Chick-fil-A Heats Up Fan-Favorite with New Spicy Honey Pepper Pimento Cheese Sandwich
The innovation will hit menus on August 26.
Last year, Chick-fil-A debuted the Honey Pepper Pimento Cheese Sandwich, its first twist on the Original Chicken Sandwich. The menu innovation quickly became a fan favorite.
Customers were drawn to the newly flavored filet, covered with honey and pimento cheese and served on a warm toasted bun with mild pickled jalapeños. During that campaign, the brand noticed several guests customizing the menu innovation with a spicy filet. It was a “secret favorite,” chef Stuart Tracy says.
But Chick-fil-A isn’t in the business of keeping attractive flavors hidden. That’s why it’s rolling out the Spicy Honey Pepper Pimento Cheese Sandwich nationwide on August 26. The original version will be available as well.
The idea behind the Honey Pepper Pimento Cheese Sandwich is to build onto the Original version without covering it up.
“I think you could probably do that pretty, pretty easily if you’re not careful,” Tracy says. “It’s such an iconic and wonderful sandwich. You really want to add to it without distracting from it. It’s really, really savory. It’s crunchy. It’s got this awesome, mysterious coating that select few people know the recipe to. Some pickles and not much else, and it’s perfect as it is. So when you’re charged with a project to ‘OK, do that but add stuff too,’ that sounds simple but it’s really not.”
Chick-fil-A explored about 15 to 20 twists on the Original Chicken Sandwich before settling on the Honey Pepper Pimento Cheese flavor. Those choices were whittled down over many months.
“I think it’s sort of unusual in the sense that it’s not like what a competitor would do necessarily,” Tracy says. “It’s an odd flavor pairing if you had not had the sandwich before. So for me, we all knew that it was going to be great. We knew it was going to be received well. It’s the original sandwich. It’s different enough to catch your eye and you’re like, ‘Wait a second, it’s got what on it?’ And then that’s enough to get you to try it.”
In addition to the new sandwich, Chick-fil-A is bringing back the Banana Pudding Milkshake, which debuted in 2011. The concoction is made with the brand’s proprietary Icedream recipe mixed with real bananas and vanilla wafer cookie, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. That will be paired with a new Banana Frosted Coffee—a blend of cold-brewed coffee, Icedream dessert, banana, and vanilla wafer cookie.
When it comes to seasonal milkshakes, chef Christy Cook says customers are attracted to the limited-time nature of the product. Guests take a sip of the Peach Milkshake and think of summertime, and they associate the Peppermint Chip Shake with the holidays. She also points to the premium ingredients that “convey that experience.”
Tracy adds that Pimento Cheese and Banana Pudding may seem like Southern foods, but the appeal works nationwide.
“My personal opinion is that Southern food isn’t confined to the South anymore. You call it comfort food. I think I might just call it American food at this point. Pimento cheese was actually invented in New York State, which is a fun fact about it. Honey is around. Jalapeños, if anything, are more Tex-Mex. So one, I don’t think Southern food is necessarily just relegated to the Southeast anymore. And two, I actually think the further away you get from the South, the more interesting it is for that customer because they don’t necessarily have pimento cheese on every corner like we do here.”
