The Best Chicken Item On Popeyes' Menu Is A Clear Winner

Believe it or not, some fast food chains do not use 100% chicken. Luckily, Popeye's isn't one of them. Popeye's is famous and beloved for its juicy, Cajun-spiced fried chicken, but the chain has plenty of other chicken items on the menu. We tasted and ranked 9 Popeyes chicken items according to appearance, taste, and textural components like juiciness and crunchiness.

The clear winner in our taste test was the classic fried chicken sandwich. This sandwich was an instant hit when it debuted pre-pandemic, with eager customers forming long lines outside of their local Popeyes to get their first taste. And the sandwich still lives up to the hype. To begin, the sandwich and the fried chicken breast inside it are enormous. They must use the same 12-hour marinade method that makes Popeye's bone-in chicken so delicious on their sandwich chicken meat, because it was as juicy, spicy, savory, and tender as could be. The shatteringly crunchy breaded coating is the perfect textural contrast that beats out the also delicious blackened chicken sandwich for first place. The sandwich is topped with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles and sandwiched between a buttery brioche bun slathered with mayo. The tang and crunch of the pickles and the fresh veggies were simple yet crucial complementary flavors that, along with the mayo, balanced the spice of the chicken beautifully. And the fluffy, rich brioche bun held up under the weight of its fillings while also bringing tasty qualities of its own.

Fried chicken fans can confirm our first-place rating for Popeye's chicken sandwich, which isn't just a winner on the Popeye's menu, but it also beats chicken sandwiches from other fast food chains. According to a Redditor, "I've tried several different chicken sandwiches from...KFC, Bojangles, Church's, Zaxby's, Hardee's, and Chick-fil-a. Popeyes for the win!" Another Redditor commented about how the chicken sandwich is consistently good, stating, "I've never had a bad Popeyes chicken sandwich ever. Not anywhere in the [U.S.,] and even the Popeyes in the Colombian airport nailed it perfectly." Customers are especially fans of the spicy chicken sandwich, with one customer proclaiming they "thought it was probably the best fast food chicken sandwich I ever had." You could pair a spicy chicken sandwich with Popeye's famous blackened ranch sauce, which we think is one of the best fast-food Ranch sauces out there.

The bone-in fried chicken may be the classic choice, but since the fried chicken sandwich is so good, you might like other boneless chicken items. For instance, we ranked Popeyes chicken tenders pretty high in a taste test of 10 fast-food chicken tenders. Enjoy a side of Popeyes' Cajun fries, a pretty tasty fast-food french fry in our opinion. Red beans and rice and coleslaw might be tempting, but we think they're dishes to avoid at Popeyes.