The first Guthrie’s Chicken Fingers opened its doors in Alabama in 1965, but it wasn’t until 1968 that Hal Guthrie invented the chicken-finger recipe that would propel the eatery to nationwide fame. It took another decade for Hal to dream up Guthrie’s signature sauce, now a family secret guarded more closely than the family sticker book. Motivated by a growing demand from the public for chicken fingers, Hal and his son Chris trimmed other southern items from the menu in 1982, leaving behind only chicken, fries, texas toast, slaw, and the original sauce. Today, cooks still follow Hal’s original recipes at multiple locations, steeping fresh chicken in marinade for two days before hand-breading and frying it to a satisfying crunch.