Americans eat fast food an average of 1 to 3 times a week, and when they do, they usually stick to what they know. But it’s not always the flashy burgers or buzzy limited-time drops that win out. In many cases, the most-ordered item is something surprisingly simple — fries, soft drinks, or one legendary chicken sandwich that once sold out nationwide in two weeks.
Whether it’s out of obsession or habit, these are the menu items Americans keep ordering the most.
You thought it would be the Big Mac or McNuggets, didn’t you? No, it’s the iconic fries that Mickey D's sells the most.
McDonald’s moves around 9 million pounds of fries per day — yes, per day. For comparison, the chain sells about 6.5 million burgers daily. The fries, first introduced in 1949, were originally cooked in beef tallow, giving them a meaty depth people still romanticize.
These days, they’re fried in a vegetable oil blend, but still addictive enough to keep billions coming back for one more handful.
In 2022 alone, Chick-fil-A sold an estimated 527 million Original Chicken Sandwiches, making it the chain’s undisputed best-seller for years. That’s kind of a big deal for a menu packed with fan favorites like nuggets and waffle fries.
The recipe hasn’t changed since the 1960s, when founder Truett Cathy developed it at his diner, The Dwarf Grill, in Hapeville, Georgia. A poultry supplier had an oversupply of small chicken breasts unfit for airline meals, and Cathy saw potential. After rounds of testing, he landed on the now-iconic combination: a seasoned, hand-breaded chicken breast cooked in peanut oil, served on a toasted, buttery bun with just two dill pickle chips.
Taco Bell’s menu is constantly evolving, but one item has held its ground as the fan favorite: the Crunchwrap Supreme. In 2022, it ranked as the top-selling item in 70% of U.S. states, beating out other fan-favorites like the Quesarito and Doritos Locos Tacos by a landslide.
Introduced in 2005 as a limited-time offer, the Crunchwrap quickly became a permanent fixture on the Live Mas menu, after customer demand made it impossible to retire. It’s a hexagon-shaped wrap that layers seasoned ground beef, nacho cheese sauce, and a crunchy tostada shell, topped with sour cream, lettuce, and diced tomatoes — all sealed inside a grilled flour tortilla. It’s a taco, tostada, and burrito all in one.
In a national taste test in 2021, people chose Wendy’s fries over McDonald’s by nearly 2 to 1 — something that would’ve sounded like fast-food blasphemy a few years ago. But after a major recipe overhaul in 2021, the Hot and Crispy Fries were named Wendy’s most-ordered item in 2023, beating out even the Baconator.
They’re made with natural-cut, skin-on potatoes and seasoned with sea salt. The new recipe was designed to hold up during delivery — crisp on the outside, soft inside, and still hot when you finally find a place to park. Wendy’s also launched a Hot and Crispy Guarantee: if your fries aren’t hot and crispy, they’ll replace them for free.
The Whopper has been Burger King’s heavyweight since 1957 — and it’s still the most-ordered item on the menu today. In 2009, Burger King claimed to sell over 1.3 billion Whoppers a year. More recent estimates push that number to 2.1 billion annually, making it one of the best-selling fast-food burgers of all time.
What keeps it going? The Whopper sticks to a winning formula: a quarter-pound beef patty cooked over an open flame (not a flat-top griddle), topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, ketchup, and mayo, all inside a sesame seed bun.
No matter how many new items KFC experiments with — bowls, sandwiches, even the occasional bizarre limited-edition — nothing outsells the Original Recipe Chicken. This is the item that made Harland Sanders a “Colonel,” and pressure-fried his way into American food history.
The recipe, developed in the 1940s, hasn’t changed: eleven herbs and spices, still a trade secret, locked in a vault at KFC headquarters. The chicken is hand-breaded, pressure-cooked, and served with just enough grease and crunch to make you forget whatever else you were planning to order.
In 2019, Popeyes released a seemingly run-of-the-mill chicken sandwich — a thick, crispy fried chicken breast, barrel-cured pickles, and your choice of mayo or spicy Cajun sauce, all inside a buttered brioche bun. No one expected it to launch a full-blown fast food war.
Ironically, it was the bitter competition that sparked the frenzy and turned the fried chicken sandwich into a national fixation. Chick-fil-A posted a tweet suggesting they were the original chicken sandwich. Popeyes replied with a simple “…y’all good?” The tweet quickly went viral with over 320,000 likes. Within a week, the sandwich sold out nationwide. Some locations ran out in days. Lines wrapped around blocks, employees were overwhelmed, and when the sandwich finally returned two months later — on National Sandwich Day, no less — one Maryland location saw a fatal stabbing over a spot in line.
While other chains tried to out-burger each other, Arby’s took a different route — roast beef. It’s been the chain’s signature move since the 1960s, and the Classic Roast Beef Sandwich is still its top seller.
It’s just thin-sliced roast beef piled onto a soft sesame seed bun. It’s the kind of sandwich you dip in Arby’s Sauce or Horsey Sauce and eat in under three minutes, no regrets. It was originally priced higher than a McDonald’s burger — 69 cents vs. 15 cents — and that premium image stuck.
Chipotle is one of the fastest-growing fast food chains in the U.S., and the Burrito Bowl is its most popular format. That’s right, not the burrito. In 2020, Chipotle’s CEO at the time, Brian Niccol, said bowls made up about two-thirds of all orders.
In 2023, one version of the bowl exploded in popularity — Chicken al Pastor. This limited-time protein, marinated in morita peppers, achiote, lime, and pineapple, became one of the fastest-selling menu items in company history. According to the Mexican grill, one in five orders included it while it was available, and fans flooded the brand’s social media begging for its return. It was so successful, Chipotle brought it back in early 2024 — faster than any other item they’ve ever retired and relaunched.
With all the burgers, chicken sandwiches, and breakfast burritos on the menu, you wouldn’t expect the Classic Two Tacos to be the top seller. But they are — and have been for years. Jack in the Box sells over 554 million tacos annually, making them its best-selling item. And no one really knows why.
It’s affordable — probably that’s why. Sold in pairs, often for under a dollar, these tacos feature a mystery meat blend, deep-fried in a pre-sealed tortilla, with a slice of American cheese, shredded lettuce, and a splash of taco sauce tossed in at the end. They’re greasy and weird. Nevertheless, the heart wants what it wants.
At Whataburger, the most-ordered item is still the one that started it all: The Whataburger. First cooked up in 1950, it was designed to be so big and tasty that it made people say, well, “What a burger.” It worked. Whataburger still sells more of these than anything else on the menu.
As of 2025, Panera Bread's top-selling menu item is the Chicken Bacon Rancher Sandwich, introduced in April 2024. This sandwich features grilled chicken, applewood-smoked bacon, aged white cheddar, and ranch dressing on black pepper focaccia bread. It quickly became a customer favorite and remains one of the chain's most popular offerings.
Panda Express’s top seller is, and always has been, Orange Chicken. Created in 1987 by executive chef Andy Kao, it’s crispy boneless chicken tossed in a sweet, citrusy sauce with orange, soy, garlic, and ginger.
In 2022, the chain sold over 115 million pounds of it. No surprise — it’s the default order for most people walking up to the counter.
The Blizzard turned Dairy Queen from an ice cream stand into a soft-serve empire, and the OREO Blizzard is still the chain’s biggest hit. Introduced in 1985, it mixed vanilla soft serve and crushed OREO cookies into a thick dessert so dense they served it upside down — a gimmick that became a promise.
In just its first year, Dairy Queen sold over 175 million Blizzards. The OREO version quickly rose to the top and never stepped down. It’s been the most popular Blizzard flavor ever since
Of course, it's gonna be Cherry Limeade. It’s been Sonic’s top seller for years, and for good reason. Made with lemon-lime soda, cherry syrup, real lime wedges, and served over signature crushed ice, it’s fizzy, tart, sweet, and totally addictive.
Sonic sells so much of this stuff that by some estimates, the chain pours enough Cherry Limeade each year to fill 15 Olympic-sized swimming pools. That’s not a metaphor — that’s just America doing what it does best.
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