The Chick-Fil-A Dipping Sauce That's A Huge No-Go For Your Nuggets

With more than 3,000 locations across the United States (and nearly 500 in Texas alone), Chick-fil-A is far from being one of the larger fast food chains in the country. But despite not being quite as widespread as the big-name likes of McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King, Chick-fil-A remains the most popular quick service restaurant in the U.S. as of 2025, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

While its known for its famous chicken offerings — the classic chicken sandwich, the spicy chicken sandwich, and the lightly breaded, juicy chicken nuggets — the fast food restaurant also serves up a wide range of dipping sauces. Because we're always excited to rank food options, Chowhound had to take on Chick-fil-A's sauces and find out which ones stood out, and which should've just stayed in the kitchen.

It's really difficult to call anything at Chick-fil-A subpar because the chain typically executes its fast food dishes so well. But when it comes to dipping sauces, one in particular just didn't do much for us at all. And, shockingly, it was the garden herb ranch sauce, which ranked dead last since it was lacking in the three signature flavors of the chicken chain's other dipping sauces: sweet, savory, or smoky.

For starters, the garden herb ranch sauce just has a lackluster taste profile overall. Paired with Chick-fil-A's savory chicken nuggets, it doesn't hold up whatsoever. The sauce isn't very complex or zesty and has a strong, tangy buttermilk flavor, which explains why it's one of the higher calorie sauces the chain offers, at 140 calories per serving. You might like it with Chick-fil-A's waffle fries, but you have many better options when it comes to dipping sauces for the nuggets.

Your best bet is the famous Chick-fil-A sauce — a top-secret recipe that you can DIY with honey mustard, barbecue, and ranch. We'd also recommend the honey roasted barbecue sauce, which oddly comes in a small squeeze packet unlike their other dipping sauces. This option has a little bit more of a smoky and savory element than the Chick-fil-A sauce. Finally, you really can't go wrong with the chain's standard barbecue sauce, as well as its uniquely sweet and spicy sriracha sauce, which adds a nice, heated kick to the typical sweet and sour flavor.

As we mentioned, it's really hard to criticize Chick-fil-A's food because they almost always do everything so well. But sadly, the famous fast food chain's garden herb ranch sauce just doesn't meet the standards we've come to expect from Chick-fil-A.