I’m really starting to get tired of the phrase “Chicken Sandwich Wars.” Like, all of these places trying to jump on this bandwagon already had chicken sandwiches, it’s hard to really call this a trend 2 years after the initial hype. But alas, with the restaurant industry stagnated from the pandemic, it’s the only real food trend going on at the moment.
While McDonald’s revealed their latest sandwich 2 weeks ago, I held off on trying it because I wanted to see how it compared to KFC’s new sandwich, which was also slated to be released nation-wide in late February. But we are now a week into March, with no updates on the KFC front, so for the sake of being semi-topical I’ve decided to go ahead and do the McDonald’s sandwich now. And to round out the review, I’ll be comparing it to the extremely topical Wendy’s sandwich, which came out in October, apparently. Wendy’s hasn’t been on my radar much recently, since they kinda got on my shit list because their CEO was a huge Trump supporter. “It’s fine to go there now, we’re rid of that fucker,” I tell myself, ignoring the news coming out of Alaska.
Anyways, Wendy’s is BACK on my shit list after also releasing a Korean BBQ burger, but then making it exclusive to Canada. Why would you do this to me?
McDonald’s
First off, the McDonald’s sandwich comes in a cute little foil pouch, just like the Popeye’s. Unlike Popeye’s, and much like Chick-fil-a, the crust on the chicken isn’t especially crispy, and has a distinct pickle brine taste in the breading (which, despite my aversion to pickles, isn’t necessarily a bad thing here.) The chicken itself is obviously a real piece of chicken, as opposed to the McChicken, although it’s hard for me to remember how it compares to McDonald’s previous premium chicken sandwich offerings. The potato bun is basically on par with Popeye’s brioche, with a tenderness and richness that elevates it from the normal McDonald’s bun. The spicy mayo has a little more complexity to it than the Popeye’s one, which just tastes like… spicy. It’s also slightly smaller than the Popeye’s one, though, despite costing $4.39 (including tax? I’m not really sure since I got a combo so I had to go back and look the price up online after the fact) to Popeye’s $3.99. All in all, it’s a pretty decent sandwich, especially if your tastes lean more towards the Chick-fil-a end of the spectrum and you want something without the casual homophobia.
[Also, this has nothing to do with the sandwich but I also got a Shamrock Shake and the whipped cream was completely deflated by the time I got home, which tells me they’re using, like, real whipped cream now and not something full of The Chemicals™. Is everything else still full of The Chemicals™? probably lmao]
Wendy’s
Ok, so I have a confession to make. I ended up going into this taste-test with some bad intel. I originally went into this under the impression that Wendy’s had redone ALL of their chicken sandwiches. I bought a spicy chicken sandwich, thought “hey this tastes the same as it always had,” (the Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich was my favorite fast food chicken sandwich offering pre-sandwich wars, so I was familiar with it) and did a write up on how they hadn’t improved anything with the new one. But something about that didn’t feel right, so I did a little digging and found out that yeah, that is the same old chicken sandwich it always has been. So I rushed out the night before uploading this so that I could present to you: the actual new Wendy’s chicken sandwich.
Wow, this thing is kinda small. I mean, so was the McDonald’s one, but at least that one filled out the bun. It might be a little thicker? Anyway, the breading was slightly crispier than the McDonald’s one, although not quite as flavorful. The chicken itself was also a little dry (albeit was definitely a real piece of chicken), but I’m about 90% sure that’s because I ordered it at 9:30 at night so I didn’t exactly get one in its prime. The bun, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo were all the usual Wendy’s fare.
I think a big part of why chicken sandwiches got so popular in the first place was the concept of taking something simple and doing it really well, which unfortunately for Wendy’s means when you fall flat you really fall flat. It wasn’t terrible, but at $6.99? Almost twice the price of the Popeye’s sandwich? I can’t say I see myself going back anytime soon, regardless of shit list status. In hindsight, I’m not surprised this didn’t receive much fanfare when it came out.
I’m not sure if I want to go get a Popeye’s sandwich to get the taste of all these impostors out of my mouth or if I never want to eat a chicken sandwich again.
