What happened to Chick-fil-A chicken? Customers convinced they ‘changed’ recipe

Several TikToks have gone viral claiming that Chick-fil-A’s chicken tastes different, and it could be down to their new antibiotic regulations.

TikTok user (@brynnboo) made a video, that now has over 5 million views, showing her throwing her Chick-fil-A meal in the garbage with the caption, “Me after Chick-fil-A changed their chicken.”

Lots of users in the comments section agreed, with one saying, “I’ve never had a gross piece of chicken from there until the last time I went. You know the feeling when it’s chewy & ligament-y. I had to spit it out.”

Another added, “That’s why my last sandwich was a weird texture?! I thought it was just a one-off thing.”

According to the comments under this TikTok, the main complaints about Chick-fil-A’s new chicken is that it is too chewy and stringy and that it has a different taste; with some saying it “tastes too much like chicken.”

Did Chick-fil-A really change their chicken?

The customers are not wrong, Chick-fil-A did recently make changes to their chicken. According to their website, from Spring 2024, “Chick-fil-A will shift from No Antibiotics Ever (NAE) to No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine (NAIHM).” This means that until now, they used meat from chickens that had never been treated with antibiotics, now, they do use antibiotics, just not those that are important to humans.

Research shows that chickens are treated with antibiotics to make them grow bigger, at a faster rate so that meat production can be sped up. However, experts have found that some chicken meat grown in this way becomes stringy due to muscle fibers not forming properly. This is fondly referred to as, ‘spaghetti meat.’

However, Chick-fil-A did not put an exact date on this change, so it is unclear whether the new chicken is being served right now, or if people are sensing a change in light of this new information.

Chick-fil-A has made it clear that high-quality food is at the center of their business, and states that their commitment to this is rooted in three simple things. They are, “selective about the chicken we serve, maintaining high animal wellbeing standards, and continuing to evaluate our approach.”