I’m sure a lot of people are going to be pretty angry at me for this ranking of fast food chicken sandwiches. For whatever reason, people are deeply and passionately dedicated to specific chicken sandwiches. I mean, remember when someone got stabbed over a Popeyes chicken sandwich? It’s not hyperbole when people talk about the Chicken Sandwich Wars. People literally died!

The wars may have calmed down, but the fervent fandom hasn’t waned. Everyone has an opinion on the best fast food chicken sandwich. But has everyone tasted all the fast food chicken sandwiches back-to-back and compared them? I think not. I did that, though, with the help of my colleagues Gwynedd Stuart and Jordan Myrick. And, after pushing the limits of our stomachs, we found the best chicken sandwich.

What we looked for in the best fast food chicken sandwich

• Juicy chicken. Obviously the chicken is the main attraction here, so it better be good. We looked for chicken that was moist and juicy and actually flavorful.

• Crispy coating. We wanted a crispy coating that clung to the chicken and was well seasoned.

• Squishy bun. No stale buns, please!

• Fresh toppings. If you’re putting lettuce on your fried chicken sandwich, you better make sure it’s fresh and crisp. We dinged places for sad, wilted toppings.

We tasted more than ten fast food chicken sandwiches and found four we can actually recommend. (Note: We didn’t include spicy chicken sandwiches this time—we’ll be sure to update this article when we do!)

Best Fast Food Chicken Sandwiches, Ranked

Other fried chicken sandwiches we tried:

Wendy’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Raising Cane’s, Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich, Shake Shack Chicken Shack, Jack in the Box Cluck Chicken, Carl’s Jr. Hand Breaded Chicken Sandwich, Western Bacon Chicken Sandwich, McChicken