If you haven't heard, tomorrow is National Same-Sex Kiss Day at Chick-fil-A. The event encourages gay rights supporters to head to their nearest Chick-fil-A restaurant and take pictures or videos of themselves making out. News of the event spurred Mike Huckabee to call for a preemptive Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day that drew customers in the hundreds to many locations to sit around and eat chicken -- kind of boring comparatively.
But that doesn't solve the real problem at hand: the need to eat fried-chicken sandwiches. That in mind, here are six sandwiches around Dallas to help sate your desire for a little bird between the buns.
Off-Site Kitchen (pictured above) It's small, but so is Chick-fil-A's, and the crunchy crust on the chicken blows the fast-food version out of the water. With lettuce, tomato and a drizzle of ranch dressing, choosing this sandwich feels less like a protesting effort and more like a lunchtime indulgence.
Zaguan Bakery and Deli Of all the chicken sandwiches in Dallas, Zaguan's may have the best bread. It has a decent crust that's tough and blistered and stands up to warm fillings where other loaves go limp. Served with melted Swiss cheese and mayonnaise, with warm chunks of chicken breast coated in tomato sauce, Zaguan's namesake sandwich is a keeper.
Goodfriend The Bye-Bye Birdie is a massive chicken breast encased in a thick, greasy coat of deep-fried waffle batter. It's not my favorite chicken sandwich in Dallas, but look at the size of this thing. If you're out past Lakewood and you want a meal that will last you for days, this is the chicken sandwich for you.
Old Monk When is a chicken tender better than a chicken tender? When it's a chicken-tender sandwich. The Old Monk buttermilk-brines chicken tenderloins before breading them with pistachios and frying them to a deep golden brown. Go with the ranch over the barbecue sauce and then hit their beer list for a chicken sandwich with a side of drunk.
Meddlesome Moth I wanted one sandwich that wasn't deep-fried, and I think grilled chicken sandwiches should be abolished, so the Meddlesome Moth's roast chicken sandwich fits nicely in this list. Swiss cheese and pesto round out a slightly dry but flavorful sandwich, but the french fries should completely be skipped.
Union Bear This is easily the best chicken sandwich in the list. The fried chicken is tender and more juicy than any other I've encountered in Dallas, and the pickled slaw and spicy mayo round out a truly compelling sandwich. The folks at Union Bear should be teaching Chick-fil-A how to make fried bird, which brings us back to the whole point of this list -- I'm off to french my editor.
