Double Chicken Please makes one of New York City’s most popular fried chicken sandwiches, but that’s not how the restaurant started out. It opened during the pandemic, and quickly became one of the country’s most popular cocktail bars (its whimsical drink menu includes options like the “French Toast.”) But soon after launching its food menu, chicken sandwiches became the star — DCP now sells up to 200 of them a day.
The expectation for a bar is to service the food in four to five minutes, which differs from a restaurant, so planning is necessary. “We found the best time to prepare our chicken is during service time, because it is an overnight process and we always have to stay a few days ahead of our production,” says chef de cuisine Mark Chou.
Chefs de-fat the chicken, tenderize, and brine the thighs overnight. They are then portioned out into two different sizes for the different chicken sandwiches: hot honey, salted egg yolk, and bolognese grilled cheese.
“Because we sell up to 200 chicken sandwiches a day, we found that pounding it out and tenderizing it not only gives us a better product for flavor, but it allows us to service our chicken sandwiches faster as well,” Chou says.
Watch the full video to see how Chou and the chefs at Double Chicken Please make the hot honey chicken sandwich.