Bachelor on the Cheap

By Mike Thayer

The DQ Crispy Chicken Sandwich

There's been a chicken sandwich war going on in fast food, it started in 2019 and it's still going on today.  

Shots fired!  Chick-fil-A made headlines in 2019 becoming the third largest fast food chain, led with their classic chicken sandwich.  Popeyes reacted by putting a new chicken sandwich on the menu and consumers went crazy over it, so crazy in fact, Popeyes ran out of ammo. Already armed with a spicy chicken sandwich, Wendy's entered the battlefield that year by bringing back their spicy chicken nuggets, fans of the item went in a Twitter frenzy.  

Popeye's Chicken Sandwich has been so popular, it is now considered THE gold standard for a chicken sandwich.  So how do all the other fast food joints stack up?  In the name of 'food science' (cough), I intend to find out. 

In this Chicken Sandwich War Challenge, sandwiches are evaluated and scored on the following criteria:  Visual appeal, the meat, bun, meat to bun ratio, crunch factor, the pickle/mayo and of course, overall taste.  There are 1-9 points available for each category for a total possible total score of 63. 

A thin chicken breast

I recently sampled the DQ Crispy Chicken Sandwich.  They make a decent burger, so how good is their chicken sandwich and how does it stack up against the competition?

Here's the description from the DQ website:  A crispy chicken fillet topped with crisp chopped lettuce, thick-cut tomato and mayo served on a warm toasted bun. 

What?  No pickle?  Every good chicken sandwich comes with pickles!  And check out the thin chicken breast fillet, the SMALLEST portion of chicken of any sandwich sampled so far in this challenge.  The chicken also lacked flavor, it was under-seasoned and it shouldn't be called a 'Crispy' Chicken Sandwich because the crunch factor was missing.  The lettuce, tomato and bun were all fine, but all rather ordinary and there was a bit of mayo overkill.  This wasn't a balanced sandwich either, there wasn't tomato in every bite, there wasn't lettuce in every bite.  Overall, an under-seasoned chicken breast and no pickles makes for a rather boring sandwich.

A bit of mayo overkill

I paid just $3.89 for my DQ Crispy Chicken Sandwich and it scored just 39 out 63 possible points.  That is the lowest score registered so far in this challenge and the worst sandwich.  It is NOT a repeat buy and gets 3 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars.

Related:  KFC's Chicken Sandwich

Related:  McDonald's 'New' Crispy Chicken Sandwich

Related:  Slim Chickens Crispy Chicken Sandwich

Related:  Wendy's Classic Chicken Sandwich

Related:  Popeye's Classic Chicken Sandwich