Fast-food chicken is serious business. Chains have spent the last few years battling it out over sandwiches, tenders, strips, and whatnots. Everyone’s in the chicken game now, but not everyone is winning it.
To see who’s actually winning with customers, a new study from Affordable Seating analyzed nearly 10,000 Yelp reviews from 50 major fast-food chains across the ten largest U.S. cities, filtering for mentions of chicken to rank how customers actually rate it.
While you might, by inertia, expect to see your usual chicken go-tos—Popeyes, KFC—leading the pack, be ready for some curveballs.
Here are the best fast-food chicken chains in the U.S., according to customers.
10. Checkers / Rally’s
- Locations in Sample: 46
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 185
- Average Rating: 2.84
Checkers (or Rally’s, depending on your ZIP code) makes messy food for messy people, and honestly, I respect that. The chicken is aggressively seasoned, maybe even a little too enthusiastic about paprika, but it’s hot, cheap, and usually enough to satisfy a craving. With 185 chicken-related Yelp reviews in this study, the chain scraped into the top ten with a modest 2.84 average. That’s not exactly a flex, but it is enough to edge out chicken competitors like Wingstop, Popeyes, and McDonald’s.
9. Arby’s
- Locations in Sample: 44
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 93
- Average Rating: 2.88
Chicken is not what Arby’s hangs its cowboy hat on, given that it has built its whole brand around roast beef. However, people are ordering the chicken — and reviewing it — enough to give Arby’s a surprising boost in the rankings. Their chicken sandwich doesn’t look like much, but it holds together better than most. That might sound like a low bar, but considering how many bigger chains couldn’t clear it, Arby’s ends up looking pretty competent by comparison.
8. El Pollo Loco
- Locations in Sample: 32
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 27
- Average Rating: 2.91
El Pollo Loco is more about grilled chicken and rice bowls than nuggets or sandwiches, so it’s not your typical “fast-food chicken” spot. But if you’re into citrus-marinated meat that tastes like someone’s abuelita actually cooked it, this is your place. Only 27 chicken-related reviews met the study’s criteria—and it was enough for the chain to rank above places with ten times the mentions. Apparently, people who like El Pollo Loco really like it, and they’re not comparing it to fried chicken sandwiches.
7. Zaxby’s
- Locations in Sample: 22
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 323
- Average Rating: 3.01
Zaxby’s is one of those places that always feels like it should be better than it is. The menu centers on chicken fingers, sauced-up wings, and thick sandwiches stacked with pickles, and a signature Zax Sauce that regulars treat like currency. People are famously split on the chain—some think it’s God’s gift to Southern fried chicken, others think it’s gross. The standout for most reviewers is the texture—the chicken isn’t overly processed, and the coating holds its crunch without going stale. It received an average rating of just over 3, which, by all means, is more than fair.
6. Del Taco
- Locations in Sample: 19
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 64
- Average Rating: 3.05
Del Taco is not where you’d go looking for chicken, but here we are. The chicken soft tacos and epic burritos have a little something going on—mainly because everything’s drowned in cheese and sauce. Only 64 chicken-related reviews were included in the data, but the average was solid at 3.05.
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5. Raising Cane’s
- Locations in Sample: 75
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 2,808
- Average Rating: 3.31
Raising Cane’s does one thing, and it does it in the most controlled, formulaic way possible. Every order is some combination of fingers, fries, toast, coleslaw, and sauce. Despite logging the highest number of chicken-related reviews in the study — 2,808 total — it still received an average rating of just over 3.3. That’s not bad, but it’s low for a brand that only does chicken.
4. Bojangles
- Locations in Sample: 8
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 77
- Average Rating: 3.37
Bojangles has been doing the same thing for decades — fried chicken, biscuits, and a few sides that people either swear by or skip. Their chicken is bone-in with a thick crust, peppery and nice on the bite, but most people opt for the Cajun Filet Biscuit — a fried chicken breast on one of their buttermilk biscuits. Although it didn’t have a huge review count in the study, the score was solid. In the South, Bojangles is a regular stop, and for people who know it, very dependable.
3. Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers
- Locations in Sample: 48
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 165
- Average Rating: 3.47
Freddy’s is better known for its paper-thin burgers and custard cups, but apparently, the chicken strips are a sleeper hit. They’re crunchy but oddly tender and well-seasoned, served with fries and toast. There weren’t a ton of chicken reviews, but the ones that came in were steady.
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2. Shake Shack
- Locations in Sample: 47
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 1,831
- Average Rating: 3.65
One might wonder how a burger chain—that started as a hot dog cart— ends up with some of the best fast-food chicken in the game because Shake Shack doesn’t mess around. Their chicken sandwich is thick, juicy, and actually tastes like chicken. The price might hurt you on several levels, but still—if you’re gonna splurge, this is worth it.
1. Chick-fil-A
- Locations in Sample: 50
- Chicken-Related Reviews: 1,948
- Average Rating: 3.73
This probably won’t shock anyone who’s stood in one of Chick-fil-A drive-thru lines. Say what you will about the company, but people are very loyal to the classic chicken sandwich. It’s a fried chicken filet on a bun with pickles. That’s it. The chicken is usually cooked right—crispy outside, soft inside—and the sandwich stays together when you eat it. There’s also nothing complicated about how it ended up at the top. Most people who order it know exactly what they’re getting.
More Fast-Food News and Deals From Cheapism
- 23 Fast-Food Family Meal Deals Available in October — Feeding a crowd can get expensive, so we’ve tracked down the best family meal deals from fast-food chains to help save you some cash.
- Raising Cane’s to Open Six New Restaurants by End of October — Craving chicken fingers and Texas toast? You’re in luck: new Raising Cane’s locations are opening across the country.
- Wendy’s Makes Chicken ‘Tendys’ a Permanent Menu Item — Wendy’s says Tendys are “designed to be dippable,” so it built six new sauces and made the cups nearly twice the size of the old ones.
