One of the most highly anticipated matchups of the Chicken Dinner Wars has come to fruition! Tournament favorite Chick-fil-A’s chicken sandwich faces off against the wildcard, The Habit’s Golden Chicken sandwich, in the most shocking chicken dinner battle yet!
If you didn’t catch last week’s match-up, scroll down to the bottom of the page for a refresher on the rules.
This battle’s sauce category came with some tangy drama that needs to be addressed before the official scoring is laid out.
To maintain an even playing field for all sandwiches, the official Chicken Dinner Wars rules state that no modifications can be made to any sandwich in the tournament. This created a problem in dealing with the fact that Chick-fil-A serves their chicken sandwiches with sauce on the side.
Although adding the sauce to the sandwich could be considered a modification, I decided that as the Grand Master of Chicken Sandwiches, I have a responsibility to the public to accurately rank the deliciousness of each chicken sandwich fairly, so I made an executive decision to include the sauce for two reasons.
First, the nearly uncomfortably polite Chick-fil-A employee specifically asked me “how many sauces” I would like, not if I would like any sauce. This implies that the sauce is a component of the sandwich despite being on the side. Therefore it would be more of a modification to deny the sauce than to include it.
Second, the sauce is absolutely delicious, and I believe that there is next to nobody on the face of this earth that would deny some Chick-fil-A sauce on their chicken sandwich if it was offered.
With that being said, this sauce category was outstanding.
Chick-fil-A’s classic sauce is a perfect combination of mayo, mustard and barbecue sauce. It’s smoky, sweet, tangy and creamy. If Chick-fil-A is brought up in conversation, this sauce is the next thing to be mentioned. If I scored it as anything less than a 10, I would have to resign as grand master.
Despite being up against a practically unbeatable opponent, The Habit put up a good fight. The mayo’s taste is more like something made at home rather than something coming out of a fast food kitchen. It was easily the best mayo tasted in the tournament so far, earning an 8.
Unfortunately, the bun category was not as outstanding as the sauces and both sandwiches left something to be desired.
Chick-fil-A’s bun was thin and slightly soggy, breaking apart in my hands, and in the bun category, earning a 5.
The Habit’s bun suffered from the opposite problems, being too thick and tough in texture. I would rather have a structurally sound sandwich than a broken one, so The Habit earns a 6.
For toppings, Chick-fil-A severely disappointed, as the only toppings were two singular pickles on each side of the chicken patty. This absolutely destroyed their ratio of ingredients as it meant that for the majority of the sandwich you are left with just chicken, bread and sauce, and the pickles only make an appearance for at most two bites. The pickles were average in quality, earning a 5.
In contrast, The Habit fared well in the toppings category. The sandwich included tomatoes, lettuce and pickles, making it the first sandwich in the bracket to include more than just pickles. All the toppings were fresh and given in generous portions while still allowing the chicken to be the star of the sandwich. The Habit earns a 9.5 for its outstanding topping performance.
Chick-fil-A dropped the ball again in the breading category. The breading was not crispy and did not stick to the chicken well. Although it was flavorful, the Chick-fil-A breading earns a 6.
The Habit’s breading was fairly standard. It was crispy and it stuck to the chicken, but it was fairly bland, earning a 7.
In the final and most important category, the chicken category, both sandwiches performed well.
The actual chicken in both patties tasted nearly identical. However, The Habit’s chicken was slightly juicier and the Chick-fil-A chicken was slightly more flavorful, earning both restaurants an 8 in the chicken category.
In the extra points category, Chick-fil-A excelled! They earned a point for amazing customer service and earned an additional two price points for being priced at $3.65, nearly 3$ cheaper than The Habit’s $6.25.
The Habit’s Golden Chicken sandwich earns an extra size point for being substantially larger than the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich.
This brings the total flavor scores to 37 for Chick-fil-A and 39.5 for The Habit! Proving that sauce alone cannot carry an entire sandwich.
The Habit pulls off the upset of the semester, sending the tournament favorite down and out in the first round!
What kind of jaw dropping battles will come after this? Find out next week, as we finish the first round with the longtime Chicken Sandwich staple, Wendy’s, and the new crispy chicken hype train that everyone’s jumping on, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers!
