Chick-fil-A, the Georgia-born chain that built its brand on the chicken sandwich, has been named America’s favorite fried chicken restaurant. The fast-food chain took 25.3% of the vote in a YouGov survey of more than 44,000 Americans released this month, finishing ahead of KFC at 17.9% and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 16.2%, USA TODAY reported.
The poll is part of YouGov’s Best Bites 2026 U.S. restaurant brand rankings, published in April 2026 with responses collected between March 2025 and February 2026. The same survey crowned Five Guys the top burger chain, Pizza Hut the leading pizza chain, and Taco Bell the leader in tacos and burritos. The fried chicken category sits alongside burgers, pizza, tacos, and fries in the report’s ranking of America’s favorite fast-food chains. YouGov’s data is grounded in the firm’s QSR CategoryView, which uses real consumer responses to rank brands Americans consider and the ones they believe offer the best quality and value.
Chick-fil-A Tops the Fried Chicken Field
The YouGov poll, the Best Bites 2026 U.S. restaurant brand rankings, asked more than 44,000 U.S. consumers between March 2025 and February 2026 to name their favorite fast-food chains across several food categories. In fried chicken, Chick-fil-A took 25.3% of the vote, ahead of KFC at 17.9% and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 16.2%, USA TODAY reported.
Raising Cane’s finished fourth with 6.8% of the vote, and Church’s rounded out the top five at 3.5%, per AllRecipes. Chick-fil-A also ranked first in YouGov’s quality assessment for the fried chicken category, a separate measure from the popularity vote, the same outlet reported. The result places Chick-fil-A ahead of three chains that have fried chicken as a core menu item. KFC and Popeyes both have multi-decade histories in the fried chicken business.
The data is grounded in nearly a year of responses from U.S. consumers, YouGov said in its report. Chick-fil-A’s first-place finish came in a category where five national chains compete for the same order. None of the five share a corporate parent, and each operates on a multi-state footprint.
- 25.3% of voters picked Chick-fil-A as their favorite fried chicken chain
- 17.9% picked KFC, 16.2% picked Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
- 6.8% picked Raising Cane’s, 3.5% picked Church’s
- More than 44,000 Americans answered the survey between March 2025 and February 2026
- Chick-fil-A also led YouGov’s separate fried chicken quality assessment
Other Categories Crowned Different Winners
The YouGov survey ranked chains in several food categories, and the fried chicken race was not the only one with a clear winner. Five Guys led the burger ranking with 15.5% of the vote, narrowly ahead of Burger King at 15% and In-N-Out at 12.1%, USA TODAY reported.
Wendy’s followed at 10.2% and McDonald’s at 8.7% in the burger category, the same outlet reported. Pizza Hut topped the pizza ranking with 19.1%, ahead of Domino’s at 17.1%, Papa John’s at 11.4%, Little Caesars at 5.3%, and Marco’s Pizza at 4.7%. In tacos and burritos, Taco Bell led with 30.3%, with Chipotle second at 20.6%. The five categories together map the largest fast-food segments the survey covered.
McDonald’s led the fries category with 39.2% of the vote, MassLive reported, more than four times the share earned by second-place Five Guys at 9.0%. Across the full report, 70% of Americans said they buy food or drinks from fast-food restaurants at least once a month. The same report found 30% buy fast food at least once a week.
The variety of category winners reflects how a fast-food market has split by food type. Each of the five category leaders in YouGov’s report is a different brand, and none of them share a corporate parent. KFC, Popeyes, and Chick-fil-A each run chicken-forward menus, which is reflected in the survey’s fried chicken ranking. The chain that finished first in the burger category, Five Guys, also placed second in the fries category.
| Category | Top Chain | Share | Second Chain | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fried chicken | Chick-fil-A | 25.3% | KFC | 17.9% |
| Burgers | Five Guys | 15.5% | Burger King | 15% |
| Pizza | Pizza Hut | 19.1% | Domino’s | 17.1% |
| Tacos and burritos | Taco Bell | 30.3% | Chipotle | 20.6% |
| Fries | McDonald’s | 39.2% | Five Guys | 9.0% |
From a Hapeville Diner to a National Brand
Chick-fil-A’s story begins in a 24-hour diner across from a Ford assembly plant south of Atlanta. Founder S. Truett Cathy and his brother Ben opened the Dwarf Grill on May 23, 1946, in Hapeville, Georgia, per the historical society’s biography of the founder.
The diner had 10 stools and four booths, and was later renamed the Dwarf House. Through the years, the business prospered and grew into other locations in the Atlanta area. The first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in 1967 in Atlanta’s Greenbriar Shopping Center, the historical society adds.
The chain’s signature product came in 1964, when Truett Cathy settled on a recipe of more than 20 seasonings for a boneless chicken breast sandwich with two pickle slices on a toasted butter bun. He had been testing the recipe with customers for years, and the final version became what the chain still serves today. The secret recipe is locked in a safe at the chain’s Atlanta headquarters. The chicken sandwich is widely considered the first boneless fried chicken breast sandwich served at a national fast-food chain.
Growth was deliberate. The chain opened its first free-standing restaurant in Atlanta in 1986 and its first drive-thru-only location in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1993. Chick-fil-A crossed $2 billion in system-wide sales by 2006 and reached $8 billion a decade later, the historical society said.
The chain is still headquartered in Atlanta and remains family-owned, with the Cathy family still in leadership roles. A retrospective look at Chick-fil-A’s history from a 1946 diner to today walks through each of these moments in detail. Its roots in Georgia are the same as the company’s current footprint, with restaurants across the country serving the same recipe that started as an experiment in a Hapeville pressure cooker. The chain’s closed-on-Sunday policy, in place since the original 1946 opening, has also survived the company’s growth.
- 1946: S. Truett Cathy and brother Ben open the Dwarf Grill in Hapeville, Georgia
- 1964: Cathy settles on the recipe for the original chicken sandwich
- 1967: The first Chick-fil-A restaurant opens in Atlanta’s Greenbriar Mall
- 1986: Chick-fil-A opens its first free-standing restaurant in Atlanta
- 1993: The first drive-thru-only Chick-fil-A opens in Greenville, South Carolina
- 2006: System-wide sales cross $2 billion; 2016: sales reach $8 billion
The Habits Behind the Visits
The YouGov report places the fried chicken ranking inside a broader picture of American fast-food habits. 70% of Americans buy food or drinks from fast-food restaurants at least once a month, MassLive reported, and 30% said they do so at least once a week. Weekly fast-food customers skew younger and middle-income, with 51% of those who eat fast food at least once a week under 45 and 49% falling into middle-income households. Value and discount menus ranked as the top factor driving visits, followed by a clean dining environment, the same report found. The full YouGov report goes deeper into the demographics and decision factors behind each category.
Chick-fil-A has historically been closed on Sundays, a policy in place since the original Dwarf Grill opened in 1946. The chain has also been named the top fast-food spot for customer satisfaction for seven straight years, per a separate ranking cited by Fox5. Both factors, consistency and service, line up with what YouGov measured in its quality assessment.
The AllRecipes coverage of the YouGov poll pointed to two specific Chick-fil-A traits that helped drive the result: the flavor and quality of the food, and the chain’s customer service experience, with its now-famous ‘my pleasure’ greeting. Drive-thru speed was also a factor, the same outlet reported. Those traits, taste and service, line up with what YouGov measured in its quality assessment. The combined effect is a brand that wins both the popularity vote and the separate quality score for fried chicken.
The Survey’s Limits
The YouGov ranking measures preference, not reach. Respondents named their favorite fried chicken chain, which favors brands that customers encounter often enough to form a strong opinion. The poll did not weigh chains against the alternatives available in each respondent’s area.
AllRecipes food editor Emily Hunt, who has written about the chain as a self-described Popeyes fan, made the same point about availability in a June 10, 2026 piece. She argued that Raising Cane’s and Church’s may have been limited by how widely they operate, but said the same argument does not apply to KFC and Popeyes. The YouGov report does not break down fried chicken results by region or by chain availability. The full rankings are available in the YouGov report, and AllRecipes’ coverage of the poll adds an outside voice on the gap.
Chick-fil-A won by a bit of a landslide. While 25.3 percent of customers preferred the chain, the second-place contender, KFC, received only 17.9 percent of votes.
Emily Hunt, a food editor at AllRecipes, wrote those words in a June 10, 2026 piece about the poll.
What the Results Say About Fast Food
The YouGov report frames the fried chicken ranking inside a broader consumer shift toward chains that combine value with consistency. Value and discount menus ranked as the top factor driving visits, followed by a clean dining environment, MassLive reported.
The five category leaders YouGov crowned (Chick-fil-A, Five Guys, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and McDonald’s for fries) are not the cheapest options in any of their categories. Each is a chain that has built its brand on a specific product, and each has a multi-state footprint. The pattern suggests that American fast food consumers are willing to pay a small premium for chains that have built a clear identity around a core product. None of the five category leaders share a corporate parent, the report noted.
The fried chicken ranking shows that pattern most clearly. Chick-fil-A, KFC, and Popeyes all compete in roughly the same price range, but Chick-fil-A is the only one that pairs the product with a customer service reputation strong enough to show up in YouGov’s quality assessment. The YouGov data does not break down why respondents picked Chick-fil-A, but the quality score and the popularity vote both put it first.
