If mechanically separated chicken sludge isn't your thing, or you just prefer your
chicken to have lived a happy life, here are a few fast food chicken options to consider.
Shake Shack only has two chicken items on its regular menu, but they're serious about making
sure the chicken they serve is high-quality and adheres to a strict animal welfare policy,
which requires a cage-free environment where the birds have room to move around. It may not sound
like much, but it's the first step toward more stringent guidelines set to take effect in 2024.
They also only source chicken from farmers who don't use antibiotics and don't feed
their chickens animal byproducts. This helps ensure the chicken Shake Shack serves is safe
for you to eat. Once the meat arrives at the restaurants, they ensure their meals
are as fresh as possible; the chicken is never frozen and is always made to order.
Starbird chicken may not be a chain you're familiar with unless you live in California,
but if you happen to live on the West Coast and love chicken, it's worth a stop. The restaurant's
slogan is "Positively delicious chicken," so you know they're ready to stand behind
the product they're serving. One of the things Starbird does differently than most restaurants
is source their chicken locally. That means it's fresher than if it was shipped across the country,
which makes it easier to adhere to the promise of never frozen, antibiotic-free poultry.
It's a little harder to find confirmation about the company's rules regarding animal welfare,
but in an interview with Eat This, Not That! a Starbird rep shared that their
chicken is all sustainably raised. So, if you're looking for some truly interesting
chicken options made with real chicken, consider the brand's truffle parm tenders,
or Baja chicken taco the next time you find yourself flying through the San
Francisco airport, where you'll find a Starbird restaurant at the terminal.
Raising Cane's is a restaurant built specifically around offering high-quality
chicken strips. Granted, they offer a chicken sandwich too, but when you're in
the mood for dippable finger foods, Raising Cane's has you covered. And even better,
they offer real chicken you can feel good about eating. In fact, the chicken strips taste so good
that Raising Cane's won Thrillist's Fasties Award for the best chicken tenders in 2020.
All of Raising Cane's chicken consists of real tenderloins marinated for 24 hours
and hand-breaded in the restaurant before being cooked to order. And while they're
not quite as candid about how that chicken is sourced, it's a conscientious process.
Before opening the first Raising Cane's restaurant in the Middle East,
the CEO himself traveled to the region multiple times to ensure all its ingredients
and food preparation techniques were guaranteed to meet halal standards.
Chick-fil-A is known for having high-quality food,
and the company's approach to sourcing and preparing their namesake dish is
no exception. Their standards are obvious, stating on their website,
"Chick-fil-A sources 100% real, whole, boneless breast of chicken that has never
been ground or separated, and that contains no fillers or added steroids or hormones."
And that even includes their chicken nuggets.
Chick-fil-A also has some of the highest animal welfare standards in the industry,
only sourcing chickens that have been raised in climate-controlled barns where they're free to
roam and have access to feed and water. They also must be raised with proper nutrition,
and the farmers are subject to auditing by Chick-fil-A and another third-party organization.
When you order a bucket of chicken from KFC, it's pretty obvious the food comes from real chickens;
it's hard to fake a bone, after all. But even when you're ordering KFC's boneless menu items,
you can rest assured that the chicken is still very real. According to the restaurant's website,
its chicken is always 100% real and comes from animals that have never been
treated with added hormones. This doesn't eliminate antibiotics, but as of 2017,
KFC pledged to eliminate what they called "antibiotics important to human medicine".
Employees also make the chicken daily, going through an extensive process that includes
inspecting the meat, seasoning it, and pressure frying it to help seal in its flavors before it
gets placed in your bucket. While the brand still has a way to go when it comes to animal welfare,
they've implemented policies to meet goals related to improved animal health and well-being,
including those that ensure the chicken in its supply chain is
raised and handled humanely. Other things, however, aren't so public.
"How to blend eleven herbs and spices that make Kentucky
Fried Chicken so finger-lickin' good… that's the Colonel's secret. Forever."
According to a 2021 press release, fast food chain Popeyes was set to eliminate all
artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives from its fried chicken products by the end
of 2022. Unfortunately, their quest to eliminate all the "extras" was slowed,
and the brand's website currently indicates they're shooting to meet the same goal by 2025.
So, while the juicy chicken sandwiches and family-sized meal packs may still taste
especially delicious thanks to those artificial additives, the chicken itself is real and made
fresh daily. In fact, it's all sourced from farms in the US, is free of added steroids,
hormones, and from antibiotics used on humans. The chain is also taking steps
to improve the animal welfare of its broiler chickens. If you already love that chicken,
you're likely to love it even more as these changes get implemented.
"Must be crack in this chicken sandwich."
Hardee's and Carl's Jr. are really the same restaurant under two different names, with a few
differences in menu items, so their food-quality practices are carried over between restaurants.
And in the case of providing real chicken to its customers, the fast-food duo delivers.
"I like this chicken a lot better than [bleep] Chicken."
According to a 2016 article from WATTPoultry.com,
Hardee's and Carl's Jr. have actually been at the forefront of the fast food
industry when it comes to providing higher quality proteins without added hormones,
antibiotics, or steroids. Brad Haley, the chief marketing officer for the two chains, stated,
"We are happy to announce the addition of all-natural chicken breast fillets to
our menu, which are skinless and charbroiled for better flavor."
The charbroiled chicken is made without artificial additives or preservatives, and its other chicken
menu items are made from real chicken tenderloins that contain no antibiotics important to human
medicine, which have been sourced from farms that conduct animal welfare audits.
The one item to be cautious of is the Chicken Stars, which are more processed than other chicken
offerings, given there are no chicken parts that naturally come in the shape of cute little stars.
Given that Chipotle doesn't offer ambiguous fried chicken strips, tenders, or sandwiches, it's easy
to tell at a glance that Chipotle uses real chicken. Sure, some of it has been shredded for
the purpose of adding it to their famous burritos, but it's still in its identifiable chicken form.
The sourcing and delivery of high-quality chicken and other proteins is actually one
of the restaurant's founding commitments. In 2017, Chipotle partnered with Compassion in
World Farming and the Humane Society to help improve standards for raising chicken for mass
consumption. As such, the chicken Chipotle uses is sourced in the United States from facilities that
undergo audits by Chipotle and other parties. It's also hormone- and antibiotic-free and
undergoes very little processing aside from being marinated in adobo sauce.
Chicken is the most popular protein offering at Panera. And given that
their chicken is largely served sliced on sandwiches, salads, and in soups,
it's obvious that Panera's chicken is real chicken with minimal processing. The big slices of chicken
breast just look like something you could cut from a roasted chicken you cook up at home.
The fast-casual restaurant isn't just committed to serving minimally-processed
chicken — it also wants to make sure the chicken served is high-quality. In 2016,
it released its own Broiler Welfare Commitment, promising to enact more humane chicken sourcing
guidelines. This includes ensuring chickens have ample room to move, better resources for food,
light, and enrichment activities, and that they're only slaughtered under more humane practices.
The chain has also committed to reporting progress on working toward Better Chicken
Commitment guidelines. They're also working hard to address other concerns.
"I just want some [bleep]... oh, french onion soup at Panera Bread. [Bleep] you. Wow."
Bojangles, like most other chicken-centric fast food joints, is pretty serious about
making sure the chicken it serves is real, never frozen, and cooked fresh onsite every single day.
This means that while it undergoes minimal processing before it arrives in the kitchen,
what arrives is clearly chicken that hasn't been ground, separated, or re-combined.
But the chicken news on the Bojangles front isn't all positive... especially when it comes to animal
welfare. According to the 2020 Food Industry Scorecard released by the Humane Society,
Bojangles scored an F. The main problem? Bojangles doesn't appear to have made
any commitments to many pressing animal welfare concerns, aside from a commitment
to sourcing cage-free eggs by 2025. So, when it comes to the restaurant's broiler chickens,
the chain's stance on raising and treating chickens well is unclear.
Culver's may be better known for its frozen custard and cheese curds than its chicken
sandwiches and tenders, but the fast food joint's commitment to quality fare carries
through all of its menu offerings. In fact, all of its chicken meals are made from whole,
white meat tenderloins and breasts without added fillers. That's not to
say the products don't include seasonings and water, though,
as Culver's chicken appears to be more processed than some of the other restaurants on this list.
When it comes to animal welfare, Culver's was one of the early fast-food restaurants to take steps
to improve its chicken sources. According to an announcement in 2011, Culver's had entered into
a partnership with Springer Mountain Farms in Georgia, the only farm at the time that
was American Humane Certified. This certification ensures chicken is fed a 100% vegetarian diet free
of antibiotics and growth stimulants, and that the chickens are raised using stress-reducing
practices. As recently as 2021, Springer Mountain Farms was still celebrating this relationship.