The Bean & Seed

So, last week I mentioned starting a new feature that focuses on creating substitution meals for fast food favorites. The idea is to save some money, yes, but more importantly, to create healthier alternatives at home. My goal for this week is to come up with something that can be a substitute for Chick-fil-A (CFA). Any family member or former coworker of mine knows that I had quite the big Chick-fil-A obsession there for a while, but I’ve definitely slowed down over the last few years as I’ve tried to get my blood pressure and migraines under control. That said, I still love a chicken sandwich with pickles and know this is a great meal for my easy refrigerator pickle recipe!

While the chicken sandwich I came up with was tasty and looks good in pictures, I have to admit that I went a little too big. The sandwich rolls I used are a quite large, and therefore really increased the sodium and carbs due to their size; this also urged me to use 3 chicken fingers instead of 2. That said, I have to highlight the Nathan’s Jumbo Crinkle Cut French Fries pictured below. These saved the meal from having an excessive sodium level and kept the overall number below what you can expect from a small meal at Chick-fil-A. Seriously, the Nathan’s fries are the real deal when it comes to a healthier fry. A serving, or 84 grams, has only 100 calories, 3 g of fat, 1 g of saturated fat, and 20 mg of sodium. A small fry at Chick-fil-A, 96 grams, has 320 calories, 19 g of fat, 3 g of saturated fat, and 240 mg of sodium. When compared to other frozen fries, the Nathan’s are still the one to beat if you’re looking for less fat and sodium. Most other frozen fries have 200-400 mg of sodium per serving!

How I Prepared the Meal

I used my toaster oven on air fry for the chicken and french fries. The pickles I made the day before following my own recipe. Since Chick-fil-A toasts their bread with butter, I spread some Olive Oil Mayonnaise on my sandwich rolls and fried them in a skillet over medium heat. This allowed the bread to toast/brown a little on one side while softening the remainder.

Nutrition Comparison (My comments reference the highlighted numbers.)

• Calories: I believe that you need calories to live, so I’m not really bothered by essentially matching CFA on this figure. There’s still plenty of quota left before hitting the daily limit.
• Sodium: I was a bit shocked with this number. I should have done a better rough estimate when planning out the meal.
• Total Carbohydrates: Again… a shocking number. I always assume that making food at home is easily better for you than eating out; this number says otherwise.

Conclusion

In all honesty, I thought about not making this post and trying again. I will try again, but, as you can see by the numbers, I didn’t really beat Chick-fil-A in terms of nutritional value. The numbers above clearly reveal areas that could use some improvement. So I suppose it’s important to share how easy it is for nutritional value to take a hit even when cooking at home. I learned multiple valuable lessons here. One, big bread equals big sandwich. If that isn’t the goal, then get smaller bread. Two, I should have started with a healthier bread to begin with; something with more fiber would have been preferable. Three, I think I’ve found a winner with the Nathan’s Jumbo Crinkle Cut French Fries! They’re very creamy and potatoey and pair well with a good dipping sauce. And here’s the secret… they’re so low in fat and sodium, the numbers above include 2 servings of Nathan’s fries!

Thanks for reading, Matt

If you’ve enjoyed this content, please consider commenting, liking, and subscribing. You can also follow on Instagram and Patreon.

October 9, 2025 Update: Replaced Nutrition Comparison section to follow an updated table with comments format.