Every Chick-Fil-A Breakfast Item, Ranked Worst To Best
Fried chicken might not be the first thing you think of when you're deciding what to have for breakfast, but Chick-fil-A has a strong breakfast game nonetheless. Its breakfast options feature many ways to eat its signature fried chicken as well as A.M. classics like eggs, sausage, bacon, and biscuits. There are even some left-field items, like breakfast burritos, that you wouldn't necessarily expect a Southern-based fried chicken restaurant to serve.
But what to choose? The Chick-fil-A breakfast menu is surprisingly long, and that can be intimidating. To act as a guide for the lost, I tried every single thing on Chick-fil-A's breakfast menu and ranked them based on their texture and flavor. The good news is that most of the items I sampled were good to great; Chick-fil-A puts out some high-quality food, and the majority of its breakfast menu is quite satisfying. However, there were a few clunkers that I'm happy to steer you away from. Here's the whole Chick-fil-A breakfast menu, ranked from worst to best.
16. Egg White Grill
The standout feature of the Egg White Grill was an overwhelming sensation of dampness. This was a wet sandwich, in ways both good and bad. On the positive side, the grilled chicken breast was far moister than I expected it to be. It was also nicely seasoned, with plenty of salt and a little acidity from a citrus-based marinade.
The egg white part of the sandwich was watery in a bad way. The scrambled egg whites released so much liquid into the English muffin that it became soggy, and to make matters worse, they didn't taste like anything. The little flavor I could detect wasn't pleasant — egg whites have a high concentration of sulfur that can make them smell stinky and/or rotten. These egg whites weren't horrible, but I could detect little hints of sulfur here and there. The American cheese was barely perceptible in this sandwich; I guess it was drowned out by the blandness of the egg.
As far as I can tell, the only reason to order this sandwich is that you're trying to look after your health, but Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffin is only 10 calories more for a much tastier product, so I would never get the Egg White Grill again.
15. Fruit cup
I had low expectations for a fast food fruit cup ordered in the middle of February, when most fruit is out of season, and this fruit cup met them exactly. It didn't weird me out like the sopping-wet Egg White Grill, but it had very little to recommend it.
The Chick-fil-A menu says the fruit cup should contain strawberries, but mine didn't — I won't hold that against it, because fresh strawberries are always terrible in the winter. The example I received did contain the other three promised fruits: apples, oranges, and blueberries. The apples were super crunchy, which was nice, but they also lacked sweetness. They were powerfully acidic, which threw the fruit cup out of balance. In contrast, the orange segments were quite sweet, but they were so soft and beat up that they were basically pulped. The blueberries looked nice but didn't have any flavor. I would easily choose any other Chick-fil-A breakfast side over this option.
14. Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Muffin
Chick-fil-A's lackluster execution of English muffin-based breakfast sandwiches gave me a new appreciation for how well-constructed Egg McMuffins are. The overarching problem in all of Chick-fil-A's muffins was an excess of moisture. I think part of the issue is that the chain uses scrambled eggs in all of its breakfast menu items. The soft scrambled eggs leach water into the bread, making the whole sandwich soft and robbing it of the textural contrast that would elevate the eating experience.
It's a shame, because Chick-fil-A's English muffins are actually quite good. They taste yeasty and savory and seem fresh. The one on this sandwich was well-toasted too, but it wasn't crispy at all since it absorbed too much egg juice. Overall, this sandwich was bland and underseasoned, and I received a lackluster sausage patty that had noticeable pieces of gristle in it. I wouldn't grade this sandwich so harshly at another fast food restaurant, but Chick-fil-A has so many killer breakfast options that the Sausage, Egg & Cheese Muffin ranks near the bottom.
13. Coffee
Chick-fil-A brews its coffee with beans from Thrive Farmers, which markets itself as a company that uses revenue-sharing to give coffee farmers a better deal. That's a noble ideal, but it doesn't mean the chain's java is anything more than a standard fast food brew.
The coffee I received certainly tasted hot and fresh. It also woke me up with caffeine. Beyond that, it didn't have many positive attributes. It possessed that cardboard flavor that cheap coffee sometimes has where it's hard to tell if the taste is coming from the coffee itself or from the cup it's being served in. There was also some acidity and a bit of an acrid, bitter note. Overall, the coffee seemed like it was brewed fairly weak, which meant that these off flavor notes didn't dominate my palate. I like my coffee black, but if you prefer cream and sugar, this would probably be a fine, inoffensive drink to start your morning. The add-ins would do a lot to hide this coffee's failures.
12. Hash Brown Scramble Burrito
I'm not a fan of the wrap on Chick-fil-A's lunch/dinner menu, so I was prepared to hate the Hash Brown Scramble Burrito, but it was a mildly pleasant surprise. The best part of it was the tortilla — it was properly warmed and soft, and it had a nice toasted wheat taste. The fillings were fine, being pretty basic breakfast burrito stuff, but nothing to write home about.
You can order this burrito with five different choices of meat (or no meat at all), as well as with or without hash browns. I got mine with chicken nuggets and hash browns, and while both components tasted good, they became quite soggy from being in contact with the scrambled eggs. The burrito also didn't have much seasoning apart from salt. It did come with a packet of salsa for added complexity, but I preferred to leave the salsa off. Chick-fil-A's salsa tastes like any cheap store-bought jarred brand, and it's too heavy on the taste of vinegar and tinny canned tomatoes.
11. Chicken, Egg & Cheese Muffin
The Chicken, Egg & Cheese Muffin was a step up from its sausage buddy. The relatively large piece of chicken gave this sandwich more texture than the Sausage, Egg, and Cheese had, though water was still an issue — the eggs made the chicken's breading soggy. The piece of chicken was well-cooked and tender, with notes of black pepper that helped elevate the flavor of the sandwich. However, the taste of the meat itself got lost a bit in the sea of eggs and American cheese, and the salty dairy flavor of the cheese dominated throughout.
There's no reason to order this menu item when the biscuit version of this sandwich is available. The biscuit is better in every way: It's more flavorful, it has a better texture, and it's more satisfying. The Chicken, Egg & Cheese Muffin would be much better if it was made with a fried egg instead of Chick-fil-A's standard scrambled eggs, but until that becomes an option, I probably wouldn't order it again.
10. Hash Brown Scramble Bowl
I'm on record saying that bowls are my most hated food trend, but I must reluctantly admit that I liked Chick-fil-A's Hash Brown Scramble Bowl. It was basically everything in the burrito minus the tortilla. But, freed from the constraints of the wrap, the ingredients could breathe and steam and not immediately make each other soggy. The hash browns were crispy, the eggs were fluffy, and everything had enough salt to amplify its natural flavor. I chose breakfast sausage as the protein in my bowl, and the crumbles of pork added a nice touch of rich savoriness to the dish.
While this was an enjoyable menu item, I still prefer a good breakfast biscuit sandwich over a bowl, as you get more texture and Chick-fil-A's biscuits are amazing. The bowl also came with the same deeply mediocre salsa as the burrito, which knocked it down a few spots on this ranking.
9. Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffin
For me, the Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffin is the only English muffin sandwich on Chick-fil-A's menu that's potentially worth ordering over its biscuit brother. The bacon is the real hero here; since it's so much dryer than the other proteins, it allows the toasted English muffin to stay slightly crispy. Additionally, Chick-fil-A's bacon is super flavorful. Unlike the bacon from some lesser fast food joints that tastes only of salt, Chick-fil-A bacon brings a ton of smoke flavor and porkiness to anything it's used in. The bacon on my muffin was nice and crispy, though it would have been an even stronger textural element if it were a bit thicker.
Ultimately, if you have a strong preference for English muffins over biscuits in your breakfast sandwiches, you should choose the bacon version. However, Chick-fil-A's biscuit game is so strong that I think most people will still prefer one of the chain's many biscuit sandwiches.
8. Chicken Biscuit
The Chicken Biscuit is the most basic breakfast sandwich on Chick-fil-A's menu, but basic doesn't mean boring. The biscuit portion of the sandwich is especially worthy of praise. Chick-fil-A's biscuits are crispy on the outside, fluffy and flaky on the inside, and packed with flavor. They taste buttery, with a bit of buttermilk tang, and they're seasoned with lots of salt and sugar, giving them a lot more personality than the chain's English muffins. I can't think of a better fast food biscuit on the market.
The chicken inside the biscuit tasted pretty good as well. To me, Chick-fil-A's original recipe chicken tastes very MSG and sugar-forward. It slaps you across the face with both savoriness and sugar, which makes it super craveable. However, the chicken in this particular sandwich happened to be dry and overcooked. Since the biscuit was also a little dry, this made the Chicken Biscuit hard to eat without a drink at the ready to wash down the crumbs. With a moister piece of meat, this would rank much higher.
7. Greek yogurt parfait
It almost feels wrong to call the dairy product in this parfait yogurt, as it was so sweet that it read more like pudding. It certainly didn't taste like any Greek yogurt I've ever had in my life. It was almost completely lacking the signature lacto-fermented tang of yogurt. That said, I like pudding, so I thought this "yogurt" was pretty delicious. The vanilla flavoring gave it an ice cream-like vibe, and it was perfectly rich and creamy.
You can choose to top your parfait with either granola or cookie crumbs; I decided to go all-in on dessert with cookie crumbs. To my surprise and delight, the cookie crumbs were chocolate-flavored, which made the parfait taste like an Oreo McFlurry. It felt like an absurd thing to eat for breakfast, but as a sweet treat, it was undeniably appealing. My one complaint was that there were maybe four blueberries in the entire container — if something is advertised as coming with berries, I feel like you should get a larger serving of fruit.
6. Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
I know I said that some people might prefer the bacon muffin to the bacon biscuit, but for me, the biscuit still wins, even though the bacon version is my least favorite biscuit egg sandwich on the menu. The bacon completely dominated the flavor of this sandwich in a good way. Every bite tasted like salty smoked pork, with the creamy cheese, buttery biscuit, and fluffy eggs all playing supporting roles. The flavors of the bacon and the biscuit complemented each other well, with the sugar in the biscuit helping to temper the softness of the bacon.
The reason this doesn't rank as high as some of the other egg sandwiches is that it was a tad dry. The same lack of moisture that made the bacon an asset in the muffin worked against it in the biscuit; biscuits need fillings that combat their inherent dryness.
5. Hash browns
When it comes to fried potato products, surface area-to-volume ratio is the name of the game. You want a high proportion of crunchy outside compared to a soft interior, which is why it's so genius that Chick-fil-A's hash browns are little tater tots. The shell of each tot was shatteringly crisp and encased just the right amount of fluffy (not mushy) shredded potato. Also, perhaps because the smaller form factor means they have to spend less time in the fryer, these hash browns were notably less greasy than the larger hash brown pucks served by some other chains.
The other thing I loved about these hash browns was that they tasted seasoned all the way through — they weren't just salted on the outside. These are the perfect breakfast side dish, but since they are just a side and not the star of the show, I can't put them in the very top tier of Chick-fil-A breakfast items.
4. Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
This item's high placement on this ranking is a reflection of some inconsistency in my local Chick-fil-A's cooking process. While the sausage patty I received in my sausage muffin sandwich wasn't great, the one in the biscuit almost embodied the platonic ideal of breakfast sausage — juicy, porky, and bursting with the flavors of sage, rosemary, and thyme. I couldn't feel a single piece of gristle, either. That sausage, combined with a delicious biscuit and the usual eggs and cheese, made for a truly excellent sandwich.
I did notice after my first few bites that the sausage patty was quite greasy — perhaps excessively so. A single sausage patty from Chick-fil-A is 240 calories, and they're not large, so you know they're filled with fat. A slightly leaner sausage that didn't coat my mouth with grease would have been even better, but there's no way this could have earned the top spot. It's Chick-fil-A; I come here to eat chicken, not pork sausage.
3. Chicken, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
Speaking of chicken, the Chicken, Egg & Cheese Biscuit squeaks by the sausage biscuit to earn the crown as my favorite Chick-fil-A egg sandwich. Although the fried chicken breast had a milder taste than the sausage, it was still delicious, and I liked that it wasn't excessively oily. As with all the biscuit sandwiches, the bread stood up well compared to the English muffins. The biscuit stayed crispy even after being in contact with eggs for over half an hour. The chicken breast in this sandwich was also much crispier than the one in the Chicken, Egg & Cheese Muffin.
As much as I liked this sandwich, I kept wondering if the eggs and cheese were adding much to the experience. Ultimately, when Chick-fil-A chicken is as moist as it should be, it doesn't need much in the way of adornments. There were a couple of simpler sandwiches that I enjoyed a bit more than this one.
2. Chick-n-Minis
I'm not really sure why Chick-n-Minis are on Chick-fil-A's breakfast menu and not the lunch/dinner one. I wish the chain served these all day because they're one of the best things Chick-fil-A makes.
One order of Chick-n-Minis consists of four impossibly cute and tiny sandwiches. Each sandwich is made with a single chicken nugget tucked into a split miniature yeasted roll. Imagine the free bread from Texas Roadhouse but hit with a shrink ray, and that's exactly what these rolls are. They're super soft, pillowy, and sweet, and they're brushed with honey butter. The honey really comes through in each bite, which, as a person who enjoys drizzling honey on fried chicken, I thought was fantastic. The contrast between the sugary bread and the super-savory fried nuggets kept me coming back for more. I could easily have eaten two orders.
The one thing that kept these from being in the first place was that, as is generally a problem with sliders and other miniature sandwiches, there was too much bread and not quite enough chicken. If the nuggets had been just a touch larger, these would have won.
1. Spicy Chicken Biscuit
I have a strong preference for Chick-fil-A's spicy chicken over its original recipe, and the Spicy Chicken Biscuit is the only breakfast item that comes with spicy chicken. The chicken in this sandwich had all the sugar and MSG notes of the original recipe chicken but added in an extra blast of cayenne heat (Chick-fil-A says it's made with multiple types of hot peppers, but it tastes like cayenne to me). I always want spice in my fried chicken sandwiches, because heat helps cut through all the grease and starch, and that's exactly what's going on in the Spicy Chicken Biscuit. Despite only being made with two components, it's the most balanced breakfast sandwich on Chick-fil-A's menu.
Unlike the regular Chicken Biscuit I sampled, the meat in the spicy version was amazingly juicy. When Chick-fil-A chicken is cooked right, it has a soft unctuousness that's reminiscent of chicken thigh even though the chain uses breast meat for all its offerings. The juice from the meat ensured that the biscuit didn't feel too dry, and the lack of eggs and cheese meant that the chicken's breading stayed crispy. There's nothing I would change about this sandwich.
Methodology
I ordered every entree and side dish on Chick-fil-A's breakfast menu and tried them all in one sitting. In cases where an item came with multiple protein choices, I tried to sample them all, but for dishes with 5-plus options for customization, I just picked one option — otherwise, this list would have been too long. For drinks, I only tasted the coffee because it was unique to Chick-fil-A. Other options, like orange juice, milk, and soft drinks, were the same as what anyone could pick up in a grocery store, so I skipped them.
I evaluated each item almost entirely on taste and texture. In a couple of cases, I mentioned other aspects of the dish that seemed relevant, but placement on the list was based completely on flavor and mouthfeel.