In many ways, the crispy chicken sandwich is the ideal expression of American cuisine. It’s the apex of fast food, a marriage of two of our country’s most iconic grab-and-go staples, burgers and fried chicken. It’s a wonder of innovation, a way to single-handedly devour a battered, deep-fried cut of chicken without having to eat around bones or get your fingers greasy. And it’s a marvel of simplicity, requiring just two toppings: Mayo and pickles.
The only mystery is how it took us so long to come up with it.
While the individual components of the handheld deep-fried meal have all been around for decades or longer, the crispy chicken sandwich is a relatively new phenomenon. Sure Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A claims he invented the “Original Chicken Sandwich” in 1964, and naysayers have found ads and recipes for “chicken burgers” and various chicken-bread combos, fried and otherwise, dating back to the 1930s. But for all intents and purposes, the crispy chicken sandwich as we now think of it is an advent of the 2020s.
In mid-2019, Popeye’s quietly released its fried chicken sandwich—a meal that befit a chicken-centric eatery. Gone was the flat, flimsy chicken patty omnipresent in middle-school cafeterias, replaced by a white-meat chicken breast, heavily breaded and fried crispy, so tall and misshapen it struggled to balance the top bun. It was like eating a piece of fried chicken, pulled from the bucket and placed between a toasted brioche roll. The new menu item wasn’t getting much attention—until Chick-fil-A protested via social media that their battered chicken breast between buns was first. A playful volley of online words ensued, Popeye’s started selling out of their new sandwich, and by 2020, the so-called Chicken Sandwich Wars had begun.
Suddenly every fast-food eatery from McDonalds to KFC to Arby’s to Shake Shack was coming out with its own spin on the decadent delicacy.
So, who won the Chicken Sandwich Wars? We did. Now we can find a good fried chicken sandwich at pretty much any drive-thru we find anywhere in the U.S.—but I needed to know which one was the best of them all.
How I Tested the Crispy Chicken Sandwiches
I rounded up 11 of the most popular fast food crispy chicken sandwiches and judged them on their fidelity to the formula (chicken, sauce, and pickle), weighed the virtue of various embellishments, and most of all, rated the heart of the sandwich: The fried chicken. Here are the results, including the one I think clucks supreme.
The Best Fast Food Crispy Chicken Sandwiches, Ranked
11th Place: Dairy Queen Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
Dairy Queen’s website says that this is a crispy chicken fillet, but what I got were two chicken strips that were too heavily breaded, dry, and hardly seasoned. Plus, the separate strips kept falling off the bun, compromising the structure of the sandwich.
10th Place: Wendy’s Classic Chicken Sandwich
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
There are no bad sandwiches on this list, so the worst thing you can be is unremarkable. And for all the ingredients heaped onto Wendy’s entry (crunchy lettuce, tomato, Heinz mayo, pickles, lightly breaded chicken and toasted bun) nothing really stood out. Plus, the chicken was a little dry.
9th Place: Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
Searching for something that stood out, I found this throwback Burger King chicken sandwich: An old-school thinner, flatter piece of chicken that was sort of lost between a thick and pillowy sesame-seed hoagie. Heavy mayo made this meal tangy and bready, but ultimately it wasn’t meaty enough.
8th Place: Culver’s Crispy Chicken
Culver’s trademark buttered kaiser bun is a nice touch to this loaded ensemble of lettuce, tomato, pickle, and a mayo tinged with onion and a pinch of cayenne. But all those things took away from the chicken, which was tender and juicy, but not seasoned or meaty enough to hold its own in this crowded cast.
7th Place: Arby’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
Arby’s, the master of all meats, delivers a crispy, juicy, tender chunk of chicken that could’ve maybe used a bit more seasoning. Shredded lettuce, tomato, and mayo, and a brioche bun hit all the right notes. Overall, very solid. The real violation here: No pickles.
6th Place: McDonald’s McCrispy
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
I said there are no bad sandwiches on this list. Well, from here on out, they are all great sandwiches. In fact, it pains me to have to rank McDonald’s version so low, but that’s how clucking good the competition is. This is juicy, salty, peppery chicken accentuated by nothing more than a few pickles and a buttered potato roll. And that’s all it really needs to be.
5th Place: KFC Classic Chicken Sandwich
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
Makes sense that this fried-chicken icon would weigh in with a strong effort. A thick fillet, breaded and seasoned in the franchise’s classic Extra Crispy fashion, with pickles, and tangy, secretive “Colonel’s mayo” that dripped from each bite. Finger-lickin…well, you know.
4th Place: Shake Shack Chicken Shack
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
Shake Shack markets itself as high-end fast food, and its crispy chicken sandwich is exactly that. A toasted potato bun; ample and tender white-meat chicken that’s well breaded for a nice crispness; and fresh, crisp lettuce combine for a sandwich that’s a cut above standard. But the real perks are the garlicky sweet buttermilk herb mayo and wonderfully thick-cut pickles that provide a zesty cucumber crunch to each bite.
3rd Place: Raising Cane’s The Sandwich
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
I complained earlier about the structural integrity of using two chicken tenders instead of one intact fillet—well, this sandwich piles three juicy, crispy chicken fingers on a toasted bun. I penalized a previous sandwich for not having pickles; the only green on this one is a leaf of lettuce. So why is this in the top three? First, the chicken is superior (as expected for Raising Cane’s). But really, it’s the Cane’s special sauce—a mayo-ketchup mix that is at once tangy, peppery, and garlicky—that makes this one a winner.
2nd Place: Popeye’s Classic Chicken Sandwich
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
The offering that started the Chicken Sandwich Wars and the ensuing arms race is still every bit as good as when it was selling out in 2019. Meaty, juicy chicken breast marinated in Popeye’s seasonings, and battered in its proprietary buttermilk system, shines from between the toasted brioche. Classic mayo and barrel-cured pickles hit all the right notes. It’s worth waiting in line for, but still not quite top of the pecking order.
1st Place Winner: Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich
Allrecipes / Karen Hibbard
I don’t know if Chick-fil-A invented the fried chicken sandwich, in fact, I’m pretty sure they didn’t. But despite all the competition that has crowded their yard, Chick-fil-A’s classic is still the truest and tastiest example. And it’s so pleasingly simple: Southern-style fried chicken breast, pressure-cooked in peanut oil, and served crispy and salty on a slightly buttery bun with dill pickle chips. Everyone else is just playing in their coop.