The Potato Company We Can Thank For Chick-Fil-A Waffle Fries

Chick-fil-A is well known for providing customers with some of the best fried chicken one can get from a fast food establishment, but those tasty sandwiches wouldn't be the same without its iconic waffle fries. In fact, the restaurant's waffle fries are more popular than its signature sandwiches. With all those orders of crispy, crisscrossed potato slices going out the door daily, the chicken chain needs a reliable supply of taters to make sure customers get what they come for.

The company Chick-fil-A trusts to keep it stocked with enough potatoes to feed the masses six days a week has long been Lamb Weston. It is a partnership that has spanned almost 40 years. Thousands of acres of land are farmed in the small town of Eagle, Idaho to ensure Chick-fil-A stays on top of its waffle fry game. It falls in line with the restaurant's commitment to a sustainable future by focusing on ways to reduce waste and energy as it supplies the chain with waffle fries year-round.

Lamb Weston has been supplying Chick-fil-A with potatoes for waffle fries and hash browns for decades, but the fast-food restaurant has become bigger than ever before, and with more customers comes more demand for crispy waffle fries. As competent as Lamb Weston is, they aren't able to completely meet the needs of the chicken chain. Because of this, Chick-fil-A has tasked another Gem State potato company with supplementing its potato needs.

Chick-fil-A has over 2,600 locations across the U.S. and Canada, and with so many restaurants serving waffle fries six days a week, it sought out the J.R. Simplot Company. The J.R. Simplot Company has long been a legend in Idaho, having been the first company to produce french fries that could be frozen and sold to commercial businesses. It values its employees and partners as much as its customers, which may be part of the reason Chick-fil-A decided it would make a worthy entity to take on the crucial task of supplying its potatoes.

The company also provides McDonald's with its iconic french fries. Fans of the Golden Arches surely wish McDonald's (sometimes) discontinued Szechuan sauce was still available as a dipping option for their fried potatoes while patrons at Chick-fil-A are still emphatically dipping their waffle fries into Chick-fil-A sauce as they enjoy their meals, but nonetheless, both companies get quality spuds from the same source. The chicken chain continues to grow, starting a streaming service in the near future and planning on expanding its restaurant empire to 4,000 locations by 2030. That will mean more potatoes for waffle fries will be needed, and only time will tell if Lamb Weston and the J.R. Simplot Company can keep up with demand.