The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Battle of the chicken sandwiches
How Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, Shake Shack stack up.
Popeyes new fried chicken sandwich hit the market with a bang last week.
Atlanta loves its hometown original Chick-fil-A sandwich, but the Twitter war between the two chains (and wannabe spoilers Wendy’s and Shake Shack) had people standing in long lines at Popeyes. The sandwich became so popular that locations around the country ran out.
And for good reason: The new Popeyes fried chicken sandwich is, by every measure, a superior sandwich.
The thing about the Popeyes sandwich is that it seems to brush awfully close to what Chick-fil-A offers — a simple fried chicken sandwich with pickles and a pillowy bun. The Popeyes sandwich has plain or spicy mayonnaise, as opposed to the myriad Chick-fil-A sauces, but that’s it. For two sandwiches so alike, they couldn’t be more different.
We tried three sandwiches — Popeyes, Chick-fil-A and Shake Shack — because we needed to be sure of what we already knew, which was that Popeyes was very likely to win. The chain has long been regaled as the best fastfood fried chicken in the country, counting chefs David Chang and Anthony Bourdain among its fans. Its lack of a Chick-fil-A-esque sandwich until this point was inexplicable. So to try it was
the equivalent of the person who asks to sample an ice cream before buying a cone — you know it’s going to be good, you just don’t know how good.
We didn’t bother including Wendy’s, and have no regrets. The defining feature of a Wendy’s chicken sandwich is that it comes with a raft of iceberg lettuce and a mealy tomato — not worth it, in our opinion, and it was easier to keep the sample size to sandwiches whose primary ingredients were fried chicken and pickles. Yes, the Chick’n Shack from Shake Shack has some shredded romaine, but it’s merely an accessory to the pickles on that sandwich.
The Chick’n Shack has good flavor, but too much mayonnaise. You can’t eat it neatly, with one hand — bits and blobs will glop out of it and fall into your lap. The Chick-fil-A sandwich is always damp if you don’t eat it immediately, and its limp bun deflates. It’s briny, but not crispy. And without the Chick-fil-A sauce, it can be a little dry.
Neither is bad, but neither is as good as the Popeyes sandwich. For one, it’s the crunchiest, crispiest fast-food chicken sandwich out there. It’s also hefty, with a greater surface area than either of its competitors. The bun is more buttery, and didn’t look like a deflated tire after a few minutes in its little foil-lined sleeping bag (another move Chick-fil-A must not be too happy about). The chicken is juicy, and the pickles are cut thicker. And on the side, the Cajun fries are a better textural accompaniment than waffle fries, which, despite their fun shape, tend to go flaccid.
You probably can’t find it at your local Popeyes, and that is a tragedy on several levels, because the only thing worse than articles and tweets about the sandwich clogging up your feed is enduring days of sandwich talk without being able to try it yourself.