Chick-fil-A has had a long time to perfect their biscuits, and it shows, because they're
delicious.
Fans already know that each biscuit is handmade, but what else goes into making these so gosh
darn good?
Quite a bit!
We all know that baked goods are the best when they're right out of the oven.
That's why Chick-fil-A has biscuit-making on a rotation that guarantees each and every
customer is going to get a biscuit that's warm and fresh.
Chick-fil-A's biscuit-making teams are a well-oiled machine.
Each tray holds 20 biscuits, and each time one comes out of the oven, there's another
one ready and waiting to go in.
There's a lot of work that goes into the entire process, too, and considering they do it over
and over again every day they're open, serving up biscuits starting at 6 a.m. and ending
at 10:30 a.m.
And those first biscuits that are served to the earliest of early bird customers?
Since it takes about half an hour to make a tray of biscuits from start to finish, employees
have actually been there since 5:30 a.m., mixing, kneading, and baking.
There's no leftover-from-last-night biscuits here!
“Finally, biscuits.
Big biscuits.”
Watch a Chick-fil-A baker while they're prepping their dough and you'll notice something that
looks a little different from other bakers.
There's a very specific way they roll out the dough, and they do it all very carefully.
First, the dough gets very gently rolled; they're not pushing too hard.
Then, they fold the dough gently into thirds and roll it again.
Those steps aren't arbitrary, according to culinary expert Wing Lau.
“And what those folds will do is those folds will make sure we have a consistent dough
and also incorporate some air in there.”
According to King Arthur Flour, being gentle with the dough is crucial.
Be too rough, fold it or knead it too many times, and you'll develop more of that gluten.
Then, there's the folding.
That's a not-so-secret technique many biscuit-makers love.
Anyone who's baked knows how difficult mixing can be.
You don't want to under-mix something and fail at completely incorporating all your
ingredients, but you don't want to over-mix something, either.
That's why culinary expert Wing Lau says they mix their dough in a commercial mixer for
a very precise amount of time: just 18 seconds.
Mixing the right amount of time is crucial to getting biscuits to rise and to be the
right density and flakiness, and 18 seconds works perfectly for Chick-fil-A and the amount
of ingredients in each batch.
Part of the awesomeness of Chick-fil-A's biscuits are how well they rise.
They're thick and straight to hold all that chicken.
There are no lopsided biscuits in sight, and according to Wing Lau, there's actually a
super simple rule their bakers follow to get them to rise like that.
Lau says the trick is to put a bit of flour on the edge of the biscuit cutter, then cut
straight down and lift straight up.
Part of the reason Chick-fil-A's sandwiches are so amazing is the perfect chicken-to-biscuit
ratio in each and every bite, and it's a simple way they make sure each biscuit has that potential.
Keeping the dough cool is of the utmost importance, and here's another little trick Chick-fil-A
uses to get those perfect biscuits.
They use tools, not their hands.
When they're taking the dough out of the mixing bowl, they do it with metal spatulas.
It's folded with metal spatulas, and the rounds of dough are transferred to the baking tray
on a metal spatula.
That all keeps the dough as cold as possible before it's put into the oven, as it's not
being warmed by hands, and Southern Living says that warming the dough with your hands
is one of the biggest, most common mistakes people make.
Using tools might mean more dishes to wash, but it's just one more way they're making
sure they're putting the best thing possible into the oven.
What's a few more dishes to do when breakfast service winds down?
Butter isn't exactly a secret ingredient, but how Chick-fil-A uses it in their biscuits
is a little different than you might expect.
Watch their bakers, and you'll see they use butter a lot.
It's rubbed on the tray before the raw biscuits are loaded on, a generous helping is painted
on when the biscuits come out of the oven, and it's painted on before they're put into
the oven, too.
The final result is a biscuit that's filled with buttery goodness, not just topped by
it.
And we all know that the more butter there is, the better.
A big part of what makes a good biscuit is texture, but taste is important, too.
Anyone who has enjoyed a Chick-fil-A biscuit knows there's just a hint of sweetness in
there, and that's what makes it truly special.
And they've included something of a secret ingredient.
But, what is it?
A look at the ingredient list doesn't really give too many hints.
There's a ton of sugar in those biscuits, but baked goods usually have sugar.
There are some more cryptic ingredients, like "natural flavor," but that still doesn't clear
anything up.
Plenty of enterprising bakers have tried to crack the secret, and many copycat recipes
add honey to try to get that same signature sweetness.
Do any of them come close?
Not really, but they'll do on a Sunday.
“Sometimes I feel you don’t know food at all.”
It takes 30 minutes from start to finish to make a tray of Chick-fil-A biscuits, and part
of that is baking.
Culinary expert Wing Lau says that what they're looking for is a biscuit that's not overcooked,
and one that's brown on the outside while still being soft in the middle.
That's a tough balance to find, but there's a trick: it's all about oven temperature.
The ideal temperature for baking biscuits is at 475 Fahrenheit.
They'll only take about 15 minutes at that temperature, and when they come out, they'll
have risen very, very quickly.
They'll be light, flaky, golden brown, and delicious.
Chick-fil-A has had decades to perfect the process, and they've managed to do precisely
that.
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