21 Chicken Sandwiches, Ranked: The Ultimate Tier List
Have you met the Mashed Bros? Siblings Scott and Brian Wilson are our very own homegrown answer to Adam Richman and Joey Chestnut, but the ridiculous challenges they attempt are ones they set for themselves. In their last adventure, they sampled 30 different Indiana State Fair foods in a single day. You might expect them to have lapsed into a months-long food coma afterward, but they apparently didn't learn their lesson — they're back again after eating and ranking 21 different chicken sandwiches to weed out what Brian calls "a boatload of nasty chicken out there masquerading as a quality sandwich." One of the ways they do this is by analyzing the meat fibers, much like how picky hotel guests judge their sheets by the thread count; as per Scott, "Big, thick threads is when you know it's real."
If you thought the chicken sandwich wars of 2019 were over, think again. The chicken sandwich wars won't be over anytime soon, as hashtags like #ChickenSandwich and #ChickenSandwichWar have racked up 1.7 billion and 7.9 million TikTok views, respectively. People are joining the Chicken Sandwich Challenge, in which people blind-taste multiple fast food restaurants to find out who makes the best fast food chicken sandwich. If you're not willing to eat 21 sandwiches like the Mashed Bros, at least take their advice so you don't waste your money — or let your tastebuds down with a poor chicken sandwich.
The chicken sandwich rankings
To settle the great chicken sandwich battle, Mashed used a tier ranking system in which "S" stands for "superb" or "super" and is considered the list's highest ranking. Under the "S" level, the tier list continues with a traditional A – F grading scale, in which "A" is great and "F" is terrible. Last but not least, the Bros included a Burger Time Award, which they describe as an "atrocious" sandwich that falls even below an F. If a chicken sandwich wins the Burger Time Award, customers know they should order a burger and not even bother trying a chain's chicken sandwich offering.
The crowning jewel of chicken sandwiches will win the coveted Mashelin Star Award. As the Bros describe, it's a punny riff on the Michelin Awards, which are given to select restaurants to honor an exceptional food and dining experience. Even though the winner of the Mashelin Star Award won't receive anything besides (potentially) more customers, it's still the highest honor in our book.
The winners and losers
The Bros named Raising Cane's as the country's no. 1 best-tasting fast food fried chicken sandwich. Scott sang the sandwich's praises, saying it had "so much beautiful meat." In fact, immediately after biting into the sandwich, Scott proclaimed, "This chicken sandwich is incredible!" Of course, the chicken had optimal threads, proving it's a real piece of chicken. The meat stood out as a triple threat: It was juicy, moist, and crispy, earning Raising Cane's fried chicken sandwich the coveted Mashelin Award.
McDonald's and Burger King ranked among the worst chicken sandwiches in the country. The Bros examined the fibers of Burger King's sandwich and sadly found that not only was the chicken extremely thin, but it lacked the threads of a real bird. In the end, the Bros dubbed it "factory-line chicken." Burger King's sandwich also came with too much mayonnaise. While it originally earned a D rating, the Bros knocked it down to an F after sampling more sandwiches.
The Bros had semi-high hopes for McDonald's but were left sorely disappointed. Not only did the chain's McCrispy sandwich earn an F rating, but it also took home the one and only Burger Time Award. In addition to having a burned bun, the actual chicken was extremely dry, and the Bros ultimately likened it to a knock-off Chick-fil-A sandwich. Brian summed up his feelings by saying, "It tasted like I just ate a house fire."
There was good and bad, but also plenty of ugly
In between the best of the best and the worst of the worst, the Mashed Bros found plenty of so-so sandwiches. Surprisingly, the Popeyes 'wich that launched the chicken sandwich wars only rated a C, while Chick-fil-A's sandwich rated a B. Then again, so did Jack-in-the-Box's, despite the fact that one of the chain's employees called the police when they saw the Bros filming their video. Luckily, the situation ended amicably since, as Scott admitted, "It's hard to run from the cops when you have like 13 sandwiches in your body."
No matter the sandwiches' quality, it was the sheer quantity that got to the Bros in the end — and yes, you could take that word two ways. As Brian says of the experience, "The grease of all those sandwiches made you feel like the half-dead triceratops in 'Jurassic Park,'" so it's likely that digestive upsets ensued. Scott notes that it wasn't just the Bros' digestive systems that were impacted, however. They stopped to check their blood pressure in the midst of this sandwich spree and, as he reports, "It wasn't good. It was real bad, actually. It was like a 'Super Size Me' lightning round." His advice to anyone looking to conduct a similar eating experiment? "I'd say consult 10 doctors before trying this. I'm pretty sure 10/10 will say that it is ... unwise."