Who Has the BEST Chicken Sandwich? (Pastor's Podcast, Christmas Edition)

Some things are theologically necessary, and some things are not important at all. That's today's show, as we rank the best of the chicken sandwiches. Stay tuned. Welcome back to Conversation with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist. I am joined today, almost as always, with Richard Roden, my buddy, my friend, my fellow Calvinist, and his son. I don't know where he is. He doesn't matter, but he's going to be our tiebreaker today.

Actually, he does matter. This is Brock Roden. He is definitely the most beautiful of the three of us today. I mean, look at that hair. And we found out just recently that he thinks that National Lampoon's Christmas vacation is trash, which means we're going to give him a hard time for the rest of this podcast.

Mercilessly. We're going to mercilessly give him a hard time, but that's not why we're here today. Today we're going to be settling a very important dispute, and that is who has the tastiest fried chicken sandwich.

Now, I know Chick-fil-A has the Lord's Bird, the Lord's Chicken, but we're not sure that Chick-fil-A actually has the tastiest chicken. Even though it may be the most holy, it is not necessarily the most tasty.

And so we have sandwiches from eight different restaurants. We have seven chain restaurants and one dark horse. This is the restaurant that only people in Callahan, Florida are aware of. It is the restaurant of restaurants.

Yes, we have the fried chicken sandwich from Callahan Chicken, which I want to say right away, I am already leaning in that, and that's unfair, right? I invite people to my house just so I can take them to Callahan Chicken, just so that I can get them.

So I am firmly convinced already that Callahan Chicken is going to be the best. But we are going to try, and here are our rules for today. We got eight different places, and we told the people when we ordered them we did not want any special.

Because like Brock and I, we're not tomato guys. Yeah. Yeah, but we're going to have tomatoes on the sandwiches because we want them as ordered. We want to taste them as they're supposed to be tasted.

We didn't want to do anything special. And we're going to lay them out in a rank. We're going to just say which one is the best. And we're not doing this blindfolded. We know what sandwich we're getting.

We know which one's going first. And we've been waiting for a while. So some of these are a little cold, but we're going to eat them. We're going to give it the best shot. And guess what? At the end of tonight, you will know definitively from a Calvinist, from two Calvinists and Brock, who has the best chicken sandwich.

KFC, Wendy's, and the First Round of Rankings

All right. My lovely wife is our server tonight. She's going to be bringing us our first chicken sandwich to try. We're going to be washing it down with our own bottle of sweet iced tea. Some people use water because they want to cleanse their palate.

I don't. I want to do it just like I'd be in the restaurant, and I would have sweet tea if I was in a chicken restaurant. So let's do this, and let's do it right.

This is KFC.

KFC's chicken sandwich. Right away, I want to say it's a big piece of chicken. Very nice. Very thick. It's got a giant pickle. I don't understand the connection. I know Chick-fil-A does it with the pickle and the chicken.

I don't get it. I don't understand. But this is the way it is. It looks like it has some kind of a juice on it. I think that's mayonnaise. You hope it's mayonnaise. I hope it's mayonnaise. Is it? All right.

So let's all give it a taste. Eat much? It's hard with the beard.

Okay. Having nothing else to compare it to. What do you think, Brock? Do you like it? It's a good sandwich. It might be because it's cold, but it's not very juicy. Yeah.

We had to drive all around to get all these. This is true. The fact that it's cold is not KFC's fault. It's our fault. But I can still taste it. It's a great piece of chicken. It's a good piece of chicken.

What do you think? It's good. I'd eat it again. But that don't mean it's going to be the best by the time this thing's over with. No. First place for now. Yeah. But we're going to keep it.

Well, first place for now. We're just going to set it here. This is the KFC chicken, and it's okay. I mean, I wouldn't invite people to my home to have it. No. But it's okay for starters. All right. Well, we don't need to eat three of them.

No, what you did there is fine. If you want to just bring us. Okay. This next one is from Wendy's. Wendy's. There you go. This is the Wendy's chicken sandwich. Wendy's chicken sandwich. I can already tell you the bun looks tastier.

That looks like a piece of fish.

You know, like a fried fish sandwich? Yeah. That doesn't even look like chicken. And they are glopping the mayonnaise on there. Which I appreciate. If you like mayonnaise.

Yeah, I'm a mayonnaise guy. That's cool. I don't understand the chicken, though. I mean, honestly, this chicken looks like a piece of fried chicken. This looks like a piece of fried fish. It does. It does look like fish.

Okay. All right. So this is a fried chicken sandwich. Does that look like it's not done? It's got a little like red. I'm going to eat from this side. Okay. All right. All right. Oh, yeah. Definitely a lot of mayo.

It's in the beer. But it does.

You got napkins right there, bro. Oh, yeah. I appreciate that sandwich. I don't know. I mean, it's all right. I'm a fan of tomato. So the fact that the KFC didn't have tomato gives me a little bit of a I like this more.

But it has that fast food-esque quality to it. Which one is this one now? This is Wendy's. Wendy's. It has a fast food-esque quality to it. All right. Is it better than KFC?

No. I'm going to say no. Me either. Okay. So KFC is the winner so far against Wendy's.

They're kind of relying on the mayo for their flavor.

We might want to write this down so we don't have to keep all this food in front of the camera. The camera can't see it. It's okay. Okay. Well, that's. There you go. Dry erase. All right. So far. So far, one is KFC.

Can you see that on the thing? I don't know if you can see it or not.

I don't know. And two. That's just for us. Wendy's. I just want to say this is the most technically savvy of all of the podcasts. Yes. I'm going to be able to edit this later. I could have just put it on the screen.

Oh, my goodness.

Ladies and gentlemen, my partner. These are very well thought. The ever-technical Richard Roman. We're in Calhoun. Put the rest of your food on each plate and I'll just take that plate back. All right.

That'll work. This is Calhoun Chicken. Oh, this is Calhoun Chicken?

This is Calhoun. Yep, that's Calhoun Chicken. Calhoun Chicken. Okay, this is the one. The dark one. Chicken house. Again, if you're watching this from another country, I am sorry. You don't get to enjoy this.

But if you were anywhere near Calhoun, Florida.

The sandwich gives me chills just looking at it. Look at the size. Look at the size of that chicken. That's beautiful. Wait a minute.

There's no tomato on it. Oh, there's not. They didn't put a tomato on it. They usually do. We didn't ask for that, but this is just. You said as it normally is. Look at the size of that piece of chicken.

Look at the size of this beauty. This is a wide mouth bite. All right, guys. Three, two, one. Let's do it. Taste all my power. I'm going to eat this whole thing right here. It's so thick. That piece of chicken is just real chicken.

Not that that was fake chicken. Quality chicken, for sure.

It's a quality piece of chicken. This is great. There's just something different. It just hits different, yeah. About Calhoun Barbecue. This is good, guys.

For me, first place right now. Right now. Definitely.

Yeah. There's a perfect line there with everything on that sandwich. You know what? I don't know.

Next is Popeye's. Okay. Right now, we got. I'm going to keep writing on the board because that's just annoying. KFC. Wait. I'm sorry. Chicken House. Chicken House. KFC.

Wendy's. Wendy's. Okay. We're at our fourth sandwich. I want to talk about Popeye's for a minute. Popeye's came out a few years ago to go after Chick-fil-A. Yes. This is supposed to be the Chick-fil-A killer sandwich.

Right.

Here you go, brother. You got people that online have made videos talking about how. What we're doing. Right. That's what I'm saying. They've talked about how much this sandwich is better than Chick-fil-A.

I would tell you, it looks better than Chick-fil-A.

It's bigger than what I remember. Chick-fil-A.

That's a thick bird. All right. Let's do it. It's very pickled forward. I don't have a lot of pickle in my house. Again, I don't understand the marriage of chicken and pickle. I don't get it. I love it.

It works for me. Now, really, I'm going to say right away my opinion. I don't think it compares to Chicken House. I don't think it's as good as Chicken House. Our second is KFC. I do think this is comparable, if not better than KFC.

I would always want to take KFC back and try it again.

This is superior to KFC, for sure.

As far as chicken goes, crispier, a little juicier. This is superior to KFC. I've been doing something really. I put it above KFC. I've been doing something very unwise.

What's that? I've been taking two bites of each sandwich. I've been doing two or three. Don't worry. I'm getting full. I'm not even close to full. I'm unaffected. Are we full? Four? That was number four.

That was four. Chicken House. As it goes now, Callahan Chicken. Popeyes. Popeyes. KFC. Last is Wendy's. Okay. Yep. Wendy's. This is what? Hardee's. Hardee's. Heartburn on a plate. If you're in another state, this could also be Carl's Jr.

Apparently, stuff is weird in other states. Yeah, there's always that.

Okay. First off, this just looks sad. That piece of chicken.

That's pretty depressing. That looks like somebody hocked a loogie. I don't know how to put mayonnaise on it.

What is with the pickle? It's one pickle. Because Chick-fil-A made a living off the pickle and the chicken, so everybody has to copy it.

The pickles are sad. Again, you are copying the Lord's chicken. You see this pickle? This pickle is depressing. I'm eating it. This just looks sad. Okay, this is Hardee's slash Carl's Jr. if you're in another area.

That's a potential death. Three, two, one. I kind of appreciate that piece of chicken. It's got a different flavor than the other ones. It does. Crispiness is not there. It tastes like it was fried in the same fire with the fries.

Like there's something with the fry. Like it was fried in some kind of oil. Yep. That's how small the piece of chicken was. It's not. I don't like it. I'm honest. It's not just the way it looks. There's something about the way that it's fried.

It leaves an aftertaste. It does. I'm putting it closer to Wendy's. I put it behind Wendy's. Okay, then it'd be last. So this is in last place for me. What do you think, Rob? I was going to say above Wendy's.

That's what I was going to say. It was around Wendy's. It's definitely around there. So this is bottom tier. Right. It's definitely bottom tier. And Wendy's is, I think, slightly... I'm going to say Wendy's is slightly better.

Slightly edge. So this gets the... This is bottom. Hardee's is at the bottom, which is... You know, I've said this many times. If you're an executive at Hardee's, Carl's Jr., listen to me. I know you're not listening, but listen.

If you would switch to breakfast and do breakfast all day long... You'd make a killing. You would kill it. Just become Hardee's breakfast all day long place. You would get my business. I would love to have a steak, egg, and cheese biscuit at, like, 3 o 'clock.

I'd roll in there for some sausage and gravy biscuits. I'm going to tell you a secret. And my wife knows this.

She's off camera, but she knows this. Every once in a while, on my way home, I will get a pre-dinner. Whopper.

Oh, my God. A pre-dinner. Whopper?

Maybe certain things shouldn't be said. Yeah, every once in a while, I'll stop and get a little sandwich, because I need a little something extra. Maybe I missed lunch. But anyway, if I could get a pre-dinner steak, egg, and cheese biscuit,.

That would be the end all. So you'd treat a Whopper like you'd treat an appetizer at Carrabba's or something. I'd like the mozzarella sticks. I'd get all the burger. What's for dinner tonight, honey? We're having spaghetti.

I'm going to run by and get me an appetizer. I'd like a Whopper, please. That's last.

McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, and Zaxby's Enter the Rankings

Hey, wait a minute. But you've been to restaurants where the appetizer is as big as anything else.

Yeah. But it's usually a platter for, like, yeah, family platter. You get, like, that for four people. Where are we at?

Oh, McDonald's. Where? Okay. We brought McDonald's in, but we did not get a McDonald's McChicken.

This is the McDonald's Crispy Chicken Deluxe.

This is the supposedly nicer version.

I think this is only the second sandwich we've had that actually has tomato on it.

And it has, does it have tomato? Yes, it has tomato. And it's got brown lettuce. I think KFC was the only other one that had tomato.

A lot of mayonnaise. A lot of mayo. And some sweet-looking lettuce.

I'm going to get emails about the pre-dinner Whopper, I feel. Is there an after-dinner Whopper? We have determined what your problem is.

I don't know how you can say you get a pre-dinner Whopper and then come on and eat dinner. But you eat portions of four sandwiches, like, I'm full. Whatever. I was, okay. You know? This is McDonald's.

I'm performing. Okay, anyway. Should we toast the sandwich? No, I'm going to toast the sandwich. Which one is this, McDonald's? This is McDonald's. Okay, McDonald's. The regular Chicken Deluxe, yeah. Pass the lips over the gums.

Oh, bottom tier. All I taste is bread. Yeah.

It does have a fancy bun. I think that's called... But that's all I'm getting. The bun's the best part of the sandwich. I think it's called brioche. Mayo held a little bit of warmth to it. Which is helping it, but...

This is flavorless. The chicken is literally... He's right. It's so thin. It's like 50 breading. But there's no flavor. There's no flavor in this. There's nothing. It's all mayo and lettuce. This is last.

This is... This is behind Hardee's. McDonald's, you're trying to keep up with Chick-fil-A, but you ain't even in the same neighborhood. Y 'all on different planets. I think that's the easy one to say.

That's at the bottom. Yeah. So what did we say? Wendy's, the bottom tier. Wendy's. Well, then we said Wendy's and Hardee's. And then...

Wendy's, Hardee's, McDonald's. Okay, so going down the list. Chicken House. Chicken House is number one. Popeye's is number two. Popeye's is two.

KFC. KFC. Then Wendy's. Yeah, Wendy's. We put Wendy's and then Hardee's and then McDonald's. Hardee's and then McDonald's. We got one left.

Which is... Wait a minute. We have Chick-fil-A and then Zaxby's. That was only six or seven. How many? We got eight total. We have two left. We have Chick-fil-A and Zaxby's. Oh, we got Zaxby's. I forgot about Zaxby's.

These are the two I'm looking forward to. This is Chick-fil-A. And before we even touch it, just look at this in the camera. This is supposed to be chicken that is the Lord's chicken. And I know that there are certain friends of mine on Facebook that may get offended.

But this does not look appetizing. No. I've said it before.

I've eaten the first... I had never eaten a Chick-fil-A. And the first time I ate a Chick-fil-A, I put a post out saying I don't get it. Okay. There's like nothing on there. Let's be tabula rasa. Let's come at this with a clean slate.

Let's try it. Okay. We've had all the other chicken. This is supposed to be... The chicken. The Christian drug of choice. Yes. Chicken is drugged. Oh, I... No. All right. Three, two, one. Chicken itself is up there.

I don't get the pickle. I just... I know you said you like it. I love it. For one. Pickles are... I don't have any pickle on my piece, but I probably won't need it. I will say this.

Sizably smaller than the other sandwiches. I think.

It's much smaller. I want to say, I've had Chick-fil-A where the chicken was about the KFC size, but... The chick... The chicken is... It's almost got like a hint of... The chicken itself has a hint of pickle to it.

It does.

It's got that pickle juice. And I think they fry it in peanut oil. I think they do.

And I don't have any... I don't have a pickle in mine, so I can taste a little bit more like the pepper. Want more, babe? No. I had one where the pepper... So it's got a little bit more seasoning, I think, than the other ones, but...

I don't think it's any higher than KFC. No, it's a mid-level.

Yes. It's middle of the road. I think it's slightly better than the bottom tier.

It's better than Wendy's. Yeah. Because we got Wendy's and then Hardee's and McDonald's. So that puts it... After Popeye's. Because you got Popeye's, KFC, Wendy's. I think we put it between KFC... KFC and Wendy's.

Yeah. Yep.

I'm OK with that. Here's the thing, though. That means, before we even finish, because we've got Zaxby's, that we have definitively said... Two Calvinists and a guy who doesn't like Christmas vacation.

We've got... Have definitively said that Popeye's has a superior chicken sandwich to Chick-fil-A. Which I'm... Which may... Sad to say, but... Again, I may lose friends.

Oh, I've probably already... We've already lost friends. I can go ahead and think of one who goes to a certain church and... Do you disagree with that? Yep, yep. I'm thinking the same person. All right.

We have an end beyond belief. Yes. OK.

Well, just know, brother, if you know who you are, you're always invited to come on and have a rematch. You can come and do it with us. And that would be another Calvinist. There you go. I think. Yeah.

Yeah. OK. OK. All right. Last one. Zaxby's. Let's see what you got, baby. I never had this sandwich.

I have not either, actually. Go ahead. I like the looks. I'm going to tell you something. It does not have mayonnaise on it. It has Zaxby's sauce. That might be a game changer. But it has pickles. Three pickles.

Every sandwich has had them. And the chicken actually looks good. It's nice and white. That's a good piece of chicken, guys. Yeah. It looks good. It looks good. All right. All right. Here we go. Three, two, one.

That's straight up top three. That's top tier. For me. What do you think? I might be the oddball. You don't like it? Since I don't like it, I'm not digging the sauce.

The sauce does wonders for me. It mellows out the pickle a little bit.

So, given the Chicken House, Popeyes, and KFC, it's definitely ahead of time. Chick-fil-A. I put it ahead of Chick-fil-A. Yep. I put it ahead of KFC. Me, too. I couldn't put it ahead of KFC, but I'm going to get outvoted here.

So, I would say it would be Chicken House. Oh, yeah. Popeyes. Mm-hmm. Zaxby's. We're going to... We're there. And I can get that switch. KFC. Mm-hmm. So, our top tier recommendations. If you are anywhere near northeast Florida, our top tier recommendation would be KFC.

Go to Callaghan Chicken. Yeah. And I said from the beginning they were going to win, so perhaps I was a little biased, but it's just such a great chicken sandwich, and it's a great place, and it's great people.

But, if you are not anywhere near Jacksonville, then we would recommend, I can't believe it, Popeyes. Popeyes. Popeyes. Popeyes. Sandwich is the best. All right. So, Popeyes is the winner of the National Chains.

Yep. And the Chick-fil-A of the, not even a regional chain, of the local stores. Right.

But here's the interesting thing about Callaghan BBQ, and I've told you all this before, but they haven't heard it. Years ago, when my former pastor went to Maine for something, and he was up there visiting some other pastors, and they were looking, I guess, to help another church out.

And as soon as he told this fella he was from Callaghan, the first thing out of the guy's mouth was, you got that chicken house. That's awesome. You got that chicken place. All the way up in Maine, you got that chicken place.

So, people have traveled far and wide for chicken house. People know about Callaghan Chicken.

You got it. So, we have, I think we are correct to definitively say Callaghan Chicken's the best. Then we're going Popeyes, Zaxby's, KFC.

That's our top tier. Bottom tier is Wendy's, Hardee's, McDonald's. No Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A was before Wendy's. That's right. Chick-fil-A.

So, Chick-fil-A. Wendy's. Hardee's. Hardee's. And then McDonald's was just... So, ladies and gentlemen, we are Calvinists, which means we are Christians. And we have still put Chick-fil-A in the middle of the pack.

Sorry guys, but... May Truett Cathy rest in peace.

Well, it's like when they made all the craze about the macaroni and cheese. I went to Chick-fil-A to get macaroni and cheese. I'm like, this is pedestrian macaroni and cheese. I don't understand why everybody loves it.

Pedestrian. That's probably the greatest insult against macaroni and cheese. It's pedestrian.

I'm just... That was the first thing I thought. I've made better mac and cheese out of a craft box than what's in this stuff. I love it. I love you, Richard. And thank you, Brock, for being here.

I love you, too. You're very welcome. I enjoyed it as much. So, let me finish up by saying this. This was a seasonal thing. We don't do these kind of shows often, but I am thankful if you came and watched all the way through with us and enjoyed watching us eat and talk about these sandwiches.

Last year we did... We ranked Christmas movies, so this year we ranked chicken sandwiches. Who knows what we're going to do next year. But I do hope you have a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for tuning in today to Conversations with a Calvinist.

This is Richard Roden. That is Brock Roden. And I'm Keith Foskey.

And I've been your Calvinist. May God bless you. Thank you for listening to Conversations with a Calvinist. If you enjoyed the program, please take a moment to subscribe. And if you have a question you would like us to discuss on our future program, please email us at calvinistpodcast at gmail dot com.

As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners. All who come to Him in repentance and faith will find Him to be a perfect Savior. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

May God be with you.