Nearly 42% Said These Two Are The Best Sandwiches At McDonald's

It's no secret why McDonald's hamburgers are so delicious (or, at least it's not anymore!). Nor is the fact that McDonald's is quite accomplished at serving up fast food that does not happen to be burgers. Along with their iconic breakfast sandwiches, McDonald's is also known for its chicken, ribs, and fish sandwiches.

In fact, McDonald's is really the OG when it comes to fast-food fish sandwiches, having rolled out the first one on Good Friday 1962 as a meatless fast food sandwich alternative, according to Smithsonian Magazine. And then, of course, there is McDonald's Crispy Chicken Sandwich, which the fast-food giant introduced in 2021 as its champion of the ongoing fast-food chicken sandwich wars. 

While McDonald's is busy fending off plenty of worthy competition from other chains, its Crispy Chicken Sandwich is virtually unrivaled among McDonald's most beloved non-burger sandwiches. We got our first inkling in the results of a previous Mashed survey in which a mere 5.45% of respondents were willing to call the Crispy Chicken their least favorite McDonald's sandwich. But to really satisfy our curiosity, we thought it best to come right out and ask Americans which McDonald's sandwich is, in fact, their favorite. 

The results of our most recent survey indicate that, yes, McDonald's Crispy Chicken sandwich is THE favorite. But it shares that honor with another, and together these two sandwiches were voted the best at McDonald's by 42% of our survey respondents. 

In a recent Mashed survey on the "best" McDonald's sandwich, our 605 respondents were asked to choose among the following six: Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Filet-O-Fish, McChicken, McRib, Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich, and Spicy Deluxe Crispy Chicken Sandwich.

As it turned out, nearly 42% of respondents chose either the Crispy Chicken Sandwich or the Filet-O-Fish, and between the two, the votes were distributed precisely 50:50, which is to say that each of the Crispy Chicken Sandwich and the Filet-O-Fish pulled in 20.99% of the total (with the remaining 68% of the total votes divided fairly evenly, with the exception of the Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich, which earned a slightly higher 17.19%).

While the popularity of McDonald's Crispy Chicken Sandwich was, as noted above, pretty much to be expected at this point, the love for the Filet-O-Fish took us somewhat by surprise. The reason? In our prior survey regarding the worst McDonald's sandwiches, the Filet-O-Fish took that dubious honor, hands-down, with a solid 34.88% of the votes.

So, how to account for this discrepancy? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we are, at the moment, right in the midst of Lent, a time when observant Catholics eschew meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays. 

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Or to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, you can't always get exactly what you want, but what you may need at any given time is another story altogether.