Best Fast Food Chicken Sandwich Is Popeyes.

[silentreader]

What about a Tim Horton's grilled chicken bacon ranch wrap, eh?

[Ken]

Well....this week the Los Angeles Times food department did a YouTube review of the 10 leading chicken sandwiches available in LA.

Spoiler? They ended up picking Popeyes

[ohio jones]

My favorite of all of them is Zaxby's which I think is only in the south: https://www.zaxbys.com/

They also have things like fried dill Pickles which are worth the visit

I was in Zaxby country a few days ago and had to check it out. The grilled cajun chicken sandwich was very good, juicy and flavorful. Fries a bit salty for my taste, but the pickles were quite good. I'll definitely try them again when I have a chance, but not quite ready to change my vote from CFA.

[RZehr]

I had some time to burn, and I was hungry, so I decided to do a taste test. Happened to be at a place that had Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, Canes, Zaxbys, Wendy’s, McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC and Culvers all in the same vicinity.

I didn’t try them all, just the ones I hadn’t tried, plus Popeyes. So I tried Zaxbys, Canes, Culvers for the first time.
Culvers obviously isn’t a chicken specialty place. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing great about their sandwich.
Canes is clearly a chicken place. But their sandwich had lettuce and tomato and wasn’t great. Was okay. They seemed enthused about chicken strips, but only offered one sandwich.

Zaxbys is also a chicken place. I ordered their spicy chicken sandwich. I was disappointed to see that they absolutely sloshed the spicy sauce. In the sandwich, on the sandwich, on the wrapper. It dripped spicy sauce. Was a mess. So that wasn’t a plus. The taste was drowned by the sauce. The chickens crust was difficult to gauge because of the sauce. Instead of delicious crunchiness, it had been deluged and just tasted like sauce. Sauce, everywhere. I figured that the sauce application may have been administered by a new person, so I attempted to grade the sandwich had someone with a spoon instead of a baseball glove administered the sauce.
I found a side of the sandwich that they must have been gripping it with as they plunged it into their vast sauce lagoon, and took a bite there. Unfortunately, my mouths taste buds were still dealing with the prior sauce attack. Nonetheless, I was still able to discern that section of the sandwich was an improvement from the other sides. Which I wholly expected, and I do admit that was a low expectation to exceed.
The meat was hot and moist. Which seems like a good thing, but both of which could be expected from shoe leather after being treated to a sauce apocalypse. The bun was wearing sauce on the top of the top and the bottom of the bottom, so the bun was difficult to grade for taste, texture and moisture. Well, technically we can give it max points for moisture. The pickles had apparently been tipped off to what was coming, because they were found nestled in there occupying the only place not dripping. Smart little pickles. They were good.
Maybe Zaxbys employees thought they were getting paid by the acre foot of sauce the sold each hour. Hard to tell for sure, but a reasonable hypothesis.
Zaxbys was the first and I was quite hungry, which I was prepared to take into account should the sandwich taste extra good. After Zaxbys I went to Popeyes, which struck me as quite dry. Which, we also have to factor in that I wasn’t as hungry, and the fact that even tea didn’t seem quite as wet after the sauce.
Their fried pickles were okay. But hard to grade with the same tastebuds that had been embalmed with Zaxbys spicy sauce. To be clear, the spiciness of the sauce wasn’t a problem, they just need a little less exuberance in their application.
Their tea was decent. Peach flavored.

I do think Zaxbys sandwich deserves a redo. Maybe sometime during a sauce shortage, which at their rate should be coming about very shortly. At least they had the decency to serve their food in a sturdy plastic bag. Which I suppose they just fill up completely with sauce for people who ask for extra sauce.

[ohio jones]

That saucy review reminds me to comment that Zaxby's was indeed a bit messier than expected, even though my sandwich had been baptized in a more Mennonite mode rather than immersed. The fries and pickles were partly to blame I suppose, but I very much had to wash my hands at the end and was glad I hadn't tried eating while driving.

[steve-in-kville]

....even though my sandwich had been baptized in a more Mennonite mode rather than immersed.

Dunked three times forward is the way to go, brother!!

[Ken]

I've eaten at Zaxby's on occasion when visiting my daughter in college because there was one near her dorm and apartment and it was the quickest place to go for a bite. College kids usually don't have a lot of food on hand to entertain with

I don't remember any surplus sauciness though. But then I never order the chicken sandwiches anyway. I usually order just ordinary fried chicken (or wings/tenders) and a salad. Or else a big Caesar salad or chef's salad with sliced chicken breast on top. I'm not really into all that bread that comes with sandwiches.

It is surprisingly hard to find good southern fried chicken here in the Pacific Northwest. I probably have several dozen Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and sushi places within a few minutes of our house. But there are only 3 chicken places that I can think of within a several mile radius. A Popeye's, a Chick fil A, and further away a lonely KFC. It would be the exact opposite if we still lived in Texas.

[JimFoxvog]

In 2016 we had some hens that weren't laying well anymore, so I pressure canned a number of them.
In 2019 we had a great crop of tomatoes and jalapeños. We canned a lot of salsa.
The lettuce in our backyard needed harvesting.
We had cheese and flatbread in our refrigerator.

A great fast food sandwich of canned chicken, salsa, cheese, and lettuce on flatbread. Much faster than a 15-minute drive to the nearest McD's or a 40-minute drive to any of these other places. And tastier, too.

[Josh]

Most years I don't have any fast-food chicken sandwiches, so maybe I shouldn't have voted, but Popeyes is the one that is memorable and tasty. KFC isn't bad, especially the extra crisp version. I think I had chic-filet once and used to work at a McDonalds--and was unimpressed by both. I don't remember having any of the others.

I’m glad to see at least 1 person who doesn’t consume corporate fake food.

[Ken]

Most years I don't have any fast-food chicken sandwiches, so maybe I shouldn't have voted, but Popeyes is the one that is memorable and tasty. KFC isn't bad, especially the extra crisp version. I think I had chic-filet once and used to work at a McDonalds--and was unimpressed by both. I don't remember having any of the others.

I’m glad to see at least 1 person who doesn’t consume corporate fake food.

Are you OK with fried chicken and fried chicken sandwiches if they are sold by small local business that aren't corporate? There are thousands of little chicken shacks and food trucks selling fried chicken and chicken sandwiches across the country that are as far as one can get from being corporate "fake" food. My favorite chicken place is a food truck owned and run by an immigrant family from Michoacán. Are you OK with eating at these sorts of places or are they off limits too?





What about this Amish place in Indiana that serves fried chicken sandwiches and fries same as the big guys? Those are some serious carbs on that plate.