This Popular Fast Food Chicken Sandwich Is The Gold Standard For Us

There's no shortage of fast food restaurants where folks can get a chicken sandwich, but like anything else the quality varies. Even when they aren't particularly pricey, it's always a disappointment to shell out a few bucks for something that's dry and flavorless. Unfortunately, when The Takeout ranked 11 fast food chicken sandwiches, some fell into that category; offering little in the way of taste and lacking in terms of overall quality. There was one popular chicken sandwich that served as a saving grace, and it won't surprise many since it came from a chain that specializes in cooking poultry to perfection: Chick-fil-A.

As straightforward as the sandwich is, it delivers on all the notes you want to experience in a fried chicken sandwich. There's no prized Chick-fil-A sauce on the dish (just fried poultry, a bun, and a couple of pickles), but the main ingredient is a masterclass in how a fried chicken patty should be prepared. A savory blend of seasoning in the batter gives the outside personality and an undeniably flavorful crunch factor while inside tender, juicy chicken is waiting to deliver you to fast food nirvana.

The few accessories it comes with (namely, pickles and a bun) aren't produced as an afterthought. The veg supplies balance without being a distraction, and the bun housing the chicken sandwich is buttery and toasted to provide some stability while remaining a soft contrast to the crispy chicken. At just over $5, it's a steal compared to what some of Chick-fil-A's competition is hawking.

In fairness, not all the chicken sandwiches our tester tried were disheartening. For example, Raising Cane's is another fast food establishment that specializes in fried chicken and it came in second place with, by all accounts, a quality entree. Bojangles' Bo Chicken Sandwich also received high praise in the rankings for its moist, crispy poultry, though it lost points for its mediocre bun.

Then you have places like Culver's, which ranked dead last for its chicken sandwich. Between a lifeless bun, lackluster veggies, and dry bird, it can't hold a candle to what Chick-fil-A puts out. Burger King's rendition of a chicken sandwich didn't fare much better. Between a dull, processed patty severely deficient of crunch and an uninspired bun that tastes like something you'd get on discount from the grocery store, it's best to stick with a flame-grilled Whopper when you're ordering from the King. 

Unsurprisingly, another staple burger restaurant, McDonald's, also didn't rank high when it came to its chewy, forgettable chicken sandwich. If you can't get the real thing, you're probably better off hitting up a Costco for a frozen Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets dupe than wasting any dough hoping that a burger joint will deliver a quality chicken sandwich.