Is the fast food chicken sandwich better than the cheeseburger? This is a question I ask myself… fairly regularly, actually. On one hand, the cheeseburger has served us fast food lovers well, whether you like the cheap and easy stuff, fast casual sit-down restaurants, or straight-up traditional restaurants, there are delicious cheeseburgers at every level. Every town in this country has a drive-thru cheeseburger that could be in the running for your favorite, we can’t say the same for the fried chicken sandwich.
Having said that, something about the fried chicken sandwich holds mystique. Fast food brands are obsessed with the chicken sandwich. The famed Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich even ushered in the dreaded “chicken sandwich wars” — which sounds totally hyperbolic but… was kind of real, as fast food brands scrambled to grab attention for themselves. Every few months since 2019, we’ve witnessed a brand new chicken sandwich hitting the market, some of them earning permanent menu status, and some falling off the menu with little fanfare.
As a person who covers fast food, that’s exciting. But I imagine it might be incredibly annoying for someone who is just hungry and wants to spend their lunch eating something delicious. When endless options about, curation and well-meaning critique become more important than ever. That’s why we’re here to rank all of the best fried chicken sandwiches in fast food right now, in an effort to help you find the most delicious sandwich for your money.
The last time we did one of these rankings was in 2021, and a lot has changed since then. So we re-tasted old sandwiches, added new sandwiches, and ranked them all. Here is the best fried chicken sandwich you can eat in 2023, ranked from least essential to most delicious.
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- We Blind Tested Fast Food French Fries — Here’s The Stone Cold Champ
- Tye Best-Tasting Chicken Tenders In The Fast Food Universe, Ranked
- The Best Breakfast Sandwiches In The Fast Food Universe, Ranked
20. Dairy Queen — Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Super processed and bland with a weird texture, a sad lack of crunch, and a barely-there black pepper flavor. This is hands down the worst fried chicken sandwich in all of fast food, harkening back to a time before Popeyes when most fast food brands didn’t even try to make a sandwich that wasn’t just a big chicken nugget flattened out to bun-size.
Atop the filet is lettuce, tomato, mayo — ugh, I mean do you even care? The experience of eating this sandwich is brutal, don’t even bother.
The Bottom Line:
You’re at Dairy Queen. Order something ice cream-related or don’t order at all.
Find your nearest Dairy Queen here.
19. Sonic — Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
A spongey and porous chicken filet with a crispy exterior generously seasoned with black pepper. The breading tastes fine (could use more seasoning) and provides crunch, but the texture of the meat here is downright offensive.
The sandwich is served with lettuce, tomato, and pickles, with mayo buttered on the bun. Pretty standard stuff, but none of these ingredients are quality, leaving the best part of the sandwich the brioche bun.
When the bun is better than everything inside of it, you’ve got a problem.
The Bottom Line:
Order jalapeño poppers, chili cheese fries, a hot dog, mozzarella sticks — anything but the chicken sandwich.
Find your nearest Sonic here.
18. Arby’s — Chicken Bacon Swiss Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
I appreciate the smokey and slightly sweet flavor of the black-peppered bacon but every other element of this sandwich is straight-up repellent. The chicken is dry and one note (black pepper), the lettuce is watery, the bread is way too dry, the tomatoes are too tart and unripened, and the honey mustard gives this sandwich an off-putting tang and a bitter finish.
Overall, it seems like this sandwich is only on the menu because it’s a box Arby’s is ticking off, why would anyone order this over a Smokehouse Brisket, Roast Beef Gyro, or Corned Beef sandwich? All three of those options are significantly better than this chicken sandwich. And in no circumstances should you order the inferior Arby Classic Crispy Chicken Sandwich, which isn’t even good enough to land on this ranking.
The Bottom Line:
Arby’s has “got the meats,” but apparently chicken isn’t one of those meats, because this is terrible.
Find your nearest Arby’s here.
17. Burger King — Bacon and Swiss BK Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
The breading is salty and black-pepper forward with gentle smokey notes courtesy of the bacon, and slightly sweet cheese, with a sweet-savory finish. The best thing this sandwich has going for it is crunch, it’s audibly pleasing and makes the sandwich come across as more appetizing than it actually is. Unfortunately, the texture of the chicken filet is all wrong.
It’s chunky and flakey, a sign that the chicken was probably frozen before being fried, and the meat itself is flavorless. No amount of seasoning and crunch can mask this ultimately bland chicken taste good. Maybe 10 years ago this would’ve been passable, but in 2023 with all the great chicken sandwiches out there that are well-made and flavorful, this one suffers from poor quality and a bland flavor. So why would anyone order it?
Here is the frustrating part, a few years back Burger King launched the Ch’King sandwich — a stupidly named line of sandwiches that were surprisingly delicious. And then BK realized that the process of putting this chicken sandwich together was too time-consuming and expensive, so they simplified it and now we have the “Crispy Chicken Sandwich” line in its place.
Those cut corners weaken the experience considerably, putting Burger King back into the bottom tier.
The Bottom Line:
Remember the Ch’King? Well, that’s dead, and this new line of chicken sandwiches pale in comparison to that line of sandwiches that was killed off too soon. BK seems to spend all its money on great photography of its food because the real thing doesn’t look anything like this photo would suggest.
Find your nearest Burger King here.
16. McDonald’s — Spicy McCrispy
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
McDonald’s keeps f*cking with its chicken sandwich, changing it every year or so and that’s because as good as McDonald’s is, they still can’t figure out how to make a decent chicken sandwich. Even though this sandwich features a filet, the texture reminds us a bit of those highly processed chicken patties of old, back before Popeyes revolutionized the way chicken sandwiches are made.
The spicy pepper sauce is delicious, it has a strong cayenne kick to it with some sweetness to balance out the heat, but the pickles are too wet and brine-y, and the chicken has a strange chunky texture and a weirdly artificial taste that is pretty off-putting.
The breading is light and airy, similar to a chicken nugget, but doesn’t provide the same satisfying crunch as a McNugget. Back to the lab with this one McDonald’s!
The Bottom Line:
The sauce is good but you’re better off ordering some chicken McNuggets and dipping them in the sauce of your choice than dealing with the odd texture and bland flavor of this chicken patty.
Find your nearest McDonald’s here.
15. Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s — Hand-Breaded Bacon Swiss Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Carl’s Jr has made significant improvements to its fried chicken sandwich since the last time we reviewed it, in place of the processed chicken patty is a hand-breaded breast filet with a crunchy breading that combines black pepper, salt, and a hint of garlic and onion powder. On top of that, you have some nutty and salty Swiss cheese, tasty smokey bacon (that is unfortunately too thin), and mayonnaise on a squishy potato bun. There are also tomatoes and lettuce but they’re not doing the sandwich any favors.
Luckily, the chicken has a great flavor, it’s nice and meaty, but what holds it back is that it’s a bit drier than some of the top-tier fried chicken sandwiches out there. That means we have to leave this one near the bottom of the list. Carl’s Jr has come a long way with its chicken sandwich but it still can’t compete with the big boys. Errr… big birds?
The Bottom Line:
Carl’s Jr’s best chicken sandwiches are the grilled ones. Get one of those instead of this.
Find your nearest Carl’s Jr here.
14. Jack in the Box — Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Super crunchy with a black pepper and garlic dominant flavor that is enhanced by some smokey bacon and complimented nicely by a tangy buttermilk ranch. The tomatoes add a nice juicy dimension but the lettuce tastes a bit bitter and the cheese comes across like melted plastic with a flavor that is not in any way reminiscent of Swiss. The breading is also a bit too generous, leaving more crunch than actual meat.
The bun is soft and spongey and a nice compliment to the sandwich, but unfortunately, half of the elements of this build really weigh the sandwich down and keep it from being truly great.
The Bottom Line:
A middling sandwich. Neither great nor bad. It’s fine.
Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.
13. Rally’s — Bacon BBQ Mother Cruncher
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Good crunch with well-seasoned breading with a white pepper, garlic, and onion powder forward flavor complemented by some sweet and slightly smokey barbecue sauce, a bit of sweet and smokey notes from the fried onions and bacon (which also helps add more crunch), with bright crispy thin pickles, and some mayo to help accentuate the savory flavors.
The double dose of different sauces helps to keep this chicken from coming across as dry but I suspect all that sauce is used to mask the flavor of the chicken itself, which I can’t really taste. It’s not that much of a problem because the overall flavor of the sandwich is good but in order for this to be a true top-tier sandwich, the flavor of the actual meat is going to need to poke through more.
The Bottom Line:
A good chicken sandwich, but all the sauce makes me feel like it’s hiding something. If we were ranking this list based on best names, this would take the top spot. Flavor-wise, the Mother Cruncher is stuck in the middle.
Find your nearest Rally’s here.
12. KFC — Spicy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
A spicy chicken sandwich, courtesy of KFC! If you know anything about KFC, that’s an anomaly, the brand doesn’t do spicy all that often, so this sandwich was a big deal to us when it dropped. It’s… just fine.
The issue here is that this sandwich is so close to being delicious, the chicken is tender and meaty, well-seasoned with a garlic, onion, black pepper, and salt-based breading, and a tasty spicy cayenne pepper sauce that is well balanced in heat and sweetness. But the build is pretty standard and it fails to stick the landing.
The other components are also lacking. The pickles are soft and soggy and don’t really cut the umami notes enough, and the bun isn’t so much buttery as it is greasy. The chicken is also way too heavily breaded which distracts from the other components. All KFC has to do is switch out that bun, not double-batter the chicken, and get some better pickles and this sandwich instantly moves from mid-tier to, well, upper-mid-tier.
The Bottom Line:
KFC is getting closer and closer to a great chicken sandwich, but they’re still not quite there. If they give us an Original Recipe version of this thing it might bump up KFC a few spots in our ranking.
Find your nearest KFC here.
11. Raising Cane’s — Chicken Finger Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This sandwich frustrates me, partly because Raising Cane’s has such great chicken tenders that you’d think a great chicken sandwich would be a no-brainer, and yet, Raising Cane’s made the stupid (yes stupid) decision of building their chicken sandwich by shoving three chicken tenders between a dense bready bun with some boring green leaf lettuce and the admittedly delicious Cane’s sauce.
Don’t get me wrong, the chicken tenders and sauce are a great combination, the chicken is tender, crispy, juicy, and some of the best in all of fast food, but the build is ridiculous. Because it’s three tenders in a bun you have to hold this sandwich with two hands and constantly adjust it to keep the tenders from falling out.
Which begs the question… why experience these flavors in a sandwich at all? Just order some chicken tenders and dip them in some sauce. Looking for more carbs? Each Raising Cane’s finger combo comes with a side of Texas Toast which is buttered and grilled and way more flavorful than the bun the sandwich is served on.
This sandwich is lazy and a missed opportunity.
The Bottom Line:
Order the tenders. Never order this sandwich. That way, maybe Raising Cane will wake up and give us a proper one instead of this mistake.
Find your nearest Raising Cane’s here.
10. Church’s — Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Church’s chicken sandwich wants so badly to be Popeyes, it features the same simple build: a huge chicken breast filet heavily breaded and topped with pickles and mayo, but just doesn’t deliver the same flavor. The chicken is pretty good, it’s tender and juicy, and the breading is well seasoned with a heavy black pepper flavor served atop a honey-buttered and mayo-topped brioche bun, but the flavors just don’t come together quite like the sandwich it’s imitating.
It lacks that depth of flavor Popeyes has and in my experience, you can taste a bit too much of the frying oil, which gives the sandwich a sort of ~ dirty ~ aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
An obvious imitation of Popeyes that’s not nearly as good as the real thing.
Find your nearest Church’s here.
9. Wendy’s — Spicy Chicken Asiago Ranch Chicken Club
Spicy with a strong cayenne and black pepper flavor with smokey bacon notes, and some tangy creamy ranch notes. It used to be my go-to Wendy’s chicken sandwich. If you want something a bit more tame in the heat department, this is your best choice as it’s meaty and flavorful without really registering as “hot.”
But if you’d rather eat something a bit more adventurous, see our next Wendy’s entry.
The Bottom Line:
Still one of Wendy’s best chicken sandwiches but there is a newcomer on the menu that takes this idea and elevates it with a stronger emphasis on heat.
Find your nearest Wendy’s here.
8. Wendy’s — Ghost Pepper Ranch Chicken Sandwich (Spicy)
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Finally, Wendy’s best dipping sauce is now part of its chicken sandwich. The Ghost Pepper Ranch Chicken Sandwich features a crispy tender filet of white meat chicken seasoned with a heavy dose of cayenne and black pepper, topped with spicy ghost pepper seasoned fried onions, creamy ghost pepper American cheese, and tangy and spicy ghost pepper ranch. There’s also lettuce and tomato, which help to reign the spicy flavors in. They do an alright job but are easily the weakest part of this sandwich.
It’s not quite as dangerously spicy as it sounds, but it has a strong initial kick of heat that slowly builds in intensity as you eat the sandwich. It’s a great sandwich, but if you have reservations about all this heat, go ahead and order it with the Homestyle filet rather than the spicy one.
The Bottom Line:
Three different layers of strong but manageable heat make this sandwich is real treat for your tastebuds.
Find your nearest Wendy’s here.
7. Jollibee — Original Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
A bit different than the other chicken sandwiches on the market, this one features a light cornstarch-based breading that is airy and crispy and helps to keep the chicken juicy and tender without being dried out from over-frying.
The breading is seasoned with garlic, pepper, salt, onion powder, and the slightest hint of parsley, with a deep and complex umami-heavy mayo. It tastes like a chicken sandwich should, but with a slightly different ratio of the seasoning which helps to make it a bit more unique than its simple build would suggest.
The Bottom Line:
A great umami-rich chicken sandwich that not enough people know about.
Find your nearest Jollibee here.
6. Chick-fil-A — Honey Pimento Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
The first bite is savory, a mix of salty flavors with some vegetal jalapeño notes and a mild building heat followed by a sharp tang and a sweet floral finish. A bouquet of sweet, tangy, and spicy flavors that is hard not to fall in love with.
I really like this seasonal spin on Chick-fil-A’s original chicken sandwich. The build features a thick chicken breast filet with a thick smattering of pimento cheese, pickled jalapeños, and a honey spread bun. It’s distinctly different than every other chicken sandwich on the market, but different isn’t always better, so we can’t in good consciousness put this in the top 5.
The Bottom Line:
A medley of flavors that take you on a journey from savory, to tangy, to sweet with a slow-burning heat.
Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.
5. Shake Shack — Chick’n Shack
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
You may not know it considering this chain makes maybe the greatest fast food cheeseburger on the market, but Shake Shack’s chicken sandwiches are surprisingly solid. The breading is flaky and crispy, serving as a perfect sponge to soak up the buttermilk herb-seasoned mayo. The sandwich also features crispy pickles that have a nice snap to them, served atop a slightly sweet and extra soft bun.
The chicken is tender and meaty, and the is seasoned with a prominent onion flavor with a hint of black pepper on the aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
Delicious, juicy, and crispy, but it can’t quite compare to a Shake Shack cheeseburger.
Find your nearest Shake Shack here.
4. Chick-fil-a — Spicy Deluxe
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
One of my go-to chicken sandwiches when I’m not on the job, the Spicy Deluxe features snappy crinkle-cut pickles, some slightly buttery green leaf lettuce, two succulent slices of tomato, and a whole meat chicken breast filet seasoned generously with black pepper, garlic powder, paprika and a hint of cayenne pepper, with pepper jack cheese for an added dose of heat. Not only is this sandwich fried in peanut oil which gives it a super crispy exterior but helps to keep the chicken juicy and moist, but the chicken itself is also marinated in pickle brine which adds a layer of complexity to the flavor of this sandwich that most of the competition just doesn’t have.
Everything above this sandwich is marginally better, but everything below it on this ranking pales in comparison.
The Bottom Line:
One of the best spicy chicken sandwiches in all of fast food, period.
Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.
3. Dave’s Hot Chicken — Hot Chicken Slider
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
I have a lot of issues with this sandwich, on the one hand, I love the build, a thick piece of chicken, a mix of cabbage and kale, some tangy savory sauce, and pickles (with the option to add cheese). Simple, delicious. But Dave’s is another one of those places that puts a chicken tender between two pieces of bread and calls it a sandwich and I just can’t stand for that.
Most of your chicken tender will extend out of the sandwich, half of your bites will be just bread, and while the tender is gargantuan (seriously what are they doing to these chickens to make them so plump?) it feels a little strange that at the end of your $15 meal, all you’re really getting is one chicken tender (and fries). It feels like a rip-off when for the same price you can get two tenders, fries, and a slice of white bread.
Again, it feels like Dave’s has a sandwich just because that’s what people expect.
Having said that, this is legitimately the hottest sandwich on this ranking. You can customize it between seven different heat levels, my favorite is the “Hot,” which features a strong heat that is enough to feel but not enough to ruin your meal. If you really want to be challenged, opt for the “Extra Hot” or “Reaper” heat levels.
The Bottom Line:
The hottest chicken sandwich you can find in fast food right now. But don’t get the sandwich, get the tenders instead — it’s more bang for your buck.
Find your nearest Dave’s Hot Chicken here.
2. Shake Shack — Hot Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This sandwich hits you with an initial wave of intense spice that is balanced out by a vegetal slaw and briney tang from the pickles. After a few bites the heat continually builds on the palate, the first bite might not convince you this sandwich is hot enough but after a few, there is no denying it.
The chicken is breaded in a light crispy batter that has a nice crunch and serves as a good sponge for the hot pepper seasoning dusted on it.
This sandwich does spice a bit differently — rather than rely on a spicy sauce or heavy seasoning, the heat is delivered in multiple ways (cherry peppers, jalapeños, hot pepper seasoning) which combine and build into something greater than the sum of its parts.
The Bottom Line:
My favorite spicy chicken sandwich on the market currently. That said, it’s not the best fried chicken sandwich altogether.
Find your nearest Shake Shack here.
1. Popeyes — Spicy Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
A pleasing audible crunch greets you as you bite into this sandwich giving way to a tender juicy piece of chicken that is well seasoned with a mix of garlic and onion powder elevated by a gentle cayenne-based sauce, some smokey notes, an earthy brine-y tang, mild buttery flavors and a subtle hint of sweetness on the backend that makes this sandwich incredibly addictive.
Launched to little fanfare this year, Popeyes Spicy Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich improves the one weakness of Popeyes’ sandwich, its build. The original sandwich just featured the sauce, pickles, and bun, and those accouterments were fine but the real star of the show was the chicken itself. It’s so good that it made up for the sub-par quality of the sandwich build.
Now the build offers a little more thanks to the inclusion of bacon and Havarti cheese, which help to deepen the flavors and add some additional points of interest for your tastebuds to explore.
The Bottom Line:
This is still the best-tasting chicken sandwich in all of fast food and while it feels like a cop-out to still claim that… it really is! Popeyes struck gold here, it’s okay to admit it, and they’ve improved upon the sandwich that changed fast food by adding bacon and Havarti cheese — an always welcome update!
Find your nearest Popeyes here.
