Bojangles Is Home to the Best Hangover Cure Ever

It’s almost worth a rowdy night just to have one for breakfast the next day.

At almost 40 years old and a mother of two, I don't find myself hungover quite as often as I did 20 years ago, but it still happens occasionally. Maybe my book club got a little wild or date night started with martinis and ended with port. Whenever I wake up with that telltale throb in my temples and a shaky unease all over my body, I feel a little surge of excitement because I know it's time for my most trusted hangover cure, Bojangles' Cajun Chicken Filet Biscuit, to work its magic.

How I Discovered Bojangles’ Cajun Filet Biscuit

I was 21 years old in 2005, when I found myself in Charlotte, North Carolina, attending culinary school at Johnson and Wales University, working as a steak house prep cook, and living in my very first solo apartment. As on-my-own as I had ever been and newly immersed in the world of professional cooking, I was fully on board with the lifestyle. That lifestyle, as anyone who's skimmed Kitchen Confidential can tell you, is fast-paced, high-pressure, and not without a hefty amount of partying once the last stainless steel countertop has been wiped down for the night.

I'd start my classes in the morning, donning my neckerchief and chef whites, and then hop over to the restaurant where I spent an ungodly amount of time peeling, chopping, and aluminum-foil-wrapping potatoes. Once my prep list was done, I'd head across the street to Tyber Creek Pub, home of the (then) all-day, every day $2 Guinness pint.

At $2 a pop, the pints added up quickly, and inevitably the next morning, I'd be met with the usual hangover symptoms. And given we were still in the pre-smartphone era, I had to figure out things the old-fashioned way—through trial and error. It was in such a pursuit that I first stumbled upon Bojangles—the closest fast food spot to my apartment. I'm sure they existed in Virginia, where I grew up and lived through college, but until moving to North Carolina, I had never experienced one. When I did, I started quickly making up for lost time with one key menu item—the Cajun Chicken Filet Biscuit.

The Ultimate Hangover Cure

Bojangles Cajun Chicken Filet Biscuit is a masterpiece of curative simplicity. There's the chicken—marinated in spices so it has a little kick and then deep-fried (as all good hangover cures are)—and there's the buttermilk biscuit, light and fluffy like the pillow I wish I could curl up with all day or at least until the hangover subsides. This unfussy combination, plus a Dr. Pepper to restore some essential blood sugar (maybe this is a good time to note that this is not medical advice) has gotten me through more hangovers than I can count.

I've gotten some validation for my theory about this biscuit's potential for healing. A 2014 article on The Wire identifies the biscuit as a hangover cure, and an Eater guide to the Carolinas from the same year says, "Unfortunately, Bojangles has yet to embrace the restorative powers of emergency Cajun Filet biscuit delivery." And in an article for Eat This, Not That, Adam Bible opines, "I'm solidly in the Bojangles camp, having been pulled out of many a bleary college Sunday morning after a hard night's drinking by refueling on a hot and greasy Cajun Chicken Biscuit with a side of (always overly) Seasoned Fries. So good—salty and with just the right amount of butteriness to make for such a great hangover meal."

Which means that even though I tend to avoid hangovers nowadays, I sleep easy knowing the morning dawns (ouch) with the cure at hand, right at the closest Bojangles.