Fast Food Chicken Sandwiches That Aren't 100% Chicken

While many of us associate fast food burgers with beef patties, a lot of modern fast food joints feature wide menus that cater to a diverse range of tastes and dietary preferences. Fish, poultry, and veggie options are now the order of the day, appealing to foodies seeking something a little different from the traditional fast food beef options.

Notably, chicken menu items continue to grow in popularity across fast food chains, with consumers looking to seek out healthier options. While chicken is lower in saturated fat than meats such as beef and pork, chicken-based dishes at fast food restaurants may not be what they seem. And this concerns the content of the actual chicken. Nowhere is this more evident than in chicken burger filets, which are frequently mixed with a bunch of other ingredients, including fillers, binders, and other additives.

Keen to find out which quick-bite restaurants serve chicken filets that contain more than just poultry? Take a look at our roundup of fast food chicken sandwiches that aren't 100% chicken.

Wendy's Classic Chicken Sandwich has been around since 2020, when it replaced the chain's Homestyle Chicken Sandwich. Accented with tomato, lettuce, and pickles, the offering is said to feature a crispier and more tender chicken filet. However, unbeknownst to many, the lightly breaded chicken breast contains more than just poultry.

To be more specific, the filet in the Classic Chicken Sandwich at Wendy's contains a host of ingredients other than chicken breast and rib meat, chicken fat, and chicken broth. These include seasoning, which contains monosodium glutamate, or good old MSG, citric acid, grill flavor, modified potato starch, and sodium phosphates, which have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

For the more health-conscious, Wendy's also offers unbreaded Grilled Chicken Ranch Wraps with marinated chicken breast, cheddar cheese, Romaine lettuce, and ranch sauce. Just like with its breaded chicken filet, it appears that there's more to Wendy's grilled chicken than meets the eye. Aside from skinless chicken breast meat with rib meat and spices, the filet also contains 2% or less of fillers, including modified food starch, dextrose, sodium phosphates, and maltodextrin.

Whataburger revamped its chicken sandwiches in 2017, filling them with a new version of chicken breast filet. Today, Whataburger's menu features three fast food chicken sandwiches, all with slightly different filets. The chain's signature handheld, the Whatachick'n Sandwich, is composed of a chicken filet, tomato, lettuce, and a drizzle of the restaurant's special WhataSauce, all nestled in a brioche bun. The Spicy Chicken Sandwich comes with a spicy chicken filet, tomato, lettuce, pickles, and mayo. Meanwhile, the Grilled Chicken Sandwich features a grilled chicken filet, tomatoes, lettuce, and WhataSauce.

The filet in the Whatachick'n Sandwich is guaranteed to contain at least 85% skinless chicken breast. The remaining 15% of the filet is composed of ingredients like seasoning, sodium phosphate, vinegar powder, disodium, and modified food starch. The chain's Grilled Chicken Sandwich is also made with 85% chicken, while its Spicy Chicken Sandwich is only 76% chicken. Unlike many other chains, the handhelds at Whataburger contain only chicken breast rather than a mix of chicken breast and rib meat.

Many of us probably remember when McDonald's was accused of using "pink slime" in its Chicken McNuggets in the early 2010s. McDonald's has since denied the accusation in a sponsored YouTube video, stating that its Chicken McNuggets are made with real chicken breast, tenderloin, and rib meat. While pink slime is definitely not on the menu at McDonald's, there's more to the chain's chicken than initially meets the eye.

The McChicken Sandwich at McDonald's is seemingly very simple. The menu item contains just four ingredients: a chicken patty, shredded lettuce, a dollop of mayo, and a toasted bun. However, not quite true to its name, the chain's chicken filet contains much more than just boneless chicken. The poultry product is made with bleached wheat flour, vegetable oil, modified corn starch, natural flavors, and seasoning, as well as more menacing-sounding ingredients like potassium chloride and sodium acid pyrophosphate, both of which can be harmful if consumed in large quantities.

Aside from its McChicken Sandwich, McDonald's offers a range of McCrispy sandwiches with a crispy chicken filet. Made with chicken breast with rib meat, the filet contains many of the ingredients included in the McChicken Sandwich patty. The two ingredients in McCrispy sandwich filets that don't appear in the McChicken Sandwich patties are monosodium glutamate, or MSG, and maltodextrin, both of which have been deemed safe for human consumption.

With the tagline "We have the meats," Arby's is committed to offering a wide selection of protein types. Aside from roast beef, smoked brisket, corned beef, and gyro meat, the chain also serves poultry, including chicken and roast turkey. Arby's menu features three different chicken sandwich offerings, all served on a toasted brioche bun. The Crispy Chicken Sandwich comes with shredded lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. The Chicken Bacon Swiss Sandwich is filled with bacon, Swiss cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato, and honey mustard. Finally, there's the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, layered with shredded lettuce, Parmesan peppercorn ranch sauce, and a chicken patty dipped in the chain's spicy Buffalo sauce.

All of the chain's "crispy, juicy chicken breasts" are battered and appear to contain exactly the same ingredients, save for the addition of the Buffalo sauce to the filet inside the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. While we can't be sure about the exact percentage of chicken in Arby's patties, we do know that they contain seasoning, modified food starch, sodium phosphates, and both natural and artificial flavoring.

Subway's chicken has had its fair share of controversy. The poultry product was first propelled into the spotlight when a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) investigation in 2017 revealed that the chain's chicken only contained around 50% chicken DNA. More specifically, after conducting numerous tests, CBC Marketplace found that the chain's oven-roasted chicken contained 53.6% chicken DNA, while its chicken strips had just 42.8% chicken DNA.

To say that Subway took this unwanted publicity badly would be an understatement. In fact, the chain ended up suing CBC for a cool $210 million, alleging that the testing lacked credibility and the report was handled recklessly and with malicious intent. While the case was dismissed, Subway stuck to its guns, telling Vice: "In 2017, two independent laboratories in Canada and the U.S. found our chicken to be 100% chicken breast with added seasoning, verified that the soy content was only in the range of 1%, and contested the testing methodology."

So what's really hiding in Subway's Chicken Strips Sandwich? According to the chain, 98% of the strips are made from chicken breast with rib meat. The other ingredients include seasoning, soy protein concentrate, modified potato starch, potassium chloride, sodium phosphate, and maltodextrin.

Jack in the Box has grown by leaps and bounds since first opening its doors in 1951 in San Diego. Today, the chain boasts over 2,100 locations in the U.S., with more than 800 restaurants in California alone. Although beef burgers are the mainstay at Jack in the Box, the chain also offers a selection of five different chicken handhelds.

One of the chain's signature sandwiches is the Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club. This handheld comes with a crispy chicken breast and rib meat filet, along with hickory-smoked bacon, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a buttermilk ranch dressing nestled inside a toasted brioche bun. Aside from seasoning, the chicken filet contains 2% or less of sodium phosphates, sugar, and silicon dioxide to prevent caking — these ingredients are generally considered safe in moderate amounts.

Those who don't like their chicken filet breaded or battered can opt for Jack in the Box's Grilled Chicken Sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and the chain's signature Good Good sauce served on toasted sourdough bread. The grilled chicken filet has a slightly different composition to its crispy counterpart, with the most notable addition being roast chicken flavor. 

Founded in 1921, White Castle gained popularity thanks to its sliders. At five cents apiece, the mini-sized, square-shaped burgers weren't just convenient to eat but also affordable. While the White Castle menu has since expanded — and definitely gone up in price — the sliders remain a firm favorite among its customers. Aside from beef, fish, and Impossible sliders, White Castle also offers several chicken slider options.

The Crispy Chicken Breast Slider is one of the chain's more basic options, consisting of a breaded chicken filet and a choice of American, jalapeño, or smoked cheddar cheese. Made with skinless chicken breast with rib meat, the filet also contains seasoning, bleached wheat flour, modified corn starch, soybean oil, whey, and leavening agents.

The same breaded breast filet can also be found in White Castle's other sliders, including the Chicken Bacon Ranch Slider, Bacon and Cheddar Chicken Slider, and Chicken & Waffles Slider with two Belgian waffles. Poultry lovers in the mood for something slightly different can opt for the chain's Chicken Ring Slider, which features two breaded chicken rings. While these contain a slightly different lineup of ingredients from the restaurant's breaded chicken filet, they also aren't 100% chicken.

Burger King introduced its Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich in 2022 as part of its destination-worthy Chicken Sandwich lineup. The menu item is made with chicken breast and rib meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and a savory sauce, all sandwiched between a toasted potato bun. Burger King's "crispy chicken breast" line of burgers also includes the Fiery Royal Crispy Chicken, Fiery Bacon Royal Crispy Chicken, and Bacon and Swiss Royal Crispy Chicken. All burgers come with the same chicken filet, except for the spicy burger alternative, where the filet is coated in a "fiery glaze." 

The crispy chicken filet is made from at least 82% chicken, with the other 18% composed of seasoning, modified food starch, sodium phosphate, enriched wheat flour, soybean oil, and dextrose. The fillers also include no more than 2% of leavening agents, such as sodium bicarbonate. Alternatively, diners can opt for Burger King's Original Chicken Sandwich, which features a lightly breaded chicken patty. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find out the exact list of ingredients that make up this filet.

In 2019, Dairy Queen found itself in hot water after a complaint that one of its South Carolina locations was serving human meat inside its burgers. The bogus complaint was quickly dismissed by a Dairy Queen Manager, Saif Momin, who told the Index Journal: "If that was the case, they already would have shut me down." On a more plausible note, the fast food chain has also been accused of serving moldy burgers and having bacterial issues with its soft-serve machines.

While Dairy Queen asserts that it cares about chicken welfare and only sources poultry from suppliers that use humane practices, you may want to think twice about eating Dairy Queen chicken. And this includes the fast food restaurant's Original Chicken Strip Sandwich, which contains lettuce, tomato, mayo, and two tenderloin chicken strips. In fact, the strips only contain 82% chicken, with the remainder of the filet made from water, salt, sodium phosphates, and hydrolyzed soy protein.

Established in 1984 in Sauk City, Wisconsin, Culver's made its name with ButterBurgers and creamy Frozen Custard. While Culver's still serves its signature food items, the chain is also known for its range of veggie, seafood, and chicken meals. The poultry and bun pairings at Culver's include the Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich, and Grilled Chicken Sandwich.

The Crispy Chicken Sandwich at Culver's combines shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, dill pickle, and cheese with the chain's crispy filet made from chicken breast and rib meat, all encased in a lightly toasted buttered bun. While we don't know the exact poultry-to-filler ratio of the filet, we do know that it comes with a plethora of ingredients aside from meat. These include seasoning, flavors, modified cornstarch, and sodium phosphates. The chain's Grilled Chicken Sandwich features a simplified version of the filet. More specifically, the unbreaded filet is made with water, sea salt, modified cornstarch, and sodium phosphates, and doesn't contain the flavors and seasoning of its crispy counterpart.