Blind Taste Test Reveals Best Fast Food Chicken Sandwich
Not all chicken sandwiches are created equal. This is what a blind taste test of the most popular brands revealed.
Recently, two of my good friends and myself were on a trip together and decided to seek out the best fast food chicken sandwich among seven different well-known chains. While I realize this isn't a normal vacation trend, it was a question we each wanted to answer. After spending about two hours driving back and forth across town, we acquired chicken sandwiches from seven well-known chains for the blind taste test. It's safe to say we each had some drive-thru fatigue.
The fast food chains we decided to rank were Burger King, Bojangles, Chick-fil-A, KFC, McDonald's, Popeyes, and Zaxby's. Each sandwich contained crispy chicken, pickles, and a bun. Nothing was added or taken away so as to ensure the best results. Personally, I thought Popeyes and Chick-fil-A would be the clear winners, but when we tallied the results, I think all three of us were surprised.
We cut each sandwich into thirds, and all three of us took turns blind taste-testing. While one person was chowing down on chicken, another was presenting the options in a random order. Meanwhile, the third person was tallying their results. We rated every sandwich on a scale of 1–10, with a total of 30 points possible for each one. Additionally, we tried to guess the chain each sandwich came from while scoring. My friend Jesse got five out of seven correct, while my other friend Noah got three out of seven correct. I was only able to guess two out of the seven correctly.
When it came time to add up all the scores, one fast food underdog managed to outscore all the other brands. Believe it or not, KFC actually came out on top as the best fast food chicken sandwich out of the bunch with 23 points. Chick-fil-A and Bojangles tied for second, with McDonald's taking the number three spot. Here are the scores:
- KFC (23)
- Bojangles (20)
- Chick-fil-A (20)
- McDonald's (17)
- Zaxby's (15)
- Burger King (14)
- Popeyes (12)
We were all shocked by the results, but what surprised us the most was how Popeye's came in last place. We even picked up this sandwich towards the end of our fast food haul, making it a tad more fresh than its counterparts. Perhaps it was simply an off day for the restaurant. Either way, it was a very fun experiment. Perhaps we will have to rate each restaurant's chicken tenders next.
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