A Chicken Sandwich Battle Between Popeyes And Chick-Fil-A Is Playing Out On Fast Food Twitter

Popeyes and Chick-fil-A are officially at war over chicken sandwiches, though right now it’s a battle mostly of subtweets on Twitter. That’s good, as modern warfare generally doesn’t pause on Sundays anymore and actual violence over fast food is certainly frowned upon.

In early August, Popeyes announced that it would release a legitimate chicken sandwich nationwide, taking the food beloved by many as their fast food guilty pleasure and putting it on a bun with pickles.

It’s a staple owned by no corporation or citizen, but of a chicken-loving populace that knows good combinations when they taste them. Still, the move was a clear shot at Chick-Fil-A, which is known primarily for selling exactly that combination of foodstuffs. And as almost universally positive reviews of the sandwich poured in, a head-to-head matchup slowly brewed online: is it better than Chick-fil-A? Is there a new chicken king for the grease-covered American public?

And the buzz around Popeyes’ first sandwich was enough that the Closed On Sundays eatery felt the need to remind everyone that, yes, they still make their sandwich and consider themselves the best.

But that post got plenty of reaction online, mostly people mocking Chick-fil-A for feeling the need to tweet that.

https://twitter.com/RealLifeKaz/status/1163496531066068992

The reaction included Popeyes, which denoted concern about the rival chain’s current wellbeing given the groundswell of support for chicken of a different maker.

That kicked off plenty of others chiming in on the burgeoning chicken wars.

https://twitter.com/jonrosenberg/status/1163508229239922688

https://twitter.com/Kofie/status/1163506778455367681

Also, this is an incredibly specific sneakerhead tweet that is wonderful.

By late Monday, basically every fast food chicken emporium was trying to get in on the viralness of the moment, though many struggled.

Especially Bojangles, which is entirely fine as a fast food joint but not really worthy of consideration in this fight in the eyes of many.

The backlash was especially swift here, as many deemed this to be a bad picture of a chicken sandwich.

https://twitter.com/IWriteAllDay_/status/1163560186474164224

The Bojangles backlash got so bad that they actually deleted their tweet, which is actually the biggest L of the day when you really break it all down.

It’s worth noting that Shake Shack’s very good chicken sandwich also got some run, too.

But many pointed out why Popeyes and Chik-fil-A are generally seen as going head to head here: price.

Still, others wanted to see some players in the industry join the fracas.

https://twitter.com/Adam_Jacobi/status/1163558901800931328

The real winners here, of course, are fans of chicken sandwiches. Most of which run from ‘good’ to ‘very good,’ with some subjective exceptions. To each their own.