Popeyes Vs Raising Cane's: The Chain With The Saltier Chicken Sandwich Might Surprise You
America loves salt. We love salty snacks, we love salted caramel, and we love salt baths. But salt is one instance where you really can have too much of a good thing. Not only does excess salt affect the flavor of your food (try this hack to fix that), but too much salt also isn't great for your health. That means that when you're looking for the best fast food chicken sandwich, how much salt each one has should affect which one you choose. Narrowing it down to Popeyes and Raising Cane's for the sake of comparison, who has the saltier chicken?
Popeyes Classic Chicken Sandwich has 1,440 milligrams of sodium while Raising Cane's Chicken Sandwich has 1,650 milligrams, making it the saltier option. If you go for the Spicy Chicken Sandwich at Popeyes you'll be taking in an additional 30 milligrams of sodium for a total of 1,470 milligrams, but that's still not enough to overtake the sandwich at Raising Cane's.
The maximum recommended daily intake of sodium for an average adult is 2,300 milligrams — and if you can keep it down closer to 1,500 milligrams per day, even better. In other words, both of these chicken sandwiches include around an entire day's worth of salt.
If the thought of having that much salt in one go has you feeling salty, there's one trick you can try. The Raising Cane's Chicken Sandwich comes with a dollop of Cane's Sauce, 1.5 ounces of which contain 570 milligrams of sodium. If you forego the sauce, the sodium content of the same chicken sandwich will drop from 1,650 milligrams to 1,080 milligrams, which is a more reasonable amount.
Other high-salt items at Raising Cane's and Popeyes
The Raising Cane's Chicken Sandwich may have more sodium, but it's not even the saltiest item on the menu. The sandwich is far surpassed by the Caniac Combo, for instance — which comes with six Chicken Fingers, two doses of Cane's Sauce, fries, Texas toast, and coleslaw. That combo meal has a total of 3,480 milligrams of sodium, which is well above the maximum recommended daily amount.
Although the Classic Chicken Sandwich at Popeyes (which we gave high marks for its simplicity and flavor) is the less salty of the two, this chicken chain likewise has its share of saltier items. The biggest culprits are its wings and tenders: A six-piece order of Sweet & Spicy Bone-In Wings has 3,810 milligrams of sodium! Meanwhile, an order of five Chicken Tenders has 2,840 milligrams.
Of course, any restaurant worth its salt should have a low-sodium option or two. At Raising Cane's, each Chicken Finger has just 230 milligrams, so even if you go for an order of three you'll still keep your sodium intake under 700 milligrams. As for Popeyes, most everything there is on the salty side, but a chicken leg has 540 milligrams of sodium. Something to keep in mind is that for either of these, adding dipping sauce will increase these numbers.