Do you ever get that Chick-Fil-A pit feeling in your stomach? You know, a feeling of hunger that you know can only be quenched with a delicious Chick-Fil-A sandwich, mixed with the innate sadness of knowing you can’t have one because it’s Sunday? Being deprived of a chicken sandwich may feel hopeless, but every battle has its hero, and our hero is Kelly Redfield.

Redfield, a nutrition student at the University of Texas, has come up with a solution for what she has coined the “Sunday Sandwich Syndrome.” It’s called the Copycat Chick-Fil-A sandwich, and it looks, smells, and tastes just like the real thing. Granted, it takes more work because you have to cook it yourself, but sometimes the ends justify the means. Here is a breakdown of her recipe, via Spoon University, and some pictures that will make your mouth water:

Prep time: 1 hour

Cook time: 10 minutes

Total time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Servings: 2 sandwiches

Ingredients:

2 thin chicken breasts

1/4 cup pickle juice

1 egg

1/8 cup milk

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/4 cup peanut oil

2 buns

Salt and pepper

Sure, one hour is a long time to spend on a sandwich, but that’s basically the wait time in a Chick-Fil-A drive-thru line anyway. Okay, now that you’ve got the stuff, here is what you do with it:

Directions:

1. Put the chicken breasts in a plastic bag of pickle juice. You heard me right. The secret is pickle juice. Let it marinate for an hour.

2. Beat together an egg and milk

3. Mix together the flour, sugar, garlic powder, celery salt, basil, salt and pepper

4. Put the oil in a skillet on medium-high heat

5. Coat each chicken piece in the egg mixture. Coat again with the flour mixture

6. Fry each piece for 3-4 minutes per side. The chicken should look golden brown and cooked all the way through.

7. Dry the chicken on paper towels

8. Butter the sandwich buns

9. Assemble your sandwich, add your favorite condiments and eat more chicken on Sundays!

Redfield also gives some additional tips on which oils and ingredients will make it taste more like the real thing. But, if you are even slightly competent at cooking anything, it’s incredibly simple. Bravo, Kelly Redfield. It’s innovative thinking like this that gives me hope for our generation of college students.

[via Spoon University]