- In June and July, Business Insider surveyed more than 3,000 readers to determine which fast-food chain's fried chicken fans love the most.
- Rankings were determined by the percentage of visitors to a chain who said that that chain had the best fried chicken.
- More people than had visited Popeyes in the last six months said the chain had the best fried chicken. KFC came in at a distant second, with a little over half of visitors saying the chain had the best fried chicken.
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Before there was the chicken sandwich, there was fried chicken.
Good fried chicken is crispy, juicy, and well-seasoned. Some might say finger-lickin' good, but they might get in trouble with a certain retired colonel. And does that colonel have the best fried chicken? And if not, who does?
In a survey conducted in June and July — before the debut of Popeyes' chicken sandwich in August— we asked our readers to tell us which chains have the best fried chicken in fast food. Over 3,000 readers responded, and five chains were clear favorites, although one was a clearer favorite than the others.
To determine our rankings, we compared the percentage of respondents who said they'd visited a chain in the previous six months against the percentage of respondents who said they thought that chain was the best at something.
According to our readers, these are the five fast-food chains with the best fried chicken:
5. Wingstop
23% of people who visited a Wingstop in the last six months said that the chain had the best fried chicken.
4. Zaxby's
36% of people who visited a Zaxby's in the last six months said that the chain had the best fried chicken.
3. Chick-fil-A
50% of people who visited a Chick-fil-A in the last six months said that the chain had the best fried chicken.
2. KFC
60% of people who visited a KFC in the last six months said that the chain had the best fried chicken.
1. Popeyes
107% of people who visited a Popeyes in the last six months said that the chain had the best fried chicken. The extra 7% comes from respondents who did not visit a Popeyes in the last six months but still said the chain had the best fried chicken.