McDonald’s has had some sort of chicken sandwich, whether it be grilled or the classic budget menu item McChicken, for decades. But a newly created trio hit menus Feb. 24.
McDonald’s is now offering three new chicken sandwiches, including a crispy chicken sandwich, a spicy crispy chicken sandwich and a deluxe crispy chicken sandwich. McDonald’s wants you to order the sandwich so badly they are offering a free sandwich by using the promo code “CRISPY” through “McDelivery” and DoorDash until March 7.
With the new line of chicken sandwiches, McDonald’s entered into what is coined as the “Chicken Sandwich War,” made popular with Popeyes introduction of its new chicken sandwich almost two years ago. The emergence of Popeyes sandwich created market pressure and many fast food restaurants added chicken sandwiches to their menus in response.
While competitors like Chick-fil-a and Popeyes use toasted white buns and brioche buns respectively, McDonald’s has opted for a potato bun. In addition, while Chick-fil-a uses regular dill pickle chips, McDonald’s has strayed away from the regular pickle chips found on its burgers and uses deli-style dill pickles similar to Popeyes.
The regular crispy chicken sandwich simply uses the potato bun, fried chicken filet, deli-style pickles and salted butter, while the spicy crispy chicken sandwich adds a new spicy pepper sauce. The deluxe sandwich comes with mayonnaise, roma tomato slices, shredded lettuce and leaves behind the pickles.
The sandwiches are reasonably priced. The regular a la cart sandwich costs $3.99 while the spicy and deluxe increase in price to $4.39. If you’re wanting to add fries and a drink, it will cost you anywhere from $5.99 to $6.39 at Bloomington’s McDonald’s locations.
So, is it worth it? For around $4, yes.
I ordered the new spicy chicken sandwich and was satisfied. As someone who enjoys spicy foods, I found the spicy pepper sauce to be a low heat, but added all the flavor the sandwich needed.
The spicy pepper sauce is what made the sandwich good, and the deli-pickles only heightened the experience.
The fried chicken filet itself had a good taste, but isn’t as crispy as the advertisements and name had it made out to be.
As for the presentation, it’s lacking. The sandwich comes in a foil bag similar to Chick-fil-a sandwiches, and when I removed it from the bag the sandwich bun was flattened down and looked thin in comparison to the fried chicken.
Overall, the McDonald’s sandwich puts up an admirable fight in battle against its competitors and is definitely worth a try, but the Popeyes chicken sandwich is still winning the chicken sandwich war.
