Fried Chicken Po'Boy Recipe with Homemade Remoulade

If I'm not eating my favorite chicken salad on croissant you can bet I'm thinking about one of these authentic southern sandwiches!

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Things to know
• 👩🏻‍🍳 Frequently asked questions
• 📚 Related recipes
• How Did a Po' Boy Get Its Name?
• Remoulade
• Fried Chicken Po'Boy Recipe with Homemade Remoulade
• 💬 Comments

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

This crispy, fried chicken Po'boy recipe with homemade remoulade sauce is perfect for everything from game day to poker night!

Crispy chicken chunks are nestled inside crusty french bread and covered in sauce for a taste of classic New Orleans street food.

This is not a copycat Popeye's chicken Po' Boy! It's SO. MUCH. BETTER!

🧾 Ingredients

For this recipe you'll need: 

• Cooked chicken nuggets (try the spicy ones!) - you can also use fried chicken tenders.
• French bread or hoagie rolls
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Spicy bread and butter pickles

Remoulade

• Mayonnaise
• Hot sauce
• Juice from spicy sweet pickles
• Dijon mustard
• Horseradish
• Garlic
• Creole seasoning
• Smoked paprika

🔪 Instructions

Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.

1. Bake the chicken nuggets according to package directions.
2. Slice the bread almost all the way through.
3. Open it up, brush with olive oil, and toast it.
4. Spread a layer of the remoulade on the toasted bread.
5. Cover with shredded lettuce.
6. Lay tomato slices over the lettuce.
7. Place pickle slices over the tomatoes.
8. Add a generous amount of the hot chicken nuggets and drizzle with more remoulade.

Remoulade Sauce

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Let stand overnight.
3. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

💭 Things to know

Expert Tip: This is best made on New Orleans style soft French bread. The outside should be soft and giving, not crispy and crumbly.

• Load it up! Po' Boys are meant to be hearty and extravagant. Pile on the toppings and let the remoulade drip!
• Lettuce, tomato, and pickles are a must!
• Have plenty of napkins ready - this is a messy sandwich and we like it that way.
• Make your own filling with these copycat Popeye's chicken strips.

👩🏻‍🍳 Frequently asked questions

Here are the questions I am most frequently asked about this recipe.

You can find almost anything edible tucked into a po' boy from lobster or shrimp to crawfish.

My personal favorite is boneless fried chicken pieces. Just add some lettuce, tomato, pickles, and a spicy remoulade sauce and you've got a meal as far as I'm concerned. Chips optional.

• Buffalo chicken nuggets or your favorite spicy type
• Fried fish fillets, especially catfish
• Fried oysters or clams
• Fried green tomatoes... O.M.G.
• Grilled vegetables marinated in Italian dressing before grilling
• A variety of your favorite deli meats
• Leftover roast beef or pot roast
• Make this Louisiana sandwich a little more calorie conscious by using grilled chicken breast or thighs for a grilled chicken po' boy. Be sure to get the boneless and skinless type.

📚 Related recipes

• Shrimp Po Boy with Spicy Avocado Remoulade is another New Orleans Classic that I've updated with a creamy avocado remoulade.
• I know, the classic tomato sandwich is too easy for a recipe but there's an entire generation that has never experienced this amazing dish.
• Thick white bread covered in sliced turkey and then smothered in deliciously creamy gravy? The hot turkey sandwich deserves a comeback, don't you think?
• When you have leftover ham you've got to try these easy ham biscuit sliders!

February is a pretty exciting month, all in all.

I mean you've got Valentine's Day and you've got Mardi Gras plus lesser known, but just as yummy, holidays like National Margarita Day and National Biscuits and Gravy Day.

When I think of Mardi Gras I think of Louisiana, and when I think of Louisiana I think of the iconic Po'Boy sandwich. If you think that it's anything like the northern Hoagie, Grinder, Submarine, or whatever you all it you'd be so very, very wrong.

How Did a Po' Boy Get Its Name?

It all kind of started in the early 1900's with Martin Brothers' Coffee Stand and Restaurant in the French Market.

The owners had been street car workers and when there was a big strike they offered free sandwiches to the strikers. 

Bennie Martin, one of the owners, said, "We fed those men free of charge until the strike ended. Whenever we saw one of the striking men coming, one of us would say, 'Here comes another poor boy.'"

Only in N'awlins it gets pronounced po'boy.

And that's how the Po'Boy got it's name.

FYI, in the 1930s a 20-inch po'boy sold for 15 cents and a lettuce & tomato sandwich was free at Martin Brothers. As you can imagine the restaurant was very popular and customers were loyal long after the Depression ended.

There's your history trivia for today. 🙂

These fried chicken po'boys really fit the bill for game day parties! It's not a delicate sandwich for sure plus you can make them as large or as small as you like.

Remoulade

Homemade remoulade sauce is amazing. I've made it this way for decades -- it was actually a copy of a remoulade that I had at a tiny sandwich shop when traveling with my Dad back in the 1970s.

Amazing stuff. You can use it on salads, as a dip, or do what I do and just suck it off the spoon. Spicy remoulade is absolutely necessary for these fried chicken po' boy sandwiches!

First published February 6, 2016. Last updated January 3, 2021 for better readability and simpler instructions.