7. Garlic & Herb Ranch
Look. I understand the need for a fast-food chain to offer ranch dressing, especially if spicy chicken is on the menu. However, the Garlic & Herb Ranch fails to be anything but... meh.
It's more watery than I would like, and I certainly didn't get the garlic, onion, and herb flavors that were promised. If you're a ranch fanatic, my advice is to bring your own Hidden Valley.
6. Sweet & Spicy Sriracha
Chick-fil-A added this new sauce last year, hoping to tap into a trending flavor. But people don't go to Chick-fil-A for trendy food.
The Sweet & Spicy Sriracha tastes like someone mixed Polynesian sauce with sriracha. This could be useful to add some zest to a blander fast-food chain's offerings — but overwhelming Chick-fil-A's chicken with sweet Sriracha doesn't do it any favors.
5. Polynesian
Chick-fil-A Polynesian sauce is famous — but I don't think it's actually very good.
I know this is controversial. According to my informal Twitter poll on the subject, 22% of people say that Polynesian is their favorite sauce — the second most popular after Chick-fil-A sauce.
But, ultimately, the sweet and sour sauce is just too sweet for my taste. The goopy sauce's super-sweet and syrupy flavor is instantly distinctive and beloved by many — but, in my opinion, the pink sauce is better left in your bag.
4. Zesty Buffalo
As a fan of wings, I'm pro-buffalo sauce. While Chick-fil-A's take is a bit thinner and more watery than I would prefer, the flavor is spot on. It wouldn't feel out of place in a sports bar.
In fact, with the Zesty Buffalo Sauce, I finally found a purpose for Chick-fil-A's ranch sauce. When combined in a skillful double dip, the two far exceed the sum of their parts.
3. Barbeque
When Chick-fil-A adjusted their barbeque sauce recipe, customers lost their minds. It only took the company three months to reverse the changes after more than 2,000 people signed a petition to bring back the original BBQ sauce.
To barbecue lover's credit, it's a quality sauce. It packs a punch, and avoids some other sauce's mistakes of being too thin or too goopy. If you're craving BBQ, it hits the spot, and the chain would be worse without it.
2. Honey Mustard
In my opinion, this is where Chick-fil-A sauces go from just OK to truly great.
I would literally eat the honey mustard sauce with a spoon. My notes on this sauce just say "YUM GREAT." If I had to tease out what makes this sauce so delicious, it would be the savory undertones that the mustard adds — a far cry from from the saccharine flavor of the Polynesian sauce.
1. Chick-fil-A
Let's be real, folks. If you're going to Chick-fil-A, you need to order the Chick-fil-A Sauce.
It's a phenomenon that has inspired knock-off recipes and eBay sales. According to Chick-fil-A, customers consume more than 84 million packets of the sauce a year.
Somehow, this blend of honey mustard, barbecue, and ranch is much better than any one of those sauces alone. Honey mustard is the leading flavor, with barbecue undertones and ranch adding some needed creamy texture.
It's the perfect accompaniment to anything on the Chick-fil-A menu. If you pick any other condiment before it, you're a fool — but, hey, it's your own Polynesian Sauce flooded funeral.