014. Seven years later, in 2021, the sandwich appeared again for a limited-time promotion and then quietly slipped away.
Since I was already making a recipe for the long chicken sandwich, I figured it would be very easy to create a version of the Italian Chicken Sandwich at the same time.
Now that we know what sandwiches we’re making, we will need to make and bake some rolls. In this case, we need some soft, sesame rolls that are about 7 inches long.
7-inch sesame sandwich bread rolls
This is a new recipe for this site, but the ingredient list is very much based on another recipe I use often. This is based on my Chicago-style sub roll recipe, with less effort to make the exterior crust hard and more effort to try to get the rolls to be softer and flatter than most rolls like this. I wanted this roll to be soft and around 7 inches long, so I opted to use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour to reduce the protein in the rolls, and I did not apply any moisture to the oven, which typically could allow the crust of the roll to be crisp.
The main difference in this roll recipe from its base recipe is that the dough is painted with egg wash, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and then I scored each dough log with one long slice from tip to tip. The reason I score or slice the roll after the egg wash and sesame seeds is so that the part of the roll that is sliced will be lighter in color and will have fewer sesame seeds than the rest of the roll.
This is all purely for aesthetics, but I wanted the visuals of these buns to be similar to how the rolls look in the Burger King sandwich.
Here’s my newest bread roll recipe that you can use for a pretty good alternative to driving to Burger King. Or you can probably find something similar in the bread aisle of the grocery store.
Sesame seeded 7-inch sandwich rolls
Do you need some soft, sesame-seeded rolls for your next sandwich adventure? This recipe has you covered for that.
Get RecipeCrispy fried chicken patty
This is such a simple sandwich, so you sort of have to make sure the star of the show is good. Both the Original Chicken Sandwich and the Italian version use the same crispy chicken patty.
You can buy ground chicken, season it, and create a patty for this sandwich, or you can buy whole chicken pieces and grind them yourself if you want. That’s what I did. I created my own ground chicken from boneless chicken thighs, but you can also use chicken breast meat. Or even better, combine thigh and breast. Burger King uses “boneless, chicken breast with rib meat” in theirs, according to the ingredients list.
According to the ingredients (listed below), there’s not a whole lot inside the actual chicken patties that Burger King serves. They say chicken breast, salt, “flavor,” and isolated oat product. In my recipe, I add some seasonings right into the ground meat, but I keep it simple with just salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powders, along with a touch of sugar and some MSG.
The seasoning in the dredge process is fairly simple. There’s the fully expected salt and black pepper, accompanied by garlic and onion powders, which are also typically in fried food crust. There are multiple mentions of dextrose, which adds sweetness, but surprisingly, there’s a lack of any sort of monosodium glutamate or mushroom powder, which are typically used to add savoriness to the finished patty.
The ingredients list “flavor” as an ingredient multiple times, as well as the generic term “spices,” so we don’t really know what is in the patties just by reading the ingredients. But I make sure to season both the meat mixture as well as the breading and exterior coating for a tasty chicken patty.
I simply season the flour mixture with salt and black pepper because the chicken patty already has more complicated seasoning in it. The flour sticks to the exterior of the meat, and then you move it to the whisked eggs, which seals in the flour and coats everything, ensuring that the seasoned Panko breadcrumbs will adhere consistently all across the chicken patty.
The Burger King sandwich is very thin and fairly small in comparison to mine. My patties aren’t large; they’re all a quarter pound of meat, but by the time you shape them and then coat them with breadcrumbs, the patties end up looking a lot larger.
I shoot for 7-inch by 3-inch patties, which end up being just a bit larger after the frying process. On this main batch of photos, my patties ended up being a bit shorter and just a little wider than 7×3, but things still worked out just fine. If your rolls are 7 inches long, 7×3 will be perfect.
Once the chicken patties are flour, egg, and Panko bread crumb-coated, they are fried in 350°F oil for 3 minutes, flipped, and then fried for an additional 3 to 4 minutes or until both sides are nicely golden brown.
Once you have the crispy chicken patties, you can choose your adventure. Do you want to eat them with lettuce and mayonnaise or take the trip to Italy? First, I’ll share my Italian chicken sandwich recipe, and then we will discuss the original version.
Italian chicken sandwich – the long way
This is my version of the Italian chicken sandwich. It’s not totally a copycat because I do a couple of things differently from Burger King, but I do them all to make a better sandwich.
I take some liberties with my Italian chicken sandwich for a couple of reasons. First, I like fresh mozzarella on my chicken parm sandwiches. It brings a massive amount of creaminess to the sandwich. Burger King is using thin slices of hard, low-moisture mozzarella, likely because it’s easier to store and possibly cheaper.
The differences in this sandwich and the Original Chicken Sandwich are the addition of marinara and mozzarella cheese.
Marinara sauce
To create a Burger King-style Italian chicken sandwich, you’re going to need some marinara. For my version this week, I took the easy route and bought some marinara from the store, but you can feel free to make your favorite recipe. Here’s my wife’s recipe that I have used for a chicken parm sandwich in the past.
Robin's marinara
This is a tangy and flavorful option for your next chicken parmesan sandwich. Or you can prepare this marinara in advance and pour it over noodles for a quick side dish or meal.
Get RecipeMozzarella cheese
As I said above, Burger King was using thin slices of low-moisture mozzarella in their version of the Italian chicken sandwich. We know they were not using fresh mozzarella because we researched this in a recent Wendy’s fresh mozzarella sandwich that I wrote about near the end of last year.
I like fresh mozzarella in a chicken parmesan sandwich, so I bought a ball and sliced it as thin as I could. One trick to create fairly thin fresh mozzarella slices is to add the ball to the freezer for about 30 to 45 minutes. This doesn’t fully freeze the cheese, but it firms it up, making it much easier to slice thin slices.
Add some sauce to the bottom slice of bread and top that with the crispy chicken patty and thin slices of fresh mozzarella. Place everything under a broiler or in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 7 or 8 minutes or until the cheese is melted and just starting to brown. Then you can remove it, add more marinara, and finish the sandwich.
Italian long chicken sandwich
Burger King has discontinued the Italian version of their Original Chicken Sandwich, but with this recipe, you can recreate that sandwich adventure in your own kitchen. French fries and onion rings not included.
Get RecipeLong chicken sandwich recipe and photos
Now we’re back to the business at hand. We need to make some long chicken sandwiches. I honestly think they don’t require cheese, but my wife says they do, and I will say that the cheese does change the textures and creaminess of the sandwich, so if that’s important to you, just add some slices. I created the recipe with the addition of cheese, but it’s easy enough to leave those out.
Long chicken sandwich with cheese (Burger King inspired)
Ever reminisce about the old days when fast food was good, or maybe when your palate and tastes were simpler? You can go buy a Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich, but I guarantee this recipe will make one that tastes a whole lot better.
Ingredients:
Long chicken patty- 1 pound ground chicken meat (thigh or breast or a combination of the two)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1⁄4 teaspoon MSG (optional)
- 1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, divided
- 2 whole large eggs
- 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 4 six or seven-inch long sandwich rolls
- mayonnaise
- fried chicken patties (from above)
- 2 to 3 half slices of American cheese
- shredded iceberg lettuce
Directions:
Chicken patties: grind your own chicken in a food processor or meat grinder. You can also purchase ground chicken from the store if you can find it. If you've never processed ground chicken before and you own a food processor, chop the meat into small 1/2-inch pieces and add to a food processor, pulse until you have a paste of chicken with no large pieces.
Grab a small bowl and pour 1/2 to 1 cup of water into it. You will be using this to dip your hands/fingers in while you're shaping patties, and the water helps your hands not to stick to the chicken as much.
In a large bowl, add ground chicken, sugar, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and MSG (if using). Wet your hands and use them to mix up all the chicken and spices. Your hands are the best tool for this, and you will have to use them again in shaping your patties.
Once everything is combined, it is time to shape. Split the ground chicken mixture into 4 equal-sized portions. These should all be about a quarter of a pound each.
Line a sheet pan with parchment and spray with non-stick baking spray if you want. This will help the patties not stick to the surface as much, but it's optional. Take one portion of the chicken mixture and scoop it onto the parchment. With wet hands, you can shape the chicken mixture into a 7-inch by 3-inch rectangle. Do this for all 4 portions of the chicken mixture. I found that you'd want your raw chicken patties to be about a quarter to a half inch thick.
Once your patties are formed, they need to go into the freezer to firm up. You can freeze them for an hour, and then, if you want, you can remove them from the sheet pan and package them up in freezer-safe bags and store them in the freezer until you plan to use them. I wouldn't store them for more than a few months, but a couple of weeks in the freezer should be just fine.
When you are ready to fry your patties, add at least 2 inches of oil to a large pot and set it on medium-high heat on your stove. Now you need to make the dredge and coat each patty.
Chicken patty frying: set up your chicken dredging station. You will need three bowls or large plates for this.
The first bowl will contain all-purpose flour. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper to the flour. The second bowl will contain 2 whole eggs whisked thoroughly. The third bowl will have Panko breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and 1 teaspoon of paprika. Whisk to combine.
Once your oil is heated up to 350 degrees F, it's time to dredge and fry.
Working one patty at a time, carefully coat it in the seasoned flour, then into the whisked egg, and finally in the seasoned Panko bread crumbs. During each step, make sure the patty is fully coated. When you are done, place each patty on a cooling rack, cutting board, or clean sheet pan while you finish the other patties.
Fry 2 patties at a time in the hot oil for 3 minutes per side or until the exterior is golden and crispy. Remove the patties to a clean cooling rack while you finish frying the other patties.
Sandwich assembly: spread a little bit of mayonnaise on the bottom of the roll and top it with a fried chicken patty.
If using cheese, arrange 2 or 3 half slices on top of the chicken, and place the bottom side and top side of the roll face up under the oven broiler or in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the cheese melts just a little bit and the top slice of the roll is a little bit toasted.
Add shredded iceberg lettuce on top of the cheese and spread a little bit of mayonnaise on the slightly toasted top roll. Close the sandwich, serve, and enjoy.
Check back next week
Next week we’ll be making a comforting sandwich that’s stuffed with stuff invented in 19th-century Russia. And it’s not vodka. Maybe.
