10 Fast Food Chains That Don't Use 100% Chicken

If it looks like chicken and cooks like chicken, it should be chicken. But in the world of fast food, chicken is an odd duck. Your favorite chicken sandwich or dippable nuggets may not actually be chicken, or at least not 100%. The majority of fast food chains add ingredients to raw poultry, whether to retain moisture, add flavor, or extend the product by adding volume. Water- or oil-based solutions with multiple ingredients, ranging from seasonings to fillers, are injected into or tumbled with raw chicken. This happens before the chicken is even marinated, seasoned, battered, and breaded by the fast food restaurant.

Federal regulations allow chicken to contain a percentage of solution and be considered 100% chicken. Because these solutions can make up to 49% of raw chicken's total weight, ingredients are required to be listed. The solution must meet certain criteria, though, to maintain full chicken status. When the solution features extenders like soy, whey, or canola protein, it's no longer considered 100% chicken. Real chicken is classified as whole muscle that's not mechanically separated, broken down, or ground and combined with other extenders. In other words, real chicken doesn't contain non-chicken proteins.

Some fast food places take it a step further and blend chicken with ingredients like potato, flour, oats, or corn, creating a chicken-like product. Guidelines require these poultry products to be specified as patties since the fillers purposefully extend the chicken. The following fast food chains fall under the umbrella of not using 100% chicken.

Let's be honest, are we really surprised that McDonald's serves chicken that isn't considered 100%? The McChicken Patty is so named because it contains fillers along with chicken meat. As we previously mentioned, regulations require the patty labeling if ingredients are added to or blended with chicken to create a more voluminous product while using less chicken. The McChicken Patty includes wheat flour along with boneless chicken. The flour is combined with chicken, water, and vegetable oil before the patty is breaded for frying.

There are a few chicken items on the menu from McDonald's, though, and you might be relieved to know that the meat of McNuggets is made from full chicken meat. McNuggets include ground white chicken meat with skin, which is then mixed with seasonings, water, and vegetable oil. Then the formed nuggets are partially cooked and breaded. The McCrispy chicken filet and strips also have minimal ingredients and are considered 100% real chicken, though both are also made with rib meat as well as white meat chicken. The strips are seasoned with ingredients such as sugar, MSG, modified food starch, and maltodextrin.

Burger King really drops the ball when it comes to using 100% chicken in its chicken menu options. Sure, it uses actual chicken for the base, but BK's chicken nuggets are processed with a number of ingredients, one of which is isolated oat product. Other ingredients are included in the seasonings, and BK boosts its chicken with chicken fat and chicken powder, which are added to the mix to enhance flavor.

Likewise, Burger King's chicken fries and chicken sandwich are also processed with isolated oat product. What is this oat item and why is it included? It's a fancy way of saying oat fiber and it's classified as an extender in meat products, which increases its volume. Hence, most of Burger King's chicken menu items don't qualify as 100% real chicken. 

The closest it gets is the Royal Crispy Chicken, which doesn't contain fillers and is seasoned with a handful of ingredients, such as garlic, onion, natural flavors, maltodextrin, buttermilk powder, and modified food starch, before it's breaded.

Jack in the Box is like the Jack of all trades in the fast food landscape. Featuring thousands of locations across the U.S. with nearly half of them in California, Jack in the Box offers everything from breakfast and salads to burgers, chicken, and tacos, plus sides like eggrolls and stuffed jalapeños, as well as desserts. Phew. The menu features a number of chicken options that include fried and grilled chicken, nuggets, strips, sandwiches, and wraps. But does it serve 100% chicken? Yes and no. A few options are all chicken but the nuggets are not.

Unfortunately, Jack in the Box chicken nuggets contain soy protein concentrate, which is considered a filler. The chicken patty is questionable, too. On the one hand, it's called a patty (the label reserved for chicken products that contain fillers), only the word chicken is listed (indicating other edible parts of the bird are included), and it contains modified food starch. On the other hand, modified food starch is often lumped in with seasonings, but the ingredient list doesn't specify this. The way it's written indicates that modified food starch is combined with chicken and other chicken parts to create the patty before it's breaded.

There isn't much difference between Carl's Jr. and Hardee's except location. In the West is Carl's Jr. and in the East is Hardee's. Though its menus are not identical, the differences come down to details like the type of bun used. Even its websites are practically the same and both chains are owned by the same company. We mention them together here since they likely have the same food supplier.

Both Carl's Jr. and Hardee's showcase a hand-breaded chicken filet or tenders. The variation is in the sandwich style or whether the tenders are spicy or not. Carl's Jr. has a few more chicken choices, like stars (yes, stars) and charbroiled chicken. We don't know the exact ingredient details of each chicken option so it's possible its chicken filet and tenders are 100% chicken. They're described as all-white chicken meat, indicating whole muscle meat per labeling guidelines.

What's questionable are chicken stars and charbroiled chicken breast from Carl's Jr. Both menu items say chicken in the name but the descriptor is lacking any details at all. I call that a red flag, especially when the filet and tenders are labeled as all white-meat chicken.

Culver's uses whole, white meat chicken from Springer Mountain Farms in Georgia and its chickens are antibiotic-free. There are only a few chicken options on the menu: tenders, filet, and grilled. But although Culver's chicken is cooked to order, it still falls short. The crispy chicken filet contains more than chicken. It also features hydrolyzed soy and corn protein, along with a long list of additional seasoning ingredients, before it's battered and breaded.

Well known for its ButterBurger and cheese curds, Culver's began in Wisconsin but has more than 900 locations across the U.S. Its vast menu includes more than just burgers and cheese curds, though. You'll find a variety of sides, seafood, chicken, salads, and sandwiches. Culver's chicken tenders and grilled chicken filet are considered 100% chicken, though they each have a lengthy ingredient list that includes tapioca starch, wheat gluten, maltodextrin, natural flavors, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate.

Whataburger has almost 1,200 locations in the U.S. and more than half of them are in Texas. Its menu ranges from breakfast to burgers, with a handful of chicken options: boneless wings, crispy filet, grilled filet, bites, and strips. Whataburger is one of many fast food places that serve chicken that's been treated with a water- or oil-based solution. Its chicken contains a percentage of solution with a variety of ingredients. As a result, Whataburger chicken bites and strips are not considered 100 % real chicken. They each feature another protein — whey protein concentrate in the bites and isolated soy protein in the strips — and therefore have fillers.

Whataburger's crispy and grilled chicken filet contain up to 15% solution while the spicy version contains up to 24% solution, all with a laundry list of ingredients. Though they're classified as 100% chicken, the solution ingredients include modified food starch, sugar, vinegar, lemon powder, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, citric acid, and natural flavoring.

White Castle paved the way for fast food burgers with its iconic mini burgers, now referred to as sliders, and has hundreds of locations in the U.S. But its menu goes beyond beef to include a number of styles that range from BBQ pulled pork to fried fish to you guessed it, chicken. The menu includes a product called chicken rings and no, they're not 100% chicken. Probably not much of a surprise since it's supposed to be chicken shaped like a ring, which means manipulating the meat in some way.

White Castle chicken rings are chicken breast with rib meat that's mixed with corn and potato starch, powdered cooked chicken, buttermilk powder, and a handful of other ingredients. This mix is pressed and formed into the end chicken product: a ring. Its chicken filet is 100% chicken since it's a boneless, skinless, chicken breast with rib meat seasoned with a handful of ingredients.

Most people go to Dairy Queen for a cold, sweet treat. But this popular fast, frozen food icon has branched out serving quick, hot food, including burgers and chicken. Not only do you want to avoid ordering burgers, you might want to avoid ordering the chicken strips, too. It seems that Dairy Queen has zero desire to give its customers food that is actually food, or at least the food you think it is. Case in point — its chicken strips. (We're not even talking about the non-real, soft-serve ice cream.)

DQ's chicken strips are made with chicken but they're stretched with hydrolized soy protein, a popular meat extender. The ingredient list indicates Dairy Queen serves the tenderloin cut for its strips, but the meat contains up to 18% water-based solution, which includes filler.

Subway serving sandwiches may not be like a typical fast food place that offers burgers and fries, but it does serve chicken. Its menu focuses on subs filled with a range of meat, fish, veggies, and accompaniments but Subway also offers wraps, salads, protein bowls, and even pizza. Either grilled or rotisserie chicken is used in its menu items that include chicken. For instance, Subway's spicy nacho chicken sub includes rotisserie-style chicken whereas its sweet onion chicken with teriyaki features grilled chicken.

Subway's grilled chicken is not 100% chicken. It also contains soy and potato. It's not a heavily processed item but chicken is treated with a solution that contains soy protein concentrate, which acts as an extender to fill out the chicken. It's also treated with modified potato starch but that isn't classified as an extender, though potato is frequently used as a binder or filler. The meat is seasoned and flavored with a number of ingredients that include maltodextrin, sugar, vinegar solids, dextrose, and natural flavors. Its rotisserie-style chicken doesn't contain any fillers and is considered 100% chicken.

Smashburger has hundreds of locations across the U.S. and offers customers a wide variety of Angus beef smashburgers, various hot dog styles, chicken options, and salads. It states that it makes smashburgers fresh to order and you have the opportunity to create your own burger with your preferred toppings. The majority of burgers offered are made with beef but you also have the choice of a chicken or veggie smashburger. While the beef smashburgers are all Angus, its chicken smashburger is much more than just chicken.

This fast food restaurant's chicken smashburger is made with chopped chicken that's combined with potatoes, corn flour, and dehydrated potatoes, along with a few other ingredients. That's certainly one way to smash it. But its crispy filet and tenders are considered 100% chicken. However, they contain a solution up to 20% that includes a slew of ingredients like modified food starch, chicken broth powder, natural flavor, soybean oil, MSG, and sugar.