There isn’t a single dish in all of fast food more popular than the chicken sandwich. And yes, we’ve considered the cheeseburger. Look, no shade to the cheeseburger, we love it, and it has served us well, but it had its reign (here is a list of some of our favorites). Still, 2024 is all about the chicken sandwich. That’s probably why some of the fastest-growing chains in fast food — Chick-fil-A, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Popeyes, and Raising Canes — exclusively focus on chicken.
In 2024, we’re spoiled for options when it comes to a great chicken sandwich. But with fast food prices rising, it’s important to know which sandwich is the most worthy of your hard-earned money. Seeking out the very best chicken sandwiches in fast food is something we’ve been hard at work at for the last five years. We can trace our search back to when Popeyes first launched its chicken sandwich in 2019 and started the so-called “chicken sandwich wars,” (a phrase we promise to never use again after this year).
Being on the search for five years, you’d think we’d have an answer to the question: who makes the best chicken sandwich? But our answer changes almost every year, and while that might sound us being inconsistent is really just a sign that the chicken sandwich is the most steadily innovated dish in fast food. Every year there’s a new crop of sandwiches, which means every year we the consumers are treated to increasingly delicious food.
So who makes the best chicken sandwich of 2024? We set out to find out by tasting and re-ranking every fast food chicken sandwich we could get our hands on. Let’s eat.
25. Dairy Queen — Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
I’m going to save you some time: don’t order a chicken sandwich (or any food that isn’t ice cream) at Dairy Queen. If you need to know the gory details, let’s talk about them.
The meat in this sandwich is spongey and highly processed. The filet has barely any crunch and is seasoned simply with black pepper. Atop the filet is a sad leaf of lettuce, an unripened slice of tomato, and mayo — pretty standard stuff, and yet this sandwich tastes absolutely brutal.
The Bottom Line:
The worst fast food chicken sandwich ever.
Find your nearest Dairy Queen here.
24. Sonic — Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Sonic has some legitimately great menu options, but the Crispy Chicken Sandwich is not one of them. This chicken filet is spongey and porous — it makes me wonder how much of it is actually real meat — but well-seasoned with black pepper. The breading provides a nice crunch, but the texture of the meat is so off-putting that I find biting into this sandwich somehow offensive.
It’s an insult to everything else on the Sonic menu that actually works (the breakfast burrito comes to mind).
The build is pretty standard stuff: lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo on a buttered bun. But the quality of everything but the bun leaves a lot to be desired. When the bun is the highlight of your sandwich, you’ve got a problem.
The Bottom Line:
Order anything else on the menu but this! Need some suggestions? Here you go: jalapeño poppers, chili cheese fries, a hot dog, mozzarella sticks, or a breakfast burrito.
Find your nearest Sonic here.
23. Arby’s — Chicken Bacon Swiss Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This sandwich almost works. The black-peppered bacon has a great smokey and slightly sweet flavor. Unfortunately, every other element of this sandwich weighs it down. The chicken is bone dry and underseasoned, the lettuce is soggy, the bread is dry and dense, the tomatoes fall flat, and the honey mustard, with its tang and bitter finish, straight-up doesn’t work in this sandwich.
I’m convinced that Arby’s only has this sandwich on the menu so they can keep up with every other big fast food brand that makes a decent sandwich.
The Bottom Line:
Another skip! Order the Smokehouse Brisket, Roast Beef Gyro, or Corned BEef Sandwich instead.
Find your nearest Arby’s here.
22. Burger King — Bacon and Swiss BK Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
A couple of years back Burger King revamped its chicken sandwich to launch the Ch’King. It was an amazing chicken sandwich. One of the best! Unfortunately, because it was hand-breaded and made to order, it wasn’t sustainable, so BK simplified the recipe, and we were given this. Which is good, but pales in comparison to what once was!
The breading on the chicken filet is crunchy and nicely seasoned with a mix of salt and black pepper. Those flavors are supported by gentle smokey notes courtesy of the bacon with the cheese offering a slightly sweet and savory finish. It’s got a great crunch and flavor, two necessary ingredients for a good chicken sandwich, but the texture of the chicken filet is where it falls apart.
The filet is chunky and flakey — a sign that this chicken has been frozen — and the meat itself lacks any flavor whatsoever. The filet is frustratingly bland, which is a real disservice to everything else this sandwich has going for it.
The Bottom Line:
Good flavors are hampered by a flavorless and oddly-textured filet.
Find your nearest Burger King here.
21. McDonald’s — Spicy McCrispy
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
McDonald’s will not stop trying to push its chicken sandwich on us. Every year it feels like they are trying to market the McCrispy in a new way as if the advertising is what’s keeping people from ordering this. Hey McDonald’s, it’s not the marketing, it’s the chicken!
The filet is just not very good. It’s bland, and texturally slushy, which is meant to sound disgusting. I’m trying to warn you here, this is a skippable sandwich.
What works is the spicy pepper sauce. It has a strong cayenne kick with a sweet element that balances out the heat. The pickles are wet and brine-y, and the breading is light, crispy, and airy.
It’s so close to being a decent chicken sandwich but not quite there.
The Bottom Line:
You’re better off just ordering chicken nuggets and some fries.
Find your nearest McDonald’s here.
20. Burger King — Fiery Bacon Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This is a slight improvement over the Bacon and Swiss build. It features a quadruple dose of heat via a creamy cayenne-based sauce and a cayenne-based glaze, pepper jack cheese, and cayenne-dusted bacon.
That heat helps to mask the sub-par quality of the chicken filet. Not much else to say though, if Burger King had better chicken, this would easily be ranked much higher.
The Bottom Line:
Currently Burger King’s best chicken sandwich.
Find your nearest Burger King here.
19. KFC — Chicken Little
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This sandwich is kind of a joke. It features an extra crispy chicken tender sandwich between a sesame seed bun with pickles and mayo. The chicken is tender and crunchy, with a good flavor but it feels so minor.
It’s definitely not a meal, treat it like a snack and it won’t let you down.
The Bottom Line:
A fine addition to KFC’s menu. The only snack-sized chicken sandwich on this list.
Find your nearest KFC here.
18. Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s — Hand-Breaded Bacon Swiss Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This sandwich has a few things working for it. The breast filet is hand-breaded and well-seasoned with black pepper, salt, a bit of garlic, and onion powder. In addition, the Swiss cheese brings some nutty and salty notes to the flavor profile, while the bacon adds some smokiness and extra crunch.
Pulling all the flavors together is a spread of mayo over a squishy slightly sweet potato bun.
The only thing holding it back is that it’s a little bit dry, especially compared to what we’ve ranked above it.
The Bottom Line:
A good chicken sandwich but there are far better options out there.
Find your nearest Carl’s Jr here.
17. Jack in the Box — Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
I’m actually surprised that I don’t totally hate this. Jack in the Box is a fast food chain that excels at sides, it doesn’t have a lot of delicious sandwich options save for the Smashed Jack and this Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club.
The chicken filet is well-seasoned with a mix of black pepper and garlic, enhanced by smokey bacon and further complemented by a tangy buttermilk ranch finish. The tomatoes — always a gamble with low-end chicken sandwiches — are surprisingly juicy and add some umami dimension to the palette of flavors. The weakest ingredients are the lettuce — which is incredibly bitter — and the cheese which is akin to melted plastic. It’s supposed to be Swiss, but it just tastes like salt.
While I think this sandwich is pretty good, again, there are far better options out there.
The Bottom Line:
Pick up this sandwich if its financially convenient, but if you’re looking for the best, look elsewhere.
Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.
16. Rally’s — Bacon BBQ Mother Cruncher
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
While still very far from the best, Rally’s Bacon BBQ Mother Cruncher is a huge step up from Jack in the Box’s Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club.
This sandwich provides a good crunch with well-seasoned breading that includes white pepper, garlic, and onion powder elevated by sweet and slightly smokey barbecue sauce. The fried onions, bacon, and crispy thin pickles help to accentuate the savory flavors of this sandwich while mayo helps pull it all together.
This sandwich’s secret weapon is that double dose of sauce which helps hide some of the dryness of the patty.
The Bottom Line:
A very good chicken sandwich, but the double dose of sauce is clearly being used as a mask to hide the low-quality chicken.
Find your nearest Rally’s here.
15. KFC — Spicy Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
A spicy chicken sandwich from KFC? That’s kind of an anomaly, the brand doesn’t do spicy all that often, so when this first dropped last year we were pretty psyched about it. The results though? Middling at best.
This sandwich is close to being great though, the chicken is tender, meaty, and well-seasoned with a mix of garlic, onion, black pepper, and salt, with a spicy kick courtesy of the cayenne pepper sauce. It balanced heat and sweetness really well.
What needs work is the build. The pickles are soggy, the bun is greasy (when it should be buttery), and the chicken is so heavily breaded that it tones down the cayenne pepper sauce a bit too much.
The Bottom Line:
KFC has almost made a great chicken sandwich, but they’re still not quite there yet. A few tweaks and this goes from very good to great.
Find your nearest KFC here.
14. Raising Cane’s — Chicken Finger Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This sandwich is frustrating. Raising Cane’s has the best chicken tenders in all of fast food. The tenders are so good that the brand doesn’t bother to make anything else, and this sandwich suffers from it. Rather than a chicken filet, this sandwich consists of three chicken tenders shoved between a dense and bready bun with some boring green leaf lettuce and Cane’s famously delicious Cane’s sauce.
Let me be clear, the tenders and sauce are a great combination, but the rest of the sandwich distracts from the flavor. And because the sandwich is made from three tenders rather than a solid piece of meat, you’re constantly fighting to keep the tenders from falling out while you eat it.
So skip the bread and just order some chicken tenders and dip them in sauce. If you really want the extra carbs, just order a side of Texas Toast, which is way tastier than the bread used for this sandwich.
The Bottom Line:
Save yourself some money and calories and just order the tenders. It’s essentially the same dish, only better.
Find your nearest Raising Cane’s here.
13. Church’s — Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Church’s chicken sandwich does a whole lot with just a little bit. The build is painfully simple, you’ve got a huge chicken breast filet that is heavily breaded and topped with pickles and mayo. That’s it.
The chicken filet is pretty damn good, it’s tender and juicy and seasoned with a simple blend of black pepper, salt, garlic, and onion. The bun features a honey-butter glaze and the mayo helps bring all the flavors together. But it lacks the depth of flavor that its biggest influence — the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich — has.
The Bottom Line:
A great chicken sandwich, but if there is a Popeyes in the area, you’d be better served by getting that instead.
Find your nearest Church’s here.
12. Chick-fil-A — Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This sandwich was first launched in the summer of 2023 for a limited time and now it’s back, so I guess this is Chick-fil-A’s new seasonal sandwich. We don’t hate that, but we’ll admit that this sandwich isn’t for everyone. It’s going to come down to whether you like pimento cheese or not, if you do, this is great. If you don’t, this isn’t going to convince you that pimento cheese is worthwhile.
At first bite, your tastebuds are met with a mix of savory and salty flavors with some vegetal notes from the jalepeños, a mild heat that slowly builds, and a sharp tang and a sweet floral finish.
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.
11. Wendy’s — Spicy Asiago Ranch Chicken Club
This used to be my go-to Wendy’s chicken sandwich and while it isn’t my favorite anymore, I still think it’s pretty solid, so we’re including it! The flavor is a mix of spicy cayenne pepper heat with some black pepper, smokey bacon notes, and a tangy creamy ranch finish.
It’s a great chicken sandwich, but if you want something a bit more adventurous, see our next Wendy’s entry.
The Bottom Line:
One of Wendy’s best chicken sandwiches. An all-around great sandwich.
Find your nearest Wendy’s here.
10. Wendy’s — Ghost Pepper Ranch Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This now holds the crown for the greatest Wendy’s chicken sandwich. It features a crispy tender filet heavily seasoned with cayenne and black pepper, topped with spicy ghost pepper seasoned fried onions, creamy ghost pepper American cheese, and Wendy’s greatest dipping sauce: ghost pepper ranch.
Lettuce and tomato help to reign in the spicy flavors, but are overall the weakest aspect of this sandwich.
If you have a low spice tolerance, don’t worry, this sandwich isn’t quite as spicy as it sounds. But the heat does slowly build in intensity as you eat the sandwich, so keep your favorite beverage on hand to cool things down.
The Bottom Line:
This sandwich features three different layers of strong but manageable heat that are a treat for your tastebuds.
Find your nearest Wendy’s here.
9. Jollibee — Original Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Jollibee’s chicken sandwich is a bit different than every other sandwich on the market. The breading here is cornstarch-based, giving it an airy crispiness that helps to keep the chicken juicy and tender without being dried out from over-frying.
In addition to the light texture, the breading is seasoned with garlic, onion, pepper, salt, and a slight hint of parsley. The complex umami-heavy mayo also stands out and helps to accentuate this sandwich’s savory qualities.
The Bottom Line:
A great umami-rich chicken sandwich. It’s not our favorite but it’s worth experiencing if you haven’t had Jollibee before.
Find your nearest Jollibee here.
8. Chick-fil-A — Spicy Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
The Spicy Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich takes everything that works about the non-spicy variant and adds a spicy element that wraps the flavors together in a more satisfying way.
Those vegetal jalapeño notes are further accented by a cayenne-forward spicy chicken filet, which makes the heat much more pronounced. That added heat helps to de-emphasize the tangy and floral sweet notes, which I think is a better complement to the pimento cheese.
The Bottom Line:
You still get that savory, tangy, and sweet flavor profile, with a bigger emphasis on the heat.
Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.
7. Shake Shack — Chick’n Shack
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Shake Shack probably makes the best cheeseburger on the market, and because of that, people are sleeping on the chicken sandwiches, which are also incredibly delicious. The breading on this filet is wonderfully flaky and crispy, with tender and meaty chicken well-seasoned with onion powder.
The crispy exterior acts as the perfect sponge to soak up the herbaceous buttermilk herb mayo. The pickles are crispy and have a nice snap to them, and the bun is slightly sweet and spongey.
All in all a great sandwich, but Shake Shack has an even better version.
The Bottom Line:
Delicious. A great chicken sandwich. Not quite as good as a Shake Shack burger, but better than a lot of the competition.
Find your nearest Shake Shack here.
6. Chick-fil-a — Spicy Deluxe
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
During the 2010s, I would’ve said Chick-fil-A easily had the best chicken sandwich in all of fast food, but in 2024 we have a few options that top this delicious sandwich.
This sandwich features crinkle-cut pickles that have a nice snap to them and offer an earthy tang with some buttery green leaf lettuce, two succulent slices of tomato, pepper jack cheese, and a chicken breast filet seasoned generously with black pepper, garlic powder, floral paprika, and cayenne pepper.
The breast filet is fried in peanut oil which helps to give it a crispy exterior — due to the high smoke point of the oil — while still keeping the chicken inside juicy and moist.
The Bottom Line:
One of the best spicy chicken sandwiches in all of fast food, period.
Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.
5. Popeyes — Golden BBQ Chicken Sandwich
Thoughts & Tasting Notes
Popeyes Golden BBQ is the newest chicken sandwich in this ranking and one of the best. The sauce used on this sandwich is sweeter than your typical BBQ sauce, with a mix of floral peppery notes and a mellow tang in place of the smokiness you might expect from BBQ.
That sweet and tangy BBQ helps to elevate the flavor of the chicken’s breading, which has a slightly sweet flavor that combines a mix of garlic, onion, black pepper, and a gentle hint of cayenne.
The Bottom Line:
Sweet, buttery, and tangy. A great chicken sandwich.
Find your nearest Popeyes here.
4. Smashburger — Mango Habanero Chicken Sandwich
Why You Need To Try It:
If you need a little sweetness with your heat, the Mango Habanero Chicken Sandwich is the sandwich for you. The build features a fried breast filet tossed in a spicy, citrusy, and, sweet mango habanero sauce, lettuce, mayo, and Smashburger’s signature sweet and soft bun.
The breast filet is flattened out which helps the meat to retain a supremely tender and juicy texture. But the real highlight is the sauce, which begins with a floral sweetness and finishes bright and citrusy. Don’t expect too much heat though, despite the inclusion of habanero, this sandwich offers a very slow burn.
By the end of the sandwich, your mouth will be watering. Trust.
The Bottom Line:
A nice and fruity spin on the spicy chicken sandwich.
Find your nearest Smashburger here.
3. Dave’s Hot Chicken — Hot Chicken Slider
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Dave’s Hot Chicken Slider is another chicken sandwich that uses a chicken tender in place of a filet, but where the Raising Cane’s sandwich was made from three tenders, this one features just one. That might sound like a rip-off but this is the biggest, thickest chicken tender you’ll ever come across, so it works!
The build consists of a chicken tender topped with a mix of cabbage and kale, tangy savory sauce, and pickles (you also have the option to add cheese.) It’s simple, tender, and delicious.
My only gripe is that the chicken tender is so big that most of it extends out of our sandwich, which means half of your bites will just be chicken, no bread.
Weak point aside, this is legitimately the hottest sandwich in this ranking with seven different heat levels. Our pick is “hot,” which sports a strong heat that is strong enough to feel but not so strong that it ruins your meal or feels like a challenge.
The Bottom Line:
The spiciest chicken sandwich in all of fast food.
Find your nearest Dave’s Hot Chicken here.
2. Shake Shack — Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich has everything the regular Chick’n Shack has plus bacon and fresh avocado, so therefore, it’s better! Biting into this sandwich takes you into a wonderful world of texture and flavors.
The chicken and bacon combo provides a mix of crunchy textures with the avocado adding a nutty butteriness into the mix which pairs perfectly with the earthy tang of the pickles. The herb-mayo helps to bring all the flavors together, making the finish a mix of herbal, savory, and smokey flavors.
The Bottom Line:
A must-order chicken sandwich. It came so close to snagging the top spot but ultimately we went a different way for our number one pick.
Find your nearest Shake Shack here.
1. Popeyes — Spicy Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
Here it is, the best chicken sandwich in all of fast food. This sandwich builds on the foundation of Popeyes’ game-changing chicken sandwich by adding bacon and Havarti cheese.
Biting into this sandwich, you’re greeted with a pleasing crunch that gives way to a tender and juicy piece of chicken that is heavily seasoned with a mix of onion, garlic, and cayenne pepper. That cayenne is further accentuated by the gentle heat of a spicy sauce, which together with the bacon adds a nice smokey top note to the sandwich.
The pickles supply a nice brine-y tang while the Havarti cheese adds subtle nuttiness. This is a near-perfect sandwich. The only way to improve on this sandwich is by swapping out the bun for something a bit more elevated. But as it stands, it’s hard to complain about this sandwich. It’s a must-order and the only choice if you’re looking for the absolute best chicken sandwich in fast food.
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The Bottom Line:
The best-tasting chicken sandwich in all of fast food. Order it immediately.
Find your nearest Popeyes here.
