Chick-Fil-A Just Revealed An Unexpected Recipe Made With One Of Their Signature Menu Items

Much like football fans are remarkably loyal to their teams and music buffs will travel far and wide to see their favorite acts perform, Chick-Fil-A devotees are very dedicated to their favorite menu items. In fact, many times the fast-food chain announces that they’re discontinuing menu items, folks head to social media to make their feelings known...loudly. (Chicken Salad Sandwich, you were gone too soon!)

Although the Atlanta, Georgia-based restaurant chain has been known to remove some of our favorites before we’d prefer—to make room for new seasonal options that we also dig—they keep the mainstays. We’re pretty sure revolts would ensue if the classic chicken sandwich, chicken minis, waffle fries, or frosted lemonade were ever retired from the menu.

The Chick-Fil-A team knows that fans are hopelessly devoted to certain items in particular, so they’ve introduced several ways to make it easier to get our Fil-A fix at home. Ask, and you shall receive, they said, and with a “my pleasure,” of course. 

You can now purchase Chick-Fil-A salad dressings by the bottle at many supermarkets, and you can still download the “cookbook” of dozens of recipes they released last fall. You’ll find even more to love in Chick-Fil-A’s recipe archives, which showcase a variety of ways to take menu items and remix them into something totally new.

For the sake of “research,” we’ve been cooking and baking our way through this treasure trove. One of our newest obsessions from this collection? Lemony Tear and Share Bread. 

What We Love About This Lemon Pull-Apart Bread Recipe

We’re suckers for a good monkey bread recipe, and this one offers a puckery and perfect-for-spring or summer variation on the theme. In addition to fresh lemon zest and juice, the recipe cleverly features a splash of Chick-Fil-A lemonade.

The flavors remind us a lot of our Citrus Pull-Apart Bread, which Southern Living readers deem “fantastic” and “foolproof, but admit that it’s a “great recipe for special occasions” since it is “laborious, but worth it.”

Chick-Fil-A’s lemonade-spiked tear and share bread makes it a breeze to make any morning of the year to add to your brunch or dessert menu. The secret (well, besides the lemonade)? Canned biscuits. Shh…we won’t tell grandma if you don’t!

Tips For Making Chick-Fil-A’s Lemony Tear and Share Bread at Home

• Go grand. Chick-Fil-A suggests seeking out “large biscuits” when you’re in the refrigerator section of your supermarket. We had great success with those listed as “Grands.”
• Zest before slicing. You’ll need five lemons total, and you’ll use the zest from all of them and the juice from two of the citrus fruits. For the easiest order of operations, zest all of the lemons first (separating them in portions of two lemons-, two lemons-, and one-lemon’s worth of zest, to be used in different parts of the recipe). Then slice into two of the lemons and juice them. Save the three remaining zested lemons for another use, such as Lemon Cake with Lemon-Thyme Frosting or Cast-Iron Chicken Piccata, each of which calls for 1/4 cup lemon juice. Here’s a fun piece of trivia that might come in handy now or later: The average lemon yields about 2 to 3 tablespoons of juice.
• Come to your own ade. If you don’t have any Chick-fil-A lemonade leftover or easily accessible, any make a batch of Homemade Lemonade to use instead. Only 1/4 cup is required, so you can enjoy the rest in a glass alongside your sweet-tart pull-apart bread.

Lemony Tear and Share Bread

Serves 8

Ingredients

Bread:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 2 cans refrigerated biscuits (8 large biscuits each)

Sticky Lemon Sauce:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• Zest from 2 lemons

Cream Cheese Lemonade Glaze:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup Chick-Fil-A lemonade
• Juice from 2 lemons
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Optional: Lemon zest (for garnish)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray a Bundt pan or a 9- x 9-inch cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon with the zest from 2 lemons. 
3. Separate dough into 16 pieces and then cut each into quarters. 
4. Toss dough in sugar mixture to coat. 
5. Transfer the coated dough pieces to the prepared pan, filling the entire surface, then stacking to create an even thickness.
6. In the same bowl, use a hand mixer to whip together the melted butter, powdered sugar, and zest from 2 lemons. 
7. Pour mixture over dough, and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until dough is cooked through. Let rest for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
8. While the bread is cooling, in a medium bowl, use a hand mixer or spatula to mix cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Once smooth, add Chick-fil-A Lemonade, lemon juice, and zest from 1 lemon. Mix again until smooth. 
9. Drizzle glaze on bread before serving, and garnish with more lemon zest, if desired.

Adapted from Chick-Fil-A.