The chicken sandwich wars: Which company is taking the lead?

Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal and Brooke DiPalma break down the latest developments in the chicken sandwich wars.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Welcome back. The chicken sandwich wars are heating up with McDonald's gearing up to unveil its crispy chicken creation tomorrow nationwide. And Yahoo Finance's intrepid reporters Alexandra Canal and Brooke DiPalma join us now to break down the internet-fueled sandwich rivalry between these fast food chains that really has taken off here to put the meals to the test. And Brooke, I guess, you know, you got the one here to kick us off.

BROOKE DIPALMA: That's right. So these are McDonald's new crispy chicken sandwiches. These are not coming out until tomorrow. But McDonald's gave us early access, alongside 1,000 fans. Now last Thursday, that early access cost $5. It quickly sold out within seconds. The price of these sandwiches does vary by region and location, but it does have three different options. So first, you have the deluxe option with tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and also mayo.

Then, [INAUDIBLE], you also have this spicy with their new spicy pepper sauce. And then if you like to keep things simple-- just like me-- this has just on the potato bun just the chicken, alongside some pickles. So I'm going to taste this, a first bite. Here we go. OK, it's pretty good. Sort of kind of dry-- I do have to say-- but perhaps because I chose the simpler one without the mayonnaise, without the pepper sauce.

Now, just to get a deeper understanding of the competition in this space, when KFC found out that I was reaching out to McDonald's to get early access, they quickly reached out to me-- excuse me-- and said that they wanted to go head to head because they were the original chicken expert. So, here we have KFC option. This is $3.99, in competition, of course, with Popeye's, the OG chicken sandwich that sparked this a few years back. They have that original option, as well as a spicy option.

So just to compare, this launched in January. Once again, $3.99. I do have to say, this looks a bit lighter. And this is on a brioche bun, as opposed to a potato bun. OK. I'd say, if you're looking for more of a hardy option, KFC's is the way to go. If you're looking for more traditional, McDonald's. Now I know Ali has more on deck. There is so many companies in the chicken sandwich war.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, save her, Ali.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Brooke, that KFC one looked really good. I mean, the chicken on that looked amazing. But yes, I do have more. There are a lot of spicy options out there, especially from fast food chains. One of them is Chick-fil-A. They unveiled their latest deluxe sandwich. This is now a grilled spicy deluxe sandwich. It features grilled chicken that has been marinated in spicy sauce. It's with cheese, lettuce, tomato on a multigrain bun.

So it's a slightly healthier option here, coming in at around 450 calories. The price of this is $5.65, so slightly on par with some of the other competitors out there. Still a little pricier than the OG Popeye's, which is $3.99.

Now, Wendy's, meanwhile, has a mother of a sandwich. I mean, this is the new jalapeno popper sandwich, their latest spicy creation. I'm going to lift this up to try and show you guys. This is--

ZACK GUZMAN: Oh.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: --cream cheese that's been infused with jalapenos--

BROOKE DIPALMA: Mm.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: --actual jalapenos, bacon, and cheese. So there's a lot going on with this sandwich. I'm not sure how I'm going to like it. I am curious, but it is huge. And I'm going to taste teste it now. I'm a little nervous. Let's see how it goes.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, you take your bite. Last time we had Brooke on, she almost choked during segments. So we'll give you time to take a nibble.

BROOKE DIPALMA: You had to bring that up, Zack.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: You know what? This is pretty good. It's pretty spicy, but it's not overpowering. I can taste the chicken. But to compare, I do have the Chick-fil-A spicy version. This is not the grilled version. It's the fried version, because I wanted to be fair. Chick-fil-A, it's a lot simpler. We just have the chicken, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and pickles. Now, along with that grilled chicken option, Chick-fil-A also unveiled a new cilantro lime sauce. You can only get this--

BROOKE DIPALMA: Ooh.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: --for a limited time.

BROOKE DIPALMA: That looks good.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: So I'm going to try it with this one. See how it tastes.

ZACK GUZMAN: Everybody hopping on the cilantro lime [INAUDIBLE]

ALEXANDRA CANAL: I know, right?

BROOKE DIPALMA: Yeah.

ZACK GUZMAN: It's just-- it's the new craze. Brooke, the other thing, too, though, I mean, you just eat it, so how does it stack up? Give me your overall-- we always use a scale of five stars on this show. It's the rule.

BROOKE DIPALMA: I honestly would give McDonald's and KFC both four. I think they're good. But I do have to say that Popeye's chicken sandwich in comparison is pretty big. And the KFC is a quarter pound. That's right here. You can kind of see that height in it. So if you're looking for something hearty, that's the way to go. But I'd say both fours. I'm pretty impressed, actually. I do say that the competition is hot.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: And that's out of five, Brooke? Four out of five?

BROOKE DIPALMA: Four out of five, yes.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Oh, that's pretty high. That's pretty high.

BROOKE DIPALMA: Yeah, I do like chicken sandwiches. I'm not a big burger girl, so maybe that's why.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Mm. OK, for me, I like Chick-fil-A over Wendy's because I'm a simple gal.

BROOKE DIPALMA: Mm.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: I don't like too much going on with my sandwiches. But even so, I am impressed by this. I'm going to give this a three, Chick-fil-A a four. I love Chick-fil-A. They make good chicken-- I don't know. I got to go with that.

[LAUGHTER]

ZACK GUZMAN: I think that that's a good-- we got astounding reviews here from both of our reporters here. Ali was able to taste the chicken in the chicken sandwich. I think that's important to highlight. And the--

ALEXANDRA CANAL: That's important.

ZACK GUZMAN: --McDonald's one scoring a four out of five from Brooke. Appreciate you guys both hopping on here to eat all of that in front of us live here on Yahoo Finance Live. Thanks again, guys.