Who offers the best chicken sandwich?

 Our staff got together three students to blind taste test Chick-fil-A, Zaxby’s and Popeye’s chicken sandwiches to answer that question.

Senior Brayden Gardner said, “I already know which sandwich is going to be my favorite although I have never had Zaxby’s or Popeyes chicken sandwiches before. It will definitely be Chick-Fil-A.”

Chick-Fil-A made more than $4.52 billion last year on sales while Zaxby’s and Popeyes made more than $5.3 billion combined.

Freshman Mavrick Pauley said, “ I do believe Chick-Fil-A is overrated, but that doesn’t mean that the chicken is bad. It is still very good.”

The taste test started out with the Zaxby’s chicken sandwich,

which they all guessed was Popeyes. 

Sophomore Brayden Holman said, “The sauce on this chicken is amazing, and the chicken is seasoned very well and has a good crispy taste to it. The bun is very nice as well. It isn’t very dry at all. It has some texture and moisture to it, which I tend to enjoy. Wow, this could maybe take the Number One spot easily. It is so good. I really didn’t expect this.”

The group then moved to sandwich Number 2 which was Popeyes. They all thought this was Zaxby’s chicken sandwich and were shocked.

Gardner said, “Oh my gosh, wow, that is awful. There is so much mayo on the sandwich I can’t even taste the chicken. I can feel a little texture on the chicken, and it is soggy from all the mayo. All I have to say about the sandwich is I think it is awful because of all the mayo. It ruined everything for me. It’s like mayo with a side of chicken that I just bought.”

Then they moved to the final sandwich and that was Chick-Fil-A. They all had high hopes for this sandwich.

Holman said, “Yeah, I saw this coming. I mean the seasoning is just on point, and it looks like it would be dry, but it is not. It just has a burst of flavor in your mouth, and the bun has a nice feeling to it. I bet if you mixed Chick-fil-A and the sauce on the other sandwich that we really liked that would be a moneymaker.”

At the end of the taste test, everyone voted on his favorite chicken sandwich. 1 was CFA, 2 was Popeyes, 3 was Zaxby’s.

Pauley said, “I’m going to have to go with 1 because we are going off the chicken in the sandwich not the sauce. But if we had gone off of the best overall chicken sandwich, I would go with 3.”

Gardner agreed, “I’m going to go with one as well because the seasoning is perfect on it and I don’t think you can ask for a better chicken sandwich than that.”

Holman voted for Chick-Fil-A too, “It is very close for me. I’m leaning towards 1, but the sauce on 3 was so good that I almost want to say it was 3. But I’m going to have to go with 1 for the best overall.”

The members of the taste test were shocked that Zaxby’s was so good and that Popeyes was that awful. They were okay with their answer on Chick-Fil-A.