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Cajun Fried Chicken Po’ Boys with Spicy Remoulade Sauce are a true New Orleans favorite, and the perfect way to celebrate Mardi Gras!
Featured with this recipe
- What is a Po’ Boy Sandwich?
- Recipe Ingredients
- How to Make the Best Cajun Fried Chicken
- Signature Sauce
- Homemade Coleslaw
- Tips for the Best Po’Boy Sandwich
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Storing Fried Chicken Po’Boy Sandwich
- More Southern Favorite Recipes
- How to Make Cajun Fried Chicken Po’ Boys with Spicy Remoulade Sauce
- Cajun Fried Chicken Po’ Boys Recipe
These Cajun fried chicken po’ boys are a real New Orleans treat! Tender chicken breasts are pan-fried in Cajun spices, placed on a french roll that is layered with spicy remoulade sauce, and topped with a delicious sweet slaw. Together it makes a complete meal! Perfect for picnics, family barbecues, or just a casual evening supper.
So easy to make and comes together quickly with a few steps. These po’ boys are famous and a favorite to serve around Mardi Gras time with these beignets. It is a fun celebration and dinner to share with your family. If you are not a fan of chicken or want another option, try our shrimp po’ boy too!
What is a Po’ Boy Sandwich?
The name is, of course, short for “poor boy” because they were considered to be a cheap way to eat a meal. The Louisiana sandwich is served on a french roll or baguette filled with meat or seafood and many times topped with lettuce, tomatoes, or my favorite, coleslaw! See the recipe card below for a simple slaw to add to your spicy po’ boy.
Recipe Ingredients
This po’ boy fried chicken is a simple meal that can be layered together or eaten separately. Sandwiches are perfect for adding the right ingredients to make a simple fried chicken come to life with all the flavors. Enjoy this sandwich with your family and friends!
- Chicken – Skinless chicken breast works best for this recipe. Take your whole chicken and it will be soaked in a dredge to give it a tender chicken piece.
- Milk – This will tenderize the chicken and give it moisture and juicy appeal once it is fried.
- Egg – Gives a coating to the chicken which helps it
- Wondra flour – You can find this Wondra flour next to the regular flour on the baking aisle. It comes in a blue canister. It is a finer flour and works great for frying. Use a shallow dish to coat the egg mixture on the chicken. This will crisp up the chicken in the frying pan.
- Cajun seasoning – Add a little heat to the fried chicken using cajun seasoning. It is a zesty and enriching seasoning that is bursting with flavor!
- Oil – You will need a little more than usual for the frying of the chicken.
- Bread – We love to make a sandwich with a thicker type of bread to hold the sauce, chicken, and coleslaw without having the bread become soggy.
How to Make the Best Cajun Fried Chicken
It is a simple fried chicken recipe that is full of flavor! This chicken is tender on the inside with a crispy outer layer. Layer your roll with remoulade sauce, and a fried chicken piece, and top it with a light and tasty coleslaw. Sink your teeth in this delicious sandwich with all the goods with it!
- Dredge chicken – Filet the two chicken breasts so that you have four thin pieces of chicken. In one small bowl mix together the milk and egg. In another small bowl mix together the Wondra flour and Cajun seasoning.
- Fry the chicken – Heat a thin layer of vegetable oil in a large fry pan over medium heat. Dip each piece of chicken in the milk mix, then coat thoroughly in the flour mix. Fry for six to seven minutes or until lightly browned on each side.
- Layer sandwich – Spread Remoulade sauce inside the cut roll/baguette, then add chicken and top with coleslaw.
Signature Sauce
Po’ boys are also traditionally served with remoulade sauce, a Louisiana-style French sauce that’s packed full of flavors and spices! This recipe is one the easiest things to make, even though it looks and sounds a bit complicated.
You can find all the ingredients for this recipe right in your regular grocery store. The combination of sriracha sauce, Cajun seasonings, horseradish, garlic, mayo, and other ingredients will make your taste buds sing!
Homemade Coleslaw
Combine all the ingredients together to make a classic coleslaw recipe that you will love! It is a traditional recipe that is simple to make and still has all the flavor and deliciousness. Grab a large bowl and let’s start mixing!
- Cabbage – Shredded cabbage in a bag is perfect or shred a cabbage head.
- Carrots – Fresh is best! You will shred your carrots or buy already pre-shredded carrots to add in.
- Mayo – A creamy base with a sweet and tangy flavor.
- Sugar – Balance out all the ingredients as well as add sweetness to the slaw.
- Cider vinegar – Tangy and tart liquid that gives it a light and tasty flavor.
Tips for the Best Po’Boy Sandwich
Frying chicken is simple to do but can be looked like more with the extra bowls to start out with. Be prepared for setting up your chicken station and getting ready to fry your chicken in just a few steps. Follow these helpful tips to make your po’ boy sandwich even better!
- Flour – If you don’t have Wonda flour, regular all-purpose flour will work too.
- Oil – Use either vegetable, canola, or peanut oil to fry the chicken.
- Cooling- Once the chicken is fried, set it on a baking sheet with a wire rack to let it cool all around the chicken while the drippings from the oil fall onto the baking sheet through the wire rack squares.
- Soaking – Make sure to pat dry with paper towels to soak up excess grease or place it on a baking sheet.
- Dutch oven – I like to use my dutch oven for frying the chicken. I make smaller batches and only cook two to three chicken pieces at a time. It can hold the oil and not splash out as easily as a shallow pan.
- Bread – Try it with a homemade biscuit that is thick to hold the chicken. This gives another southern favorite taste!
“It was such a hit! I made this for snacks and it was gone right away. Will definitely be recommending this recipe.”
-Natasha
Frequently Asked Questions
It is abbreviated for the poor boy. When the strikers came by to purchase the sandwich, they would call out “here comes another poor boy.” That is how this New Orleans classic became knowns as a “poor boy” and now has been abridged to say po’boy for short.
A traditional po’ boy sandwich is filled with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles, and layered with either roast beef, fried shrimp, or oysters. All in between french bread and lots of mayo!
Storing Fried Chicken Po’Boy Sandwich
You can store this chicken, coleslaw, and secret sauce separately in individual containers. When ready to reheat, place the cajun chicken in the microwave, stove, or air fryer to reheat. Layer the sandwich back together and enjoy another delicious meal!
More Southern Favorite Recipes
We are big fans of the delicious flavors in New Orleans and have made a bunch of yummy copycat recipes from our visits there. Try a few of these insanely good recipes and give your family a true Mardi Gras meal!
How to Make Cajun Fried Chicken Po’ Boys with Spicy Remoulade Sauce
Cajun Fried Chicken Po’ Boys
Ingredients
- 1 French baguette or roll (long loaf), sliced into 4 sections, then sliced open on one side to fill.
For the Chicken:
- 2 chicken breasts fileted into 2 thin halves each
- 1 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cup wondra flour
- 1 Tablespoon Cajun seasoning
- vegetable oil for frying
For the Coleslaw:
- 1 cup shredded cabbage
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 Tablespoon cider vinegar
For the Remoulade Dressing
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tablespoon ketchup
- 1/2 teaspoon sriracha hot sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon pickle juice
- 1/2 teaspoon horseradish
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
- paprika to taste
Instructions
- Mix together the sauce ingredients for the coleslaw then toss with the cabbage and carrots. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Mix together the ingredients for the Remoulade sauce. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Filet the two chicken breasts so that you have four thin pieces of chicken. In one small bowl mix together the milk and egg. In another small bowl mix together the Wondra flour and Cajun seasoning.
- Heat a thin layer of vegetable oil in a large fry pan over medium heat. Dip each piece of chicken in the milk mix, then coat thoroughly in the flour mix. Fry for six to seven minutes or until lightly browned on each side.
- Spread Remoulade sauce inside the cut roll/baguette, then adds chicken and top with coleslaw.
Your sandwich sounds delicious. And, frankly, I’m going to walk out of the house here in a minute and see if I can grab one like you describe. But, for the sake of accuracy, I have a couple of things to add.
The poor boy (po’boy) has a -very- specific and traceable origin, which is not simply “a cheap way to eat a meal.” It was created by the Martin Brothers in their French Market stand for striking union streetcar workers in the twenties. These workers were the actual “poor boys” for whom the sandwich is named, and were given these sandwiches essentially free by the sympathetic Martin Brothers. As language goes, the sandwich for poor boys became the “poor boys’ sandwich”, and it was a short trip to just being called a poor boy. Then as Orleanian language evolves, basically anything that followed the same kind of pattern of construction (Protein with garnish vegetables and mayo on crispy French-style loaves) became known as a poor boy. (It’s that same kind of linguistic evolution that is the reason we call -all- medians in the city “neutral ground”.)
And, to that altruistic end, the brothers themselves actually had specific bread created for the sandwich, based upon local French Baguette, but wider, blunter, and crispier. Around New Orleans, you will see bread for sale that is “french bread”, and also “poor boy loaf”, which is different. A great deal of the unique texture of a New Orleans po’boy is derived from bread made in our uniquely humid atmosphere, which affects the way the crust forms. If you want an authentic po’boy, you NEED to have bread made for the purpose. If your plate isn’t covered with shards of crust that look like they could cut you when you’re finished, it’s not the right bread.
And finally, these wonderful sandwiches are -not- traditionally served with remoulade. There are several po’boys that -are- to be sure, especially in modern and less “joint” spots, and they are -delicious- (I -love- remoulade), but this is not the traditional way. Traditional is lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise (pronounced “MYnez” by older Orleanians), and, sometimes, pickles. This is so traditional, in fact, that there is a special term when ordering to indicate this: “Dressed,” as in, “Gimme a half shrimp, dressed.” This translates into a 6″-8″ fried shrimp po’boy with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and pickles.
And again, while there is a world of protein that fills these sandwiches, my experience (which, if you could see my beltline, is obviously considerable 😉 ) is that, by far, the leaders in po’boys served in the city are 1) fried shrimp or roast beef with debris gravy ( a dead heat ) and 2) fried oyster. And, entertainingly, there are combinations of all three of these proteins that have specific names and are, frankly, awesome.
I look forward to finding the “cajun fried chicken” version of my favorite sandwich style in the world…
Happy eating!
It was such a hit! I made this for snacks and it was gone right away. Will definitely be recommending this recipe.
I always love a good po’ boy! I didn’t realize how easy it is to make. Also, also have never heard of wondra flour until now either!
Oh my goodness, I love this sandwich. It’s packed with flavor. My family really enjoyed it too.
This is one fabulous sandwich! My crew is already begging for me to make them again and I want to put the sauce everything!
I have never had a Po’ Boy! I from the Pacific Northwest. However, this looks and sounds like something I need to try soon.
I’ve never hear of wondra flour before. Where would I find it? Looks like a yummy recipe.
It is right next to the regular flour on the baking aisle. It comes in a blue canister. It is a finer flour and works great for frying. Thank you for visiting our site!