As anyone who has looked at this week’s deal from Wingstop franchisee Sizzling Platter will know, people are crazy for fried chicken right now. Stripped back fast-food joints that offer just a few variations on that theme, like Raising Canes and Dave’s Hot Chicken, are particularly in vogue.

These highly scaleable restaurant concepts have their challenges, but by and large they’ve proven to be pretty popular with private equity sponsors and big franchise groups. We track a multitude of such credits, although there’s no way to filter just for chicken-centric ones yet.

Over the years, we’ve produced plenty of detailed analysis on these companies. But we never answered the most important question: what do they all taste like?

Fictional hedge fund boss Bobby Axelrod once said, “whenever you can, put a company in your mouth.” We decided to follow his advice.

Raising Cane’s

Approaching the parking lot of the bustling suburban plaza, you’re immediately stopped by the line of cars spilling into the street. Is it a new pop-up store? A special edition shoe release? A celebrity in town signing memorabilia?

No, it’s a typical weekday night at Raising Cane’s.

As someone who prefers a spicy option (plus maybe some cheese, or a selection of sauces) at first I was off put by the lack of optionality. At Raising Canes you get what everyone else gets: chicken tenders. True, you can add crinkle fries, Texas toast, coleslaw, and an iced tea or lemonade; you can also get the chicken sandwich, which is chicken tenders between toasted buns.

But basically it’s all about the chicken. And when I divorced myself from the illusions of choice and embraced that reality, I realized this was the freshest and best chicken on this list. It’s a juicy chicken tender with a flaky crust that doesn’t easily get soggy; it won’t scratch your mouth, it’s not overly breaded, and it’s flavored well. It’s great chicken without the frills.

It’s made all the better by the devilishly addictive Cane’s sauce. Sure, you can make a copycat at home, which is some combination of ketchup, mayo, Worcestershire sauce and spices. But there’s a reason people try to sneakily double up on the sauce and get into fights when it’s missing.

The world is bursting with decisions: which clothes to wear, what workout class to take, and what new TV show or movie to watch. At Cane’s, you buy chicken tenders, or go somewhere else. There’s a reason the lines are so long. — William Hoffman

Location visited

Cleveland, Ohio

Star ranking

★★★★★

Flavor-adjusted credit rating

Whatever is above AAA+

Buffalo Wild Wings

Biting into these wings, I couldn’t help but feel something was off. Maybe it was that the chicken was a tinge too dry, or the breading a little rubbery on the teeth. Maybe it was that I couldn’t taste the slight nuttiness of the parmesan or the kick of the cayenne, because the sauces and the breading were loaded with salt.

So the wings weren’t great. But that led me to realize that the taste isn’t really the point.

I reviewed this chicken on a quiet evening, just a few hours before the Knicks and Nets were set to tip off in the NBA regular season. There were no dunks to celebrate, no referees to call blind, no rowdy people around with whom to scream at the TV. The joy of being part of an ad-hoc community of sports fans is what powers the revenue cycle of ultra-salty wings and multiple pints to slake the resulting thirst.

It’s a powerful combination, one that powers sports bars across the world on gameday. In those soft hours, craving the roar of the game and fleeting company, all I could do was reference a favorite childhood show: food… water… atmosphere! — Dan Mika

Location

Brooklyn, New York

Star ranking

★★

Flavor-adjusted credit rating

BB for basketball

Wingstop

No sooner had the wing and its crispy coating touched my palate, a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory — this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was myself. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal.

Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I was conscious that it was connected with the tender meat, the delicately flavored batter that encased it, and the tangy buffalo sauce it was slathered in, but that it infinitely transcended those savors, could not, indeed, be of the same nature as theirs. Whence did it come? What did it signify? How could I seize upon and define it?

I eat a second mouthful, in which I find nothing more than in the first, a third, which gives me rather less than the second. It is time to stop; the potion is losing its magic. It is plain that the object of my quest, the truth, lies not in the wing but in myself. — Will Caiger-Smith

Location

Islington, London

Star ranking

★★★★

Flavor-adjusted credit rating

Indefinable

Popeyes

No fried chicken review would be complete without the Popeyes fried chicken sandwich, the sandwich that basically broke the internet six years ago. Since then, it’s become a full-on cultural icon, with Popeyes even teaming up with Don Julio to roll out a limited-edition concha chicken sandwich for this year’s Super Bowl.

I really wanted to try that, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on one of those tequila-kissed badboys. So I decided to go back to the OG — the same legendary sandwich that somehow sparked enough chaos to land someone in prison for 22 years.

As soon as I unwrapped it, I knew I was in for something good: a quintessential Southern sandwich featuring crispy fried chicken, spicy mayo, and pickles nestled between a glossy, buttery bun. At $5.99, it’s on the affordable (dare I say cheap?!) side of NYC nosh. College-aged me would’ve been all over this. It’s the kind of solid, satisfying food you crave after a full night out at the clubs, when your ears are still ringing from the bass drop, your feet are sore and all you want is something hot, filling and cheap that isn’t just a slice of pizza.

It checks all the boxes. The bread is not soggy, the chicken is tender, and the pickles cut through the unctuousness of the fried chicken.

Before I knew it, I had devoured the entire thing. My inner college student was living for it, but I couldn’t shake the disappointment of missing out on a free side because I didn’t order through the mobile app — Sasha Padbidri

Location

West Village, New York

Star ranking

★★★★ (it’s good, but not serve-22-years-in-prison good)

Flavor-adjusted credit rating

Extremely high grade

Wendy’s

Back in high school, it was inconceivable to me that a chicken sandwich could be anything other that a frozen patty from the school cafeteria. Then came Wendy’s, with its spicy chicken sandwich, which set the standard in this category ever since and has been my long standing go-to fast food item.

Their spicy chicken nuggets are maybe the most popular in the category and you can really turn up the heat with a ghost pepper variant of the chicken sandwich. Wendy’s was also early to invest in the quality of the chicken when its peers were still putting out notably inferior products.

Today, other chicken shops have stepped into the space giving the company some new competition. Some have even surpassed Wendy’s, which is no longer the spiciest nor the tastiest option. But like an old record or a good romcom, the Wendy’s chicken sandwich is the one that’s always there for me when I need some comfort. My recent orders (spicy nugs, delivered via DoorDash and consumed alongside a frosty) have accompanied everything from dissecting the symbolism of the latest Oscar nominees to episodes of The Office that I’ve already seen a hundred times before. Long live Wendy’s, my old faithful. — William Hoffman

Location

Cleveland, Ohio

Star ranking

★★★

Flavor-adjusted credit rating

BBB+ with stable outlook

Burger King

1, 2, 3, 4:

BK's Royal Crispy Wrap

Chicken's pretty good but the dressing is flat

Could've used a little spice like pepper jack

Just needs something moooore

It's ooooo-kay

Wouldn’t go out of my way — Dan Mika

Location

Brooklyn, New York

Star Ranking

★★★

Flavor-adjusted credit rating

B for the holdco, BB+ for the unrestricted buffalo wrap subsidiary

KFC

I had already eaten lunch when we realized this article didn’t include a review of KFC, so I was less hungry than usual when I walked into the location on Whitechapel High Street. The complications didn’t stop there: as a journalist, I like to think I keep in touch with new developments, but I was thrown by the diversity of the menu (which included a ‘rice bowl’ alongside many other non-chicken options) and outraged that the so-called hot sauce on offer wasn’t free and was actually spicy mayo.

Rattled, I hedged my bets with a two-part order: a single thigh in the Colonel’s classic coating, and a mini fillet burger, accompanied by a soda. I placed the paper bag on the counter next to the remnants of a previous consumer’s meal, and looked out of the window to see a topless man with an eyepatch and a bluetooth speaker slung over his shoulder yelling across the street at a G4S security van. Time stopped and I went somewhere else.

When I looked down, my hands were covered in grease and there was a small pile of bones on top of the Colonel’s grinning face. I can’t tell you what it tasted like, but I can tell you how it felt: like playing sport against someone you know you’ll never beat. The Colonel always wins. — Will Caiger-Smith

Across the ocean in Cleveland, Ohio, I returned to KFC for the first time in years. I have fond memories of getting a bucket of chicken and fighting over the last bite of my favorite side dish for dinner with my family. But with the numerous other chicken options available, KFC has fallen down in my rankings in recent years.

While it’s not a rice bowl, I do occasionally have cravings for the mashed potato bowls that kids used to get after school. So I decided to indulge the craving with a “famous bowl combo.” And let me tell you, it holds up. It’s a style of chicken that no other place on this list offers and is a welcome departure from the sea of sandwich offerings out there. KFC was always more about the sides than the chicken, so lean into it next time you find yourself with a craving. — William Hoffman

Location

Whitechapel, London/Cleveland, Ohio

Star ranking

★★★★★

Flavor-adjusted credit rating

AAA+ in both jurisdictions