“It’s all about that taste.”
We have all heard it said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Generally this saying is accompanied by a lecture, article or news story reminding us of the importance of eating a healthy meal in the morning to provide energy and help speed up metabolism. I am not here to lecture you so this is definitely not that type of article. Today we are only concerned with taste. Consequently everything on our list will be bad for you.1
This list contains the five best breakfast sandwiches served at nationwide fast food chains. This leaves out many great local places that serve amazing breakfasts, but since our audience is global we want to include places that many of you could reasonably visit without having to travel to another city, state or country. I’ve also only included standard menu items. I would hate to list something here and get your hopes up only to dash them because the restaurant only served the item for a limited time. In order to add some variety, I have decided not to include any restaurant more than once on this list. Enough preliminaries, let’s get this party started.
5. Chicken Bacon Sandwich – Dunkin’ Donuts
Dunkin’ Donuts is primarily known for two things. 1. Having coffee that is not as good as Starbucks, and 2. Having donuts that are not as good as Krispy Kreme2 Thankfully, they now have a line of hot and delicious breakfast sandwiches and this is probably the best of the bunch. A chicken breast topped with bacon and cheese and served inside a flaky and buttery croissant. What could be better than that? Well, four things actually . . .
4. Sausage McMuffin with Egg – McDonalds
The Egg McMuffin came first, but when McDonalds upgraded that thin piece of ham3 with a delicious sausage patty they changed everything. The crispy English muffin and griddle fried egg make it different than most other breakfast sandwiches. Other fast food joints have tried to duplicate it and failed miserably4 Too bad McDonalds doesn’t serve this all day5
3. Steak Breakfast Crunch Wrap – Taco Bell
Many of you are wondering if you should finish reading this since I am recommending something from the Taco Bell breakfast menu. Please bear with me. While Taco Bell still struggles with many of their breakfast items, they hit a home run with this one. Putting a hash brown inside a breakfast sandwich was a bold move. Combining it with steak, egg and cheese took it up a notch, but placing all of that in a delicious tortilla and having it shaped like a hexagon seals the deal. At least for me it does. I never knew geometry could taste so good!
2. Country Fried Steak Biscuit – Hardees6
The biscuits are made from scratch daily, and you can taste it. The country fried steak has a wonderful peppery flavor that keeps you coming back for more. You can even add egg and/or cheese to this if you are feeling especially adventurous, but to be completely honest this sandwich is perfect the way it is. The greatness of this sandwich even overcomes Hardees’ terrible commercials. It is so good in fact that I debated placing it at number one, but it was just barely beat out by . . .
1. Spicy Chicken Biscuit – Chick Fil A
The actual biscuit is not quite as good as Hardees, but still extremely tasty. The hunk of spicy chicken they put on here is the real show stopper though. I could talk about their friendly service or how quickly they move people through long drive thru lines, but as I promised this article is all about taste. Chick Fil A has mastered the art of making a wonderful chicken sandwich and have transferred that knowledge to breakfast. Adding a spicy kick to what they do is so good it should be illegal.
Did I miss any great options? Let me know and I will go try them immediately. This website gives me a pretty sizable breakfast stipend so money is no object! If you disagree please remember that these are the opinions of a solitary man living in a messy apartment that may or may not contain a chicken.
- I don’t actually know if these items are bad for you because, once again, this article is about taste. ↩
- I don’t drink coffee but my wife assures me this is true. I do eat donuts though so I know about the superiority of Krispy Kreme from personal experience. ↩
- Or Canadian bacon for the sophisticated among you. ↩
- I’m looking at you Jack in the Box and Burger King! ↩
- In some parts of the country they do serve this all day, but for some reason the McDonalds in the Middle Tennessee area refuse to do so. If you live in a part of the country (or world) where McDonalds serves this item all day then you are indeed blessed. ↩
- This may also be available at Carl’s Jr. in the western part of the United States. They have most of the same items, but I did not find it on their menu when I looked online so I only listed Hardees. ↩
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I like Taco Bell in general more than you, so it surprised me to see that they made this list. For the record, I love the Steak Breakfast Crunch Wrap.
I very, very seldom go to a fast food–or actually to any restaurant–for breakfast. Not that I’m adverse to it. Just don’t do it very often. This article makes me want to turn over a new leaf in this regard. I feel as if it has given me a new lease on life. Thanks, Mike.
I will take your word for it since I don’t eat breakfast sandwiches very often. I’m usually home cooking my own delicious breakfast. LOL
Heatlhier and much cheaper to boot! 🙂
Spot-on intro to #5!
Re #4, full all-day breakfast menu is coming to all McD’s in the U.S. later this year, according to an announcement a few days ago: (http://news.mcdonalds.com/US/news-stories/2016/McDonald-s-USA-Expands-its-Popular-All-Day-Breakfa?utm_medium=2_Proactive%20Outbound%20Management&utm_campaign=Proactive%20Brand%20Post)
Re #3, now I’ll have to go try that out.
Re #2, my experience is that as you move further west, the Hardee’s/Carl’s chain transitions from biscuits to croissants and other breads. Very unfortunate. My fave is the traditional sausage-and-egg, but any Hardee’s biscuit is amazing.
Re #1, you can also get pepper jack cheese added to your biscuit if you want to ramp it up another notch.
Love this comment Marcus! This is why REO exists!
You nailed 1 and 2 (although I like cheese on my steak biscuit from Hardees). I’m disappointed not to see gravy making the list anywhere. Also I think the Bojangles biscuit selection deserves an honorable mention.
I love anything from Bojangles, especially breakfast. It seems so polarizing though.
Where is the country ham biscuit topped with season fries from Bojangles?
Is Bojangles nationwide?
I can say for sure it is not having lived in several places. It’s a NC and SC thing for sure, and maybe a few other places, but I have not found it everywhere I’ve been.
I suspect that there are people who didn’t read the introduction that explains Mike’s qualifications.
I’ve read that Chick-Fil-A is discontinuing their Spicy Chicken Biscuit. I think we need to start a campaign to save it.
Now I’ve got to try these sandwiches.
Mike, I know you are not a big Jack in the Box fan, but they have introduced a new steak and egg burrito that seems to be their version of Taco Bell’s breakfast crunchwrap. They even include a hash brown in the burrito. You need to try it and let us know what you think.
Gotta disagree with your take on coffee. DD is vastly superior to Starbucks…actually, almost ANYthing is better than their burnt, bitter, overpriced slop served with an attitude. Starbucks has proven that Americans will fall for anything, properly marketed. Personally, I think Krispy Kreme has done the same thing, with their very ordinary, nay, boring donuts. Regrettably, DD’s best ever Cinnamon coffee has been discontinued. Loved the article, though
I truly believe we will be eating the Taco Bell breakfast crunch wrap in heaven.
Amen.