15 Of The Unhealthiest Chicken Sandwiches You Can Order At Chain Restaurants

Chicken sandwiches are all the rage these days in the fast food industry, with chains adding them to the menu popping out new recipes to compete with the success of Popeyes. One unfortunately underreported loser in the "chicken sandwich wars" was the consumer themself. This focus on serving up deep fried chicken breasts on a pillowy bun has failed to reconcile with the health repercussions of the dish in question. With all these chain restaurant chicken sandwiches featuring deep fried chicken, it's hard to know where to turn for a healthy alternative.

It's not just the Popeyes and KFCs of the fast food world that are serving some unhealthy chicken sandwiches. The worst offenders are actually sit-down chain restaurants like TGI Fridays and the Cheesecake Factory. There are definitely some fast food classics on here, but a solid enough chunk of this list consists of chains where you order and tip a server and wait a decent amount of time before your meal comes to engorge yourself. We scoured chains from across the country and found these were the 15 most unhealthy chicken sandwiches you can get at chain restaurants in the United States. 

Southern chicken chain Raising Cane's is known for its chicken tenders and not its sandwich. In fact, the Cane's sandwich doesn't do much too change the formula that makes the expanding chicken chain so popular. This basic sandwich consists of three tenders, lettuce, and Cane's sauce on a toasted bun. Despite the simplicity, this still ends up being a radically unhealthy fast food sandwich. 

The chicken sandwich at Raising Cane's has 780 calories, 39 grams of fat altogether, 6 grams of saturated fat, 1,470 milligrams of sodium, and 66 grams of carbohydrates. That's a hefty dose of your daily sodium intake, but the carbs here that concern us the most when looking at this item.

Compared to competitors KFC and Chick Fil-A, the sandwich at Cane's is higher in carbs. The extra breading you get with three tenders as compared to a single fried breast or patty might be the explanation for this. Regardless, those extra bread-y carbs are no good for your blood sugar, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. If you suffer from diabetes or are have high blood sugar, this is one fast food chicken sandwich you should probably avoid.

Finally, we arrive at Popeyes. The chain's famed chicken sandwich makes the list, albeit in a newer form than the classic or spicy varieties it debuted with. The least healthy sandwich on the chicken chain's menu is actually the Classic Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich. Essentially, it's a regular chicken sandwich that comes topped with a couple slices of bacon and a slice of Swiss cheese. Naturally, the sandwich is less healthy than its original counterpart. 

The Popeyes Classic Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich contains 830 calories, 53 total grams of fat, 19 grams of saturated fat, 1.5 grams of trans fat, and 1,874 milligrams of sodium. This sandwich has more saturated fat per serving than any other fast food chicken sandwich we could find. While some of the sit-down chains had more fat, this Popeyes sandwich combines fried chicken, bacon, and cheese in a way that leads to high fat content that blows its competitors out of the water. When you take into account that, as shown by a study in Nutrition Research, the overconsumption of saturated fats can easily lead to weight gain and its consequent health effects, you might not think of this as an achievement.

Join us down under at the Outback Steakhouse. Or don't, if you are looking for a healthy grilled chicken sandwich. That's correct, in a sea of unhealthy fried chicken sandwiches this barbecue chain dares to bring a grilled chicken breast to the fight. 

Somehow, Outback's sandwich competes. The Sweet Chook O' Mine Sandwich is fully loaded with bacon and cheese, as well as 880 calories (470 of those from fat), 53 grams of fat altogether, 17 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 1,430 milligrams of sodium, and 56 grams of carbohydrates. 

Despite featuring a grilled chicken breast as its main component, this Outback menu item is loaded with unhealthy fats, including trans fat. Even though it's just a single gram, the truth is that any trans fats are bad for your health, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as they all increase the production of bad cholesterol. Overconsumption of them can make you more susceptible to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity. 

Buffalo Wild Wings is known for its wings and hot sauces, but the menu also includes some outright wild chicken sandwiches as well. This extra hot sandwich takes inspiration from Nashville and the city's specific brand of hot chicken that has caught on like wildfire nationwide. With Nashville hot sauce, pickles, ranch, slaw, and pickled hot peppers, this menu item goes above and beyond the simplicity called for in a traditional Nashville hot chicken sandwich. It also goes above and beyond in terms of sodium content. 

The Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich contains 810 calories, 47 total grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 1.5 grams of trans fat, and 2,690 milligrams of sodium. It is a sandwich high in unhealthy types of fats as well, but that sodium level alone counts for more than the daily recommended level of 2,000 milligrams. That level of salt consumption, on top of the fries that come with the meal and whatever else you eat that day, can become concerning. 

Salt begets more salt, as it were, and eating more of it than normal can lead you to craving saltier foods, as registered dietician Amanda A. Kostro Miller tells Byrdie.

This bad boy is loaded and stacked with ingredients both glazed and fried, featuring a whiskey-glazed grilled chicken breast topped with cheese, bacon, fried Cajun-spiced onions, and a whiskey-glaze mayo (on a bed of lettuce, tomato, and pickles to boot). This totals up to about 1,160 calories (510 of which are from fat), 56 grams of fat overall, 17 grams of saturated fat, 3,140 milligrams of sodium, 107 grams of carbohydrates. This hefty sandwich will push you toward your daily recommended limits in some categories, but there is one specific reason we might recommend avoiding this item. Can you guess by now?

With over 3,000 milligrams of sodium, the Friday's Signature Whiskey-Glazed Chicken Sandwich contains more salt than you should be consuming in a span of about a day and a half, all in one sitting. While the long-term impact of a diet like this might be clear to you, you might not be aware of more sudden effects of eating sodium-rich meals. Consuming too much salt can actually impact your ability to get a good night's sleep, as Dr. Sandra Darling tells Cleveland Clinic. If you eat a meal, like this sandwich and a side of fires, very high in sodium as your last before bedtime, you are more likely to have restless sleep and experience grogginess when waking in the morning. 

This next chicken sandwich is a saucy delight, but those sauces combine with its other ingredients to make it the most unhealthy one on Red Robin's menu. This sandwich, featuring crispy chicken tossed in Buzz sauce and topped with jalapeño slices, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle aioli, most definitely packs as much heft as Red Robin's burgers. 

The Ragin' Cajun Chicken Sandwich is a juicy delivery vehicle for 1,020 calories (590 from fat), 66 grams of fat altogether, 21 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 3,170 milligrams of sodium, and 67 grams of carbohydrates. There are a lot of spicy elements to this sandwich, which might explain the extremely high salt levels. While hot sauce is low in calories and fats, it can be extremely high in sodium. The fact that this sandwich is glazed with a specialty hot sauce and served with a chipotle aioli makes it no surprise that its sodium levels are this concerning.

This one looks so cute and unassuming, but we promise it isn't. There are not many ingredients on the Applebee's Sweet & Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich, but it's one of the least healthy options on this whole list. 

The simple sandwich features three components: a breaded chicken breast doused in Sweet Asian Chile sauce, coleslaw, and a Brioche bun. Despite this lack of fatty items like bacon or cheese, the Sweet & Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich still contains 1,350 calories, 62 grams of fat overall, 12 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 3,520 milligrams of sodium, and 159 grams of carbs. In terms of carbs and sodium, this is one of the least healthy items at the chain. Both the Sweet Asian Chili sauce and fried chicken from Applebee's should be at the top of your avoid list if you're trying to eat healthy. 

Eating too much salt can lead to high blood pressure. If you are feeling dizziness, chest pain, or difficulty breathing, those are all symptoms that can indicate complications from hypertension. Limiting your consumption to a healthy amount of salt can make your day-to-day actions a lot more comfortable.

First off, we chose to only feature the most unhealthy chicken sandwich from each of the 15 popular restaurant chains selected. Unhealthiness was assessed based on the daily recommended limits for calories, sodium, fats, and carbohydrates. Each of these items approaches or exceeds those limits in one category, if not more. 

Any item with more than 1,000 calories is more than you should be eating in one sitting. If an item had more than 15 grams of saturated fats or any trans fats, we considered it unhealthy; the daily recommended intake of saturated fat should be less than 10% of your total calories. We considered items with more than 1,750 milligrams of sodium to be a health risk, given the suggested daily limit of 2,000 milligrams. Additionally, any chicken sandwich with more than 100 total grams of carbohydrates is eating too much into the daily recommended intake of roughly 200 to 300 grams to be considered anywhere near healthy.