9 Fast Food Chicken Snack Wraps, Ranked

Ah, the snack wrap. That crispy little morsel that will sate your appetite for something snacky in a pinch. As for its invention, it's generally accepted that McDonald's began the trend nearly two decades ago. And they were so popular that the restaurant brought them back this summer after about nine years off the menu.

In the meantime, other fast food chains have introduced chicken snack wraps. Some have them in combos that come with two wraps, a side, and a drink, while others have them positioned as an add-on to a meal. Either way, they're a great way to get you through an afternoon at work or to pick up while you're out running errands.

The question is, who does the best snack wrap? We tried to answer that by picking up nine wraps from seven different chains and testing them out. Two of the wraps ended up being bigger than what you would technically get for a snack, but we decided to keep them on the list anyway. So, read on to find out which wraps we thought you should pass on and which ones you should get to ward off that next bout of hangry.

Chick-fil-A is known as the king when it comes to chicken in my home state of Oklahoma. It's famous for its tasty chicken tenders and supreme waffle fries (one of its most ordered menu items), so I assumed that it would have a stellar chicken wrap. You can imagine my surprise when I took that first bite, and it ended up at the very bottom of this ranking.

I will fully admit that this is not technically a snack wrap, unless you have a hankering for a large snack. It's a full-size wrap and the largest on our list. This is a grilled chicken wrap that includes lettuce, Monterey cheese, and avocado lime ranch (according to the website) — all ingredients that made me excited. Not expecting to be given an option when I ordered, I ended up getting zesty apple cider vinaigrette instead of the ranch, thinking it came on the wrap. Unfortunately, the sauce came in a pouch instead.

The issue with this wrap is that it commits a cardinal sin when it comes to chicken: It was dry. Like, painful to chew and swallow dry, meaning whatever sauce you get, you absolutely need to drown the wrap in it. I also wasn't a fan of the dressing coming on the side. I'm not sure if that is a corporate-wide decision or only done at the store I went to, but if a wrap is advertised as coming with a sauce, it kind of helps if the sauce is put inside it. I ended up trying the wrap without it, as I didn't want to bother with making a mess in my attempt to get it on there, and I'm not sure that the sauce would have changed the ranking if I'm being honest.

Burger King has three snack wraps on its menu — the Royal Crispy, Fiery Royal Crispy, and Honey Mustard Royal Crispy. For this ranking, I went with the classic wrap, which comes with lettuce, tomato, and the savory Royal sauce. It was a pretty solid little wrap, though a bit soggy (I blame that on how long it sat in my car while I was driving around retrieving wraps, so I didn't knock off any points for it).

The chicken itself was tender and juicy, and it was probably pretty crispy when I first got it. However, alone, it was bland and had no seasoning that I could detect. I expected at least a hint of salt and pepper in there to give it a bit of oomph. There was also a lack of flavor in the sauce. I had a few pretty decent bites, and I really couldn't taste it. The only indication that there was sauce on the wrap was the fact that it drenched the chicken, tomato, and lettuce.

Overall, it was a pretty boring wrap, though not horrible. If you needed a snack in a pinch, this one would do the trick, but I kind of wish I had gone with the fiery wrap just to have more flavor.

Arby's is probably not a restaurant that you would think to hit up for a chicken snack wrap, especially since even its first menu, which looks a little different than today's, has been all about roast beef sandwiches since basically the beginning. But it has three on its current menu, and I tried two of them. As a big fan of ranch, I was excited to try the Ranch Chicken Wrap, especially since it comes with Parmesan peppercorn ranch as a sauce. It also has cheddar cheese and lettuce.

I got the wraps fresh out of the fryer and piping hot, which was nice. The chicken alone had a great flavor to it, and you could tell that they seasoned it, though it was just a tiny bit dry. There was a good proportion of cheese and lettuce. However, the ranch left me very disappointed. I'm not sure if they didn't put enough on the wrap or if it's that bland, but it was difficult to tell if there was any sauce on the wrap at all. In my opinion, if it's in the name, then you should be able to taste it.

It didn't hit any notes of a good ranch dressing. I couldn't taste the Parmesan, and it was lacking that nice, peppery flavor that you usually get with ranch. Again, overall, it's not a horrible wrap. But it left me wanting more, and it's probably not a wrap that I would go out of my way to order again.

Sonic is my go-to fast food joint. In a small town that has about five chains, it's one I always visit just so I can get a large cherry limeade. While I've had its chicken sandwich and tenders before, I had yet to try either of the two wraps. And with a name like Cheesy Baja Crispy Tender Wrap, well, I had high hopes. I love anything good and cheesy, and I was curious about the Baja sauce it uses. This wrap also comes with lettuce and tomato.

Now, it wasn't bad per se, but it wasn't my favorite. The chicken didn't really have any seasoning to it, but it was tender and not dried out. I loved the cheese, though I feel like it could have used a bit more. As mentioned before, if it's in the name, then I'm expecting that to be the overwhelming flavor or portion.

At least it had a healthy dose of Baja sauce. However, I wouldn't call it zesty as advertised on the website. It had a more subtle taste that required quite a few bites to get a good handle on it. I liked that it was creamy, but I couldn't detect any of the spices that are typically in Baja sauce. I'm not sure what Sonic puts in its version, but usually there's a collection of spices, including garlic, cumin, and some kind of pepper. There was no zest or spice to it, so I would pass on it.

Wendy's is a chain known for its extensive burger menu, so it was a bit surprising to find a chicken wrap there. It offers only one: the grilled chicken wrap, and it was another that I didn't realize was full-sized until I ordered it. The wrap comes with grilled chicken, cheese, lettuce, and ranch sauce. It's a good size and very filling, so if you want it as a snack, you'll have to do an eat-half-now-and-half-later situation (I can attest that it holds up in the fridge pretty well for a wrap).

The first thing I noticed was that it comes with a lot of ranch. It wasn't so much that it was annoying and made a mess everywhere, but enough that you knew you'd get a good bit of it in every bite. However, that happiness ended once I tasted it. In fact, I didn't even know it was ranch until I looked it up on the menu. It was very bland, and there was no indication that it was ranch — no peppery undertones, no garlic or saltiness.

The plus side was that the grilled chicken was tender and juicy. There's always the risk that it's going to come out too dry (like Chick-fil-A), but this one didn't. But that was pretty much its only saving grace, along with the fact that the chicken was well-seasoned and had a good flavor. It also had a good portion of lettuce and cheese to liven it up. It wouldn't be my first choice for a chicken wrap, but I'd still eat it if someone put it in front of me.

Where Arby's flopped with its ranch wrap, it made up for it with the BBQ wrap. There's not a lot of fuss to this wrap (as with many on the list). It came with lettuce and cheese. Since the chicken was literally right out of the fryer, the cheese was nice and melted by the time I got to taste test it. I gave points for that.

The chicken had a good flavor with a hint of salt and pepper just under the BBQ sauce. It was a tad bit dry, but the sauce helped out. The chicken was fully coated, which was a plus. I liked the barbecue sauce; it had the right level of sweetness to it with a hint of smokiness. Not the worst that I've ever had, but also not the best. It's about what you would expect from a fast food chain, though I will admit I was a smidge disappointed. Arby's has some great sauces — namely, its titular Arby's sauce and Horsey sauce. This one didn't quite reach those levels.

As mentioned, the sauce saved the wrap. Without it, it definitely would have ranked lower and been just another boring wrap. That said, I'm going to stick with the roast beef sandwich drowning in Arby's sauce next time I go there.

This just goes to show that not all wraps are the same, and a chain can have one that's not so great and another that is pretty good. Sonic has two snack wraps on its menu, and the Honey Chipotle Crispy Tender wrap is the second one I tried. It took a minute to figure out which was which, but this one is labeled spicy, and thankfully, it followed through on that. The only difference between this and the Baja wrap is that it comes with a honey chipotle aioli that I was curious about (mostly, how balanced it would be).

As with the Baja wrap, the chicken wasn't very well-seasoned, if it was seasoned at all. I couldn't taste any salt or pepper. It wasn't bad, but it's nothing to write home about. It had a good texture, though. The chicken was tender, though it could have been a bit crispier in the breading. I'm not a huge fan of Sonic's chicken, but this was a nice surprise.

It took a couple of bites for the sauce to kick in, but when it did, I was very happy. There's a nice heat to the honey chipotle aioli and a good balance between the sweet and the spicy. It was very zesty, though not as spicy as I was expecting. I'm a bit picky when it comes to honey mustard, and this was a sauce that I enjoyed with that extra kick of spice. The sauce took this from just another wrap to one that stood out. And since it's on the value menu, you can easily get a couple if you want to make a good meal out of it.

Of course, no chicken snack wrap ranking would be complete without McDonald's. It has two, but I went with the Spicy Snack Wrap over the Ranch Snack Wrap because the McSpicy chicken sandwich is my Mickey D's go-to. Honestly, after this taste test, there was no questioning why people are happy McDonald's fan-favorite snack wraps are back.

The wrap itself is pretty simple, consisting of chicken, shredded cheese, and lettuce, with a spicy pepper sauce. As soon as I unwrapped it, the first thing I noticed was all the cheese, which made me very happy. Some of the other wraps on the list overdid the lettuce while not giving enough cheese, and this had a nice proportion. It also held together really well.

The chicken was every bit as good as I hoped. It was nice and tender and very juicy. The breading still had a good crunch to it. There was a really good kick to the seasoning with an excellent spice level. It burned in all the right ways and didn't overtake my taste buds. The cheese and lettuce helped to mellow things out. I wanted to chow down on the whole wrap and then go back to the store to get another one. It almost hit the top of the ranking, though it was edged out just slightly by my No. 1 pick.

Let's just say, I completely understand why Popeyes was Anthony Bourdain's favorite fast food chicken. I've had its chicken sandwiches in Korea and in the States, and it's still one of my top fast food chicken picks. For the ranking, I tried out the Blackened Chicken Wrap in the classic flavor (they're offered in Classic, Spicy, and Honey Mustard), mostly because I completely forgot there were options and blurted out the first thing that came into my mind when asked. Also, I figured that with it blackened, that should give it a good flavor without getting spicy. Boy, was I so right.

Popeyes blackened wraps use chicken that's hand-breaded and battered and Cajun-marinated, according to the menu. Outside that, it's a simple wrap with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and something none of the other wraps had that I loved — pickles.

The chicken was juicy, tender, and very well-seasoned. Whatever is in the Cajun marinade, I want it for my kitchen. The wrap probably could have been just the chicken in the tortilla, and I would have still ranked it at the top; it was that good. The pickle gave the wrap an extra crispness, and there was no need for any extra sauce. All the flavors together exploded on my tongue, and it was all I could do to stop myself from devouring the entire thing (I still had a few more wraps to taste after this one). Hands down, this was my favorite wrap of the bunch, and it was the only one that got a five on overall flavor.

Ranking these chicken snack wraps was no short order. I approached it as objectively as I could, considering it mostly came down to taste. When it came to selecting the nine wraps I did the taste test on, I started by seeing what was available. A few had more than one option, so I tried to get a variety of styles. I also stuck with national chains.

Looking at the wraps themselves, I broke it down into four categories: the flavor of the chicken, the texture of the chicken, the sauces and extras, and then the overall flavor. Each category was scored on a one-to-five scale, with one being poor and five being absolutely amazing. I then added the points all together, and that determined the ranking. There were a few that had the same total number of points, so as a tie-breaker, I went off the overall flavor score.

For chicken flavor, I was looking for something that was well-seasoned. Concerning texture, I wanted something that was tender and juicy — not dry. If it was crispy, then I wanted a nice crunch to it. For sauces and extras, I looked for things that complemented the chicken without overwhelming it and also had a good flavor itself. I didn't want a sauce that was bad or veggies that were too soggy. The overall score was based on how much I enjoyed the wrap and whether I would order it again.