These chains serve the crispiest, crunchiest chicken around.
Crispy chicken, whether fried, grilled, or baked, is a fan-favorite option across the board in every kind of restaurant—diners can’t get enough, and the demand for good chicken is growing by the year. Whether made from tenders, whole bone-in options, Korean-style, Southern-style, you name it—if it’s crispy and crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, fans will love it. So which are the best? Here are seven chain restaurants with the most crispy, flavorful chicken.
Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken
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Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken is famous for its extra-crispy flavorful fried drumsticks, wings, and strips. The Buldak and Chicken Katsu are also excellent crispy chicken options. “Bonchon is known for their Korean Fried Chicken, and they definitely deliver on that crispy goodness. I went with the Yangnyeom and Soy Garlic sauces—both packed with flavor and hit the spot,” one diner shared.
Chick-fil-A
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Chick-fil-A‘s chicken is consistently crispy and crunchy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside. Some guests swear the spicy options are even crispier than the regular ones, but either way you’re getting some very crispy chicken, whether in sandwich form or nuggets, by themselves or on a salad.
Jollibee
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Jollibee‘s Chickenjoy Fried Chicken has a very unique crispy coating. “Ever since trying Jollibee in this area it’s become my favorite chain fried chicken. The meat is great quality, the skin is crunchy and retains it even when dipped in the side gravy. It just hits,” one fan said.
Raising Cane’s
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Raising Cane’s hand-breaded chicken fingers are perfectly crispy and crunchy. “They are consistent and that means it is good every time… Great crispy breading and amazingly moist and tender white meat chicken,” one diner shared.
Taco Bell
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Taco Bell‘s Crispy Chicken options are truly some of the more surprising sleeper hits of the past year or so. Our writer Zoe Strozewski reviewed them in 2024 and raved about the texture: “They were piping hot and emitted an audible crunch when I finally took a bite—which I attribute to the thickness of the coating. There were at least a couple of millimeters of breading completely encasing each piece, and it was even thicker in some spots.”
Popeyes
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Popeyes chicken is noted for being deliciously crispy every time—the internet is full of people asking how to recreate that specific crunch the chain is famous for. “When done right, I would put up Popeyes spicy crispy sandwich against your favorite local chicken joint,” one fan said. “It’s always crispy, their spicy chicken sandwich paired with the bitterness of their pickles is perfection.”
Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken
Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Memphis TN./Facebook
Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken serves up made to order, hand-battered fried chicken diners love. “Price is high, but it is the best American style fried chicken I’ve experienced so far in my life. Incredible flavor and love how they give the crust color. Juicy and moist, with exceptional crunch,” one fan raved.
