3 April 2025
McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Popeyes: Who Holds the Crown For the Best Chicken Sandwich?
Anyone who loves
a good crispy chicken sandwich knows of the debate called “chicken sandwich wars”
that has been active for the last few years between some of the best makers of
the famous chicken sandwich. The three best holders of the famous chicken
sandwich include McDonalds, founded in San Bernadino, California, in 1940, who
had originally started as a Bar-BQ restaurant, but is now one of the world’s
most valuable restaurant brand. Following McDonald’s, we have Chick-fil-A, who originated
as a restaurant called “the Dwarf Grill” in 1946 and is now globally known for
their famous chicken sandwich. Additionally, we also have Popeyes, who
immensely grew in popularity with the release of their chicken sandwich, which
is what dragged them into the debate of the “chicken sandwich wars”, Popeyes
was founded in New Orleans, LA, in 1972, and was originally knows as “Chicken
on the Run”.
But which
of these three globally favorite fast-food chains hold the victory for the best
chicken sandwich? It is a question that has broken the internet and has been a
question that has been up for debate for long enough, so we have decided that
it was time to put an end to these “chicken sandwich Wars” once and for all and
declare the official crown holder of the best chicken sandwich.
There was
both good news and bad news when it came to side-by-side tasting. The good news
was that there were both McDonald’s and a Popeyes locally. The bad news,
however, was that there wasn’t a Chick-fil-A locally, which would make side-by-side
tasting all the chicken sandwiches at the same time a bit challenging. Miraculously,
my uncle from Spokane was coming over to visit and agreed to bring some Chick-fil-a.
Each of these fast-food chain’s chicken
sandwiches will be judged based on certain things, such as the chicken’s flavor,
crispiness, the quality and taste of both the bun and toppings, and how the sandwiches
taste after the travel time.
Flavor
Firstly, we have the sandwiches’ chicken
flavor. As soon as you bite into McDonald’s chicken sandwich you get a really
flavorful, well-seasoned, good taste of the McCrispy’s chicken, following along
with the unnecessary amount of mayonnaise that they add, however I will say
that the taste with their pickle adds a nice touch to the sandwich.
For Chick-fil-a’s chicken sandwich, you get
this moist and unique chicken flavor, you also get a good taste of their
original sauce known as Chick-fil-A sauce, which gives the sandwich a nice
flavor to it.
Additionally, in Popeyes chicken
sandwich you get this flavorful and extraordinary flavor. I think that flavor wise for the chicken popeyes
has the slight advantage, due to how flavorful their chicken is, especially
with their rich and creamy mayonnaise.
Crispiness
For the next category we have crispiness of
the sandwich. For McDonald’s McCrispy you don’t get any crunch when you bite in
the sandwich, which is very ironic for a sandwich with the name “McCrispy”, which
is disappointing, I would also like to say that the lettuce that was on the
sandwich did not make the crunch any better.
Moreover, we have Chick-fil-a with their
chicken sandwich, I feel like the crispiness of their chicken sandwich was also
a huge let down, as soon as you take a bite you get hit with this mushy chicken
patty, but the crunchiness from the pickle saves the crunch of the sandwich a
little bit, however I will have to say that due to the 2 hours of travel time
that Chick-fil-A went through could probably be why their chicken got a bit
mushy.
Furthermore, Popeyes chicken sandwich has this
really great crunch as soon as you bite down, I think that Popeyes takes the
lead for the crispiness category, especially when I consider their crunchy
pickles that are added onto the sandwich.
Bun and Toppings
Moving on to assessing the quality
of the bun and toppings. For McDonald’s McCrispy’s quality of the bun and
toppings was personally really good. However, I will say that it had a little
too much mayonnaise for my liking, but other than that the bun was nice and
buttery and good.
Next, we
have Chick fil a, I absolutely love their pickles in their chicken sandwich,
the only downside to their toppings was that they do not add mayonnaise or any
spread onto their sandwiches themselves, but you can ask or grab some of their
famously known Chick-fil-A sauce and add it onto your sandwich yourself. I will
say that Chick-fil-As chicken sandwich bun was really fluffy and had a nice
flavor.
Additionally, we have Popeyes. Words
cannot describe how good their toppings were, which include pickles and
mayonnaise. All of their toppings went so well together and really enhanced the
sandwich in general. As for their bun, it was nice and fluffy and went well
with both the toppings and the chicken.
Travel Time
Next, we have the
category for how the chicken sandwiches tasted after the travel time.
First
up, we have McDonald’s, during the 10 minutes that it took to get the
McDonald’s sandwich to my house, overall, I think that it was not affected that
much. It still had that great chicken flavor.
Next,
we have Chick-fil-A’s travel time, this one was a bit unfair since it traveled for
about 2 hours since it was brought by my uncle in Spokane, but I believe that
it was only affected by a small amount by the travel time. Despite the longer
travel time, all of the aspects of the sandwich were good, however I will say
that it was a bit dry but still moist at the same time.
Furthermore,
we have Popeye’s travel time. Similarly to McDonald’s travel time, Popeyes also
only traveled for 10 minutes, and I have to say that it was probably the one
that shocked me the most by the results. As soon as I took a bite of Popeye’s
chicken sandwich it tasted as if the burger was just prepared seconds ago. It
was very moist and had that very fluffy, warm, and buttery bun.
If we were
to add up all of the results based on the categories that each individual
chicken sandwich was judged based on, we can see that the clear winner was
Popeyes with their chicken sandwich. Their sandwich really stood out among the
other chicken sandwiches that it was compared to. It really managed to capture that
good authentic chicken sandwich flavor.
Works cited
McDonald’s History,
corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-company/who-we-are/our-history.html?os=av.
Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
“Chick-Fil-A.” Wikipedia,
Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A.
“The History of Popeyes Louisiana
Kitchen.” Popeyes Newsroom, news.popeyes.com/blog-posts/the-history-of-popeyes-louisiana-kitchen.
Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
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