Chick-fil-A Strawberry Milkshake

This copycat Chick-fil-A Strawberry Milkshake recipe is thick, creamy, and even better than the original. Keep reading to learn the secret ingredient to replicating this fast-food classic at home!

Can't get enough of copycat drinks? Try my Baskin Robbins Oreo Milkshake and Tim Hortons Iced Coffee next!

Chick-fil-A has mastered the art of strawberry milkshakes. Their milkshake is everything a strawberry milkshake should be: thick, creamy, and tastes intensely of strawberries.

It strikes the right balance of sweetness without being overly sugary.

I've spent many attempts recreating this milkshake and finally found the perfect copycat. I dug into various recipe books and searched countless strawberry milkshake recipes online, and I discovered the one ingredient that all restaurants and fast-food chains use!

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Jump to:

• 🥤 Deconstructing the Milkshake
• 🍓 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Top Tips
• 🥡 Storage & Leftovers
• 📖 Recipe FAQs
• ❄ More chilly drinks you'll love
• 📋 Recipe

🥤 Deconstructing the Milkshake

The Chick-fil-A strawberry milkshake is smooth, creamy, and bursting with strawberry flavor. It's honestly the perfect milkshake.

There are so many strawberry milkshake recipes on the internet, but they all seem to be missing something. They're either too bland, too watery, or they miss the mark completely.

Luckily for us, Chick-fil-A lists their ingredients on their website:

Whole milk and nonfat dry milk, sugar, cream, water, contains less than 1% of: whey, mono and diglycerides, corn starch, guar gum, carrageenan, calcium sulfate, cellulose gum, brown sugar, natural and artificial flavor, natural flavor, salt, caramel color, beta-carotene (color), annatto (color), strawberries (strawberries, water, sugar, corn syrup, modified food starch, vegetable juice and lycopene for color, salt, erythorbic acid, potassium sorbate as preservative, and citric acid), whipped cream, cherries

- From Chick-fil-A's website (some information excluded)

There's a lot of mumbo jumbo, but essentially, it boils down to milk, cream, strawberries, whipped cream, and cherries.

What caught my attention was the bracketed information next to the strawberries.

The last time I checked, a regular strawberry was just a strawberry, but according to their ingredients, it comprises 11 ingredients. However, after a closer look, I realized those ingredients were actually for strawberry jam, not plain strawberries!

I immediately grabbed my blender and tested making a strawberry milkshake using strawberry jam. And trust me when I say this: it tasted exactly like a Chick-fil-A Strawberry Milkshake. In fact, it tasted like every strawberry milkshake I've ever had at a restaurant. Strawberry jam has been the secret ingredient all along!

🍓 Ingredients

• Vanilla Ice Cream: If you want the milkshake to taste as close as possible to Chick-fil-A, then use "frozen dessert," which is an ice cream substitute that is cheaper and most likely what fast-food chains use.
• Milk: Use whole milk for the best flavor.
• Strawberry Jam: Raspberry jam also works well.
• Frozen Strawberries: Fresh strawberries work, too, but frozen ones keep the milkshake thicker and colder for longer.
• Whipped cream: Make your own whipped cream or buy a canister from the grocery store.
• Maraschino cherries: A preserved, sweetened cherry. This is just for aesthetic purposes; you don't need it unless you want to copy everything about the Chick-fil-A Strawberry Milkshake.

Substitutions & Variations

• Strawberry jam can be easily substituted with raspberry jam.
• Ice cream can be substituted with equal parts cream and milk or half and half.

🔪 Instructions

Step 1. Blend

Combine ice cream, milk, jam, and frozen strawberries in a blender. Blend on medium-high speed until everything is smooth and combined. Use your blender's tamper to push down ingredients if the milkshake gets stuck.

💡 What is a Blender Tamper?
A blender tamper is a tool that comes with some high-speed blenders to help mix and process thick, challenging blends. It's a long stick that goes through the blender lid to push ingredients into the blades and eliminate air pockets while blending.

Step 2. Top with cream and cherry

Pour the milkshake into a tall glass and top with whipped cream and maraschino cherries.

💭 Top Tips

• Use high-quality strawberry jam - High-quality jam has a much more concentrated fruity flavor. I recommend Welch's Natural Strawberry or Smucker's brand if you're looking for a high-quality budget option.
• Use the blender tamper to push down the ingredients while they're being blended so you don't have to add extra liquid to get things moving.
• Freeze your cups in the freezer for 15 minutes before filling them up so your milkshakes stay frozen longer! Just ensure your cups are freezer-safe.

🥡 Storage & Leftovers

Storing: Store any leftover Chick-fil-A Strawberry milkshake in an air-tight container in the freezer for up to a month. When you want to eat it, let it defrost in the refrigerator for one hour, and then re-blend it with a little bit of milk.

📖 Recipe FAQs

❄ More chilly drinks you'll love

📋 Recipe