"It's like the Goldilocks of fast-food fried chicken sandwiches."

May 28, 2021 12:58 PM

The Los Angeles Times' food and restaurant critics, Jenn Harris and Bill Addison, find the best fast food chicken sandwich.
posted by box (46 comments total)

Popeye's?
posted by robbyrobs at 1:09 PM on May 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

TL;DW is that Popeyes, Jollibee, and KFC were the top three and they decided Popeyes was the winner, called it the goldilocks. I'm excited try it.
posted by Emily's Fist at 1:16 PM on May 28, 2021 [9 favorites]

A report from the Edison Trends data company that tracked more than 100,000 food delivery app transactions over two years found that online chicken sandwich sales grew by 420% between January 2019 and December 2020.

This feels like the stats equivalent of nominative determinism.
posted by Mayor West at 1:37 PM on May 28, 2021 [8 favorites]

The Popeye’s spicy sandwich has been a mainstay of mine since they introduced it. Damn tasty sandwich.

Their fish sandwich was great, too, but I think it’s left the menu (as have green beans as a side).
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:39 PM on May 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

I had to look up what Jollibee was. Looks like they have 1/2 as many stores in LA Country as Zankou. Which is fine and worth calling attention to if it's good, but does make one question the definition of fast food. Their only outlets in my city are quite far from home.

I've never really understood a breaded, fried-chicken sandwich. Breaded, fried chicken *is* a sandwich already. But, I'll try Popeye's next time I pass them.
posted by eotvos at 2:24 PM on May 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Boy, the LAT food section really misses Charlie Perry, Jonathan Gold and Russ Parsons. Reviewing fast-food doesn’t take much of a palate.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:25 PM on May 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

I had to look up what Jollibee was. Looks like they have 1/2 as many stores in LA Country as Zankou. Which is fine and worth calling attention to if it's good, but does make one question the definition of fast food.

Jollibee doesn't have a hugely visible US presence (yet), but it's an enormous global chain based in the Philippines. They recently acquired the 'Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf' chain of coffee shops as a major expansion of their US footprint.
posted by kickingtheground at 2:53 PM on May 28, 2021 [11 favorites]

First Taste of Jollibee. There are none anywhere near me, sadly.
posted by Bee'sWing at 2:56 PM on May 28, 2021

None can compare to DingAWing in Toronto.

And #fuckchickfila
posted by dobbs at 3:12 PM on May 28, 2021 [3 favorites]

Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich hands down.

The Popeye's batter on their sandwich is not good.
posted by Max Power at 3:13 PM on May 28, 2021 [5 favorites]

Boy, the LAT food section really misses Charlie Perry, Jonathan Gold and Russ Parsons. Reviewing fast-food doesn’t take much of a palate.

I'm pretty sure that Jonathan Gold would be 100% against this kind of food-snobbery; evaluating any meal requires the same palate as evaluating any other, even if the ceiling on fast food may be lower because of the constraints of mass production.

Besides, even an affordable neighbourhood restaurant is only accessible to people who live or pass nearby, where reviews and rankings of fast food chains benefit people across a much wider spectrum -- both socioeconomic and geographic. I think there should be plenty of room in food writing for service journalism.
posted by Superilla at 3:22 PM on May 28, 2021 [28 favorites]

Sweet ELVIS, I tried the McDonalds Spicy Chicken sandwich a while back, because that’s what I could find that had a convenient drive through on my way back to the warehouse with the company truck; failure in every way
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 3:24 PM on May 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

The closest Jollibee to me is in the food court of a Philipino grocery store and I've gone multiple times intending to finally try it but I get distracted by a giant plate of fried pork belly at one of the other stands, instead. I'm weak!
posted by jeweled accumulation at 3:27 PM on May 28, 2021 [6 favorites]

I knew the whole fried chicken sandwich thing had jumped the shark chicken, when I walked by a smashburger which had plastered their new spicy chicken sandwich promotion on their front window.

Then again, Taco Bell has a Chicken Sandwich Taco and Red Lobster has a Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich. This is anarchy! Are there no boundaries anymore people?!!!!
posted by jeremias at 3:30 PM on May 28, 2021 [4 favorites]

This is Shake Shack erasure
posted by Going To Maine at 3:36 PM on May 28, 2021 [3 favorites]

I don't partake of chain fast-food take-out often, but when I do, A&W Canada often has the best quality ingredients.
posted by ovvl at 4:00 PM on May 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

This is Shake Shack erasure

Shake Shack is sort of a step up from the baseline commodity fast food places -- chains like Shake Shack and Chipotle like to call it "fast casual."
posted by tclark at 4:15 PM on May 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Whataburger regular and spicy chicken sandwiches are pretty good although I prefer the chicken strips with cream gravy...
posted by jim in austin at 4:29 PM on May 28, 2021

I don't partake of chain fast-food take-out often, but when I do, A&W Canada often has the best quality ingredients.

Pretty decent, yes, but it has been superseded in my experience by the good folk at Mary Brown’s.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:29 PM on May 28, 2021

Zaxby's y'all
posted by table of malcontents at 4:40 PM on May 28, 2021 [3 favorites]

The thing that blows my mind about the spicy chicken sandwich at Popeyes is that they serve a spicy chicken where the marinade (and batter?) is spicy. I do not understand why they would not use that for their spicy chicken sandwich.
posted by Night_owl at 5:13 PM on May 28, 2021 [3 favorites]

If you’re going to eat Popeye’s, and you’re not getting the chicken sandwich, I suggest blackened chicken strips with Mardi Gras mustard. The biscuit, and I can’t emphasize this enough, is just decoration.
posted by box at 5:20 PM on May 28, 2021 [4 favorites]

Wendy’s spicy chicken is my go-to simply by proximity. A great culinary triumph it isn’t. Popeyes is better, imho, but none nearby.

McD’s johnny-come-lately offering simply blows.

Now, we need a FPP on chicken fried steak, y’all. I love MeFi food fights.
posted by sudogeek at 6:03 PM on May 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

Chicken fried steak? With some mashed potatoes and gravy? Oh my God...
posted by Windopaene at 6:54 PM on May 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

Anything removing a reason one would want to go to Chic-Fil-A's is great by me. Enjoying a good fast food chicken sandwich shouldn't mean having to support hate.
posted by JHarris at 7:09 PM on May 28, 2021 [9 favorites]

A&W Canada often has the best quality ingredients.

FWIW, A&W restaurants in Canada are completely separate from A&W restaurants in the rest of the world, and have been their own entity since 1972.
posted by fairmettle at 7:43 PM on May 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Popeye’s sandwich is indeed the supreme champ in my book, but like box when I first tried it I was floored that the spicy sandwich had a non-spicy batter. You’re Popeye’s! This is what you do!

Wendy’s is a more convenient option. KFC… not impressive.
posted by hijinx at 8:02 PM on May 28, 2021

Someday we're going to get an oral history of the "chicken sandwich wars" and I will hate myself for how interesting I find it.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:44 PM on May 28, 2021

I feel that the Pakistani Zinger would crush all before it. Not the KFC ur-chicken zinger but the reimagined local with spicy goodness and super crunchy exterior. Yeah, that’s the stuff. Here be the article The Sandwich that Ate Pakistan.
posted by jadepearl at 12:50 AM on May 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

I'm just happy that the Popeye's in Bayonne was one of the early stores to roll out their chicken sandwich, and for 2 months before it went national I could just walk in and order one, and walk out. Then it went national and there was like 6 months where I wouldn't even bother. Then I finished the project and came back to Albany.
posted by mikelieman at 2:23 AM on May 29, 2021

Pakistani Zinger

That reminds me of this cool video, which I'm pretty sure was an FPP here, but I can't find it.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:55 AM on May 29, 2021

I've mostly missed the whole chicken sandwich wars thing. I had heard about the Popeyes lines when that first started, but I had no idea that places like McD and Wendy's that have had chicken sandwiches forever were suddenly proclaiming that they had done something new and different with the sandwiches they've had for decades. The only other hint I had that this was a thing is that all the Chick-Fil-As in metro Atlanta added a double drive through during the pandemic. I guess the US has eaten a lot of subpar chicken sandwiches over the past 14 months.

For the best chicken sandwich, skip the bun, mayo, and pickles and get a Bojangles Cajun Filet Biscuit. You're welcome.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:00 AM on May 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

I'll be sad if the Cajun flounder sandwich is indeed gone from the menu at the Popeye's down the street from me. I find it better than the spicy chicken sandwich. The OG chicken sandwich at Popeye's is, hands-down, the best.

I have heard tell of better chicken sandwiches at Bojangles, according to friends, but I have yet to try that place. Popeye's is so close that, if I drive over just before the lunch rush, I can be back at my WFH office desk in less than 10 minutes.
posted by emelenjr at 5:48 AM on May 29, 2021

This post is conveniently timed. Just this past weekend I finally let my curiosity win out and dragged my son to Popeyes so I could try the famed spicy chicken sandwich. Absolutely lives up to the hype. I cannot imagine anyone eating the Popeyes sandwich and ever feeling the need to go to Chick fil A again assuming both are equally accessible. It is both a good and bad thing that the Popeyes by us is just far enough away to be considered convenient to go to with regularity.
posted by The Gooch at 8:14 AM on May 29, 2021

We have to commute to Baltimore to find Popeye’s which is convenient to Wilmer eye clinic at Hopkins, and mercifully was not part of the fire at Edmonson Village, yay! Recent competition has been Waffee in Hamden. Hon, it’s been a complete surprise for excellent chicken (not spicy, but good) with a forgettable waffle. I walked in looking for coffee, they don’t have that.

Lately we’ve been picking up fried chicken (on the bone) for our teens. They ask for Hip Hop Chicken and Royal Farms. We’re a long way from CA. My spouse is not overly fond of black pepper which has likely affected Popeyes consumption.
posted by childofTethys at 8:36 AM on May 29, 2021

I am partial to Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich, however I find this whole taste test kind of dubious because no fried chicken sandwich I've ever eaten has tasted very good if it isn't super fresh. How fresh could those sandwiches they are eating be, what with the time needed for someone to fetch and deliver them, plus all the yapping before/during eating while the sandwiches lay in a heap on the table?

I never understood the Chik-Fil-A love. Their chicken has a weird artificial taste to me... I want to say it's been MSG'd within an inch of its life, or something. Just not that great to me. (Although I would go get a frosted lemonade every single day in the summer if I weren't avoiding them on principal. My diabetes approves.)

For me the runner-up to Wendy's spicy chicken is Culvers. We don't have a Wendy's that is convenient to where we live but Culvers is pretty close by and the chicken sandwich is good.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 10:38 AM on May 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

POPEYES’ OG CHICKEN SANDWICH IS MY STORY ARC MARTY
posted by panglos at 11:24 AM on May 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

No love for Krystal Chicks?
posted by nixxon at 11:29 AM on May 29, 2021

Gaaah. Wendy's has been on my boycott list for YEARS because they are the only fast food chain (out of the top five largest) that won't sign the Fair Food agreement to pay tomato pickers a penny more per pound. It's also the closest fast food joint to my apartment. Gaaah.
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:57 PM on May 29, 2021 [5 favorites]

From what I can tell they all have pickles, which makes the sandwich a disgusting delicacy rather than normal nutrition food to be enjoyed with a smile on one's face.
posted by rhizome at 6:17 PM on May 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wendy's doesn't have pickles. Lettuce, tomato & mayo only.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:20 PM on May 29, 2021

Or, they all have somekind of mayo-based sauce...
posted by Windopaene at 6:22 PM on May 29, 2021

All I know is we in Australia don't have Popeye's and also, a lot of bars and restaurants around town are putting "Nashville hot chicken" on their menus and I've never had Nashville hot chicken but I know these aren't that (though a lot of them are tasty).

Anybody got some foolproof air fryer Nashville hot chicken recipes they'd care to share?
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:26 PM on May 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was on the road last week and got Burger King for the first time in years (decades, probably) at a rest stop. I was actually looking for their chicken fingers but didn't see them, and went with the chicken sandwich instead.

It was extremely boring, even for a chicken sandwich. Tasted like bun, a bit of capsaicin, and nothing else. Absolutely not worth the effort (or the subsequent indigestion, but that's on my digestion, not BK.)
posted by restless_nomad at 5:58 AM on May 31, 2021

TL;DW is that Popeyes, Jollibee, and KFC were the top three and they decided Popeyes was the winner, called it the goldilocks. I'm excited try it.

It's fine, not great, but I wonder how the heck they always find some guy that's like "I haven't eaten at some of these restaurants since the 1980s" as a judge. Get out of here. Find someone else to judge. There are plenty of people out there who like fast food well enough to be actual good judges and can compare the differences between the places. I also hope they actually ate and tested off camera and this is not the actual review, but sort of re-creation.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:54 AM on June 1, 2021

Toward a Unified Theory of Chicken Sandwiches
posted by box at 8:53 AM on June 4, 2021