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There's a US restaurant chain called Chick-Fil-A and their motto is "We didn't invent the chicken, just the chicken sandwich"

If you dig deeper you find that they claim that what they really mean is that the founder, Truett Cathy, was the first person to sell a chicken sandwich in 1940s at a pre Chick-Fil-A restaurant he owned.

Does anyone know of any documented food history that can prove this claim is not true?

Flimzy
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Alan Barber
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    This is one of those few cases where I simply don't care about historical accuracy. It's a mighty tasty chicken sandwich. – Jeffrey May 05 '11 at 19:57
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    I much prefer Popeye's to chick-fil-a. Especially on Sundays! – JasonR May 05 '11 at 19:59
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    Is it fair to say they invented this particular style of chicken sandwhich? Or is that just unnecessary pedanticism? – jcolebrand May 05 '11 at 23:25
  • Can you cite your source? – Flimzy Oct 24 '13 at 23:02
  • The Chick-fil-A website claims that Truett Cathy invented the chicken sandwich in 1963. However, check out this picture postcard of the first Waffle House (in Avondale) taken in 1955: http://www.atlantatimemachine.com/commercialbldgs/waffle.htm Did you read the marquis board?!? Now maybe they didn't sell it on a bun. But the spelling is just a little TOO coincidental. I'm surprised there hasn't been a lawsuit about this. –  Nov 05 '13 at 17:59
  • I can't post a full answer to this question because I can't find an online reference. Anyway, in "Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People", Mr. Cathy states that they make this claim because a Delta Airlines executive at that time had recently asked a chicken processing plant to develop a way to mechanically separate the chicken breast from the bone so that Delta could offer chicken meals on their flights. The chicken processor succeeded but Delta scrubbed the idea. Left with 10k+ chicken breasts, he offered them to Cathy. – RLH Jun 15 '17 at 13:37
  • [cont] ...Mr. Cathy took the meat and used them to experiment with his customers in coming up with the "perfect" chicken sandwich. Though not the first time someone's sandwiched chicken meat in between two slices of bread, this was the "invention" of the fast food chicken sandwich. Yes, I could see how this claim could be litigated, but within context of the fast food restaurant industry, they beat out McDonalds, KFC and other restaurants who would come to offer chicken sandwiches. – RLH Jun 15 '17 at 13:37

1 Answers1

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Certainly not Chick-Fil-A:

Sandwich, in its basic form, slices of meat, cheese, or other food placed between two slices of bread. Although this mode of consumption must be as old as meat and bread, the name was adopted only in the 18th century for John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who had sliced meat and bread brought to him at the gaming table so that he could continue to play as he ate. His title lent the preparation cachet, and soon it was fashionable to serve sandwiches on the European continent, and the word was incorporated into the French language.
—source

See also:

As a curiosity, the Bible cites something similar to a lamb sandwich in Numbers 9:11:

The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it [lamb] with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Even more:

Using Google Books, the first mention I can find of a "chicken sandwich" is dated 1827:

Google was wrong, the earliest I can find is dated 1841.

[...] and who, having refreshed her guest firstly with a glass of soda water fresh from the ice basket, and finally with a most unexceptionable cup of coffee and chicken sandwich, considerately left her to the repose which a delicious couh under a waving punkah, steadily pulled during the night, irresistibly invited.

See also the relative NGram.

Laurel
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Sklivvz
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    Ah, but WHO thought of putting CHICKEN as the meat? After it crossed the road of course. – JasonR May 05 '11 at 19:57
  • Isn't that clip from 1927, not 1827? Not that it weakens the proof. – mmyers May 05 '11 at 20:50
  • You are right and [Google is wrong](http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=%22chicken+sandwich%22&tbs=,cdr:1,cd_min:Jan%201_2%201700,cd_max:Dec%2031_2%201850&num=10&lr=lang_en) – Sklivvz May 05 '11 at 20:59
  • Google may be wrong, as Life was first published in 1883 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_(magazine) – Vian Esterhuizen May 05 '11 at 21:12
  • Google *is* wrong, you just need to scroll the pages and see the printed date (it's 1927) :-) – Sklivvz May 05 '11 at 21:13
  • Oh. Gotcha. The Internet and misinterpreted tone. :P – Vian Esterhuizen May 05 '11 at 21:15
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    In any case, before the 1940s as Chick-FilA claims. – DJClayworth May 06 '11 at 16:07
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    Thinking about it, maybe their comment is about the *fried* chicken sandwich they serve. Is there any info on that? – Kupiakos Oct 01 '13 at 19:15
  • Meat *on* bread was and is a popular plating for millennia. Meat *between* bread *slices* is the question here. Fixeating on the word sandwich doesn't answer the earliest such meals, but it does answer this question, no, Chick-Fil-A did not invent the chicken sandwich. Of course, these goalposts keep moving. Now its the fried chicken sandwich that they meant. –  Jul 06 '20 at 23:51