8 Fast Food Chains That Use 100% Chicken

While chicken may seem like an obvious menu choice when you want something simple, light, or mild, fast food chicken is anything but simple. From how the chicken was raised to its treatment during processing, there are numerous steps before it lands on your plate. One of these steps involves potentially altering the meat — think raw chicken treated with fillers, binders, extenders, and flavor enhancers. These ingredients are injected into or tumbled with raw poultry before the chicken is marinated, seasoned, battered, and breaded.

Water- or oil-based solutions are a common practice in the fast food industry, though there are a range of reasons and varying end results as to why these are added. Solutions can contain numerous ingredients, ranging from herbs and spices to starches and fillers. On one end, you may have brined chicken, and on the other end, you have chicken mixed with soy, potato, or flour, which can give you two entirely different flavors and allergen concerns. Solutions must meet certain criteria, and they're required to be written in the ingredient list.

Pure, 100% chicken is classified as whole muscle meat that's not broken down or mechanically separated. Nor is it ground up and combined with fillers or binders – this launches it into the processed category. Additionally, if a solution contains another protein, such as soy or whey, then it's no longer considered pure, 100% chicken. We decided to hunt down some fast food chains that serve real chicken and let you know what's really going on with some of your favorite fast foods.

In business for over 50 years, Popeyes focuses on serving customers a taste of Louisiana. With more than 2,700 locations across the U.S., Popeyes is all about fried chicken, though it also offers popcorn shrimp and Southern sides. Whether or not you love the chicken from Popeyes, it's classified as 100% real. But as we previously mentioned, most fast food restaurants treat raw chicken with a liquid solution, and Popeyes is no different.

Popeyes chicken tenders, regular and spicy, contain a 30% solution of water and other ingredients that include (but are not limited to) MSG, carrageenan, modified corn starch, and a variety of herbs and spices. Likewise, the chicken filet, which is one of Popeyes' best chicken items, as well as its wings, also contain a water-based solution with some of the same ingredients. But since these solutions don't include other proteins, such as soy or whey, then according to regulations, it's real chicken. When you want chicken that's been treated with the least amount of ingredients, Popeyes' signature bone-in chicken includes a water-based solution up to 12%, with only a few seasoning ingredients, though MSG and palm oil are included.

Chick-fil-A is one of many fast food restaurants that focuses on Southern fried chicken. As a result, Chick-fil-A sources real breast meat and promises no fillers, artificial preservatives, hormones, steroids, or antibiotics important for human health are used. But what do the ingredients say? Its classic chicken filet sandwich is indeed 100% real chicken and one of the best fast food chicken sandwiches you can get. You can look forward to a real piece of meat that isn't treated with a solution of ingredients. It's simply chicken breast with rib meat that has been breaded and fried. Likewise, the chicken nuggets and strips are also strictly chicken breast meat — no fillers here — before being seasoned and breaded.

If you're not a fan of breaded or fried chicken, Chick-fil-A also offers grilled chicken, but it's not solution-free like its other options. The grilled chicken is treated with a 17% water-based solution that includes (but is not limited to) ingredients such as gum arabic, xanthan gum, modified corn starch, maltodextrin, and a range of herbs and spices.

When a fast food restaurant with more than 3,600 global locations claims to have the meats, it had better bring them. Maybe you've heard the rumors about Arby's — the ones casting doubt on the realness of its meaty options — but there's really no mystery here. Meant to keep the meat fresh, flavorful, and moist, Arby's meat is packaged with a brine. Its chicken is real — it's just treated with a water solution like most fast food meat. Arby's chicken filets and tenders are breast and rib meat that contain a 13% solution with ingredients such as sugar, MSG, soybean oil, modified food starch, and more. Then it's dusted, battered, and breaded.

We've enjoyed Arby's sandwiches, notably the Buffalo Chicken Slider and Crispy Chicken, but we also felt that the beef was a good choice. So we don't leave you hanging ... yes, the beef is really beef, too. The unconventional way Arby's makes roast beef is similar to the chicken — it comes from the supplier, packaged in a water brine that has salt and sodium phosphates.

Wendy's has been serving burgers and sandwiches for more than 50 years, with nearly 6,000 locations in the U.S. As the home of the square burger and Baconator, Wendy's is also loved for its chicken options. So you'll be happy to know that Wendy's serves 100% real chicken. The fast food chain is fairly open regarding its food supply chain, and it follows recommended animal care practices when sourcing chicken. While Wendy's doesn't use fillers or extenders, such as soy or whey, in its chicken products, there are added seasonings and ingredients in the chicken meat brine that you may need to be aware of.

The menu offers chicken nuggets and tenders along with a variety of filets, from crispy to grilled and spicy to regular. Ingredient lists vary, but they typically include items such as maltodextrin, MSG, modified food starch, dextrose, sugar, and a range of herbs and spices. If you're looking for chicken seasoned with the least amount of ingredients — excluding the breading — then you can't go wrong with the nuggets or crispy chicken sandwich.

It's fully expected that Kentucky Fried Chicken, which rebranded to KFC, serves 100% real chicken. More than likely, the Colonel would be ashamed to learn otherwise. KFC's chicken batter is created with 11 herbs and spices, resulting in an iconic bucket of crispy fried chicken. And it is real chicken, though the raw poultry is marinated in a solution like most fast food meat. KFC's signature fried chicken pieces are brined in a saltwater solution that includes MSG, but the chicken is all chicken. It's locally sourced from U.S. farms where the chickens are hormone- and steroid-free. No antibiotics used for human health are given to the chickens, either.

Aside from its bucket of chicken, KFC also offers chicken nuggets and tenders, which are treated with a 25% water-based solution that contains seasoning and rice starch. The nuggets feature extra chicken fat and broth, along with xanthan gum to thicken the mixture. KFC's classic chicken sandwich, as well as its spicy chicken sandwich, are marinated with additional ingredients before being breaded and cooked.

Shake Shack has hundreds of locations, offering fast food customers a range of shakes and burgers, including a few crispy chicken options. This fast food restaurant serves only 100% real chicken, sourcing whole breast meat that's antibiotic-free. In fact, it sources such premium, high-quality chicken that it's one of its most expensive items to keep on the menu. Each piece of chicken is marinated in buttermilk and slow-cooked to keep it moist and tender. Then it's hand-breaded and cooked to order.

It's unclear if Shake Shack's chicken is treated with a water-based solution of ingredients, but we think the Chicken Shack is one of Shake Shack's best sandwiches. It's a fried breast filet, accompanied by lettuce and crunchy pickles for adding texture and complementary tang, and topped with buttermilk herb mayo to balance it all out. Instead of your typical fast-food wheat bun, Shake Shack serves its chicken sandwich on a potato bun. Of course, you can choose to add other ingredients to build a bigger sandwich or opt not to have the bun at all.

Huey Magoo's is another fast food joint that specializes in chicken and focuses all of its efforts on serving tenderloins, which is what it refers to as "The Filet Mignon of Chicken." The chain started in Florida and expanded through Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and surrounding states with dozens of locations. Recently celebrating 21 years in business, Huey Magoo's sources only real chicken for its main star, the chicken tender. But customers can choose from a variety of menu options, like chicken tender meals, sandwiches, wraps, and salads, and order them either breaded or grilled.

Huey Magoo's also doesn't use chicken breast to create chicken tenders. The chicken breast and tenderloin are often used interchangeably, but the breast is not as soft and tender as the tenderloin, which is a small part of the breast's underside. The tenderloin also cooks faster, making it a better option for frying. We may not know whether Huey Magoo's chicken is pre-treated with a water-based solution of seasonings, but its chicken pieces are sourced from the "best 3% of chicken" and marinated for 24 hours before being hand-breaded. The result? Chicken tender strips and bites that are tender, flavorful, and juicy.

For all of the jokes that run rampant about Taco Bell, you can't joke about its chicken: It's real. Whether you get a chicken taco, quesadilla, burrito, or chalupa, your options are grilled or slow-roasted chicken, but at least it's just chicken.

Though Taco Bell chicken is not treated with a high percentage water-based solution and it's not extended with fillers, it is seasoned with a bunch of ingredients, some of which are hard to pronounce, like disodium inosinate and guanylate, which are flavor enhancers. While these are usually paired with MSG to create an underlying umami, MSG is not in the ingredients. Other ingredients include, but are not limited to, yeast extract, maltodextrin, soybean oil, and natural flavors. The grilled chicken is treated with spices and sugar, and features modified potato starch, while the slow-roasted shredded chicken is seasoned with a variety of items like spices, natural flavor, tomato powder, chicken stock, and food starch.