Sunday, 21 May 2006

• Battle of the Franchise Spicy Chicken Sandwiches

  You've seen commericals about Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich being so hot that people need to gulp down a water cooler.  McDonald's has joined the trend and introduced their own spicy chicken sandwich alongside their premium chicken sandwiches. 

  Both feature white chicken breast surrounded by batter.  Both say they're hot.  But which one is the better one?

  This is one of the original Spicy Chicken Sandwiches or at least the first one I had. You can tell it is really large pieces of lettuce.  Inside was a tender white chicken breast.  The batter is not too thick and light in texture.  From all the times I've had this sandwich, the chicken has always been smaller than the bun. The quality of the chicken varies from place to place.  The ones in Ohio are larger and more spicy than ones I've had in Toronto.  In Ohio, the one on Morse road is larger and more tender than the ones served at the airport.  I really can't tell why the quality diffs even within the same city but generally their a good sandwich. How spicy is it?  This chicken burger did not cause me to drink water but it did tickle my tongue.  My friends know I don't take super hot foods so when I say tickle my tongue, it's like mild.  But a surpising thing to see is the spicy juices making the chicken breast slight orange at the batter.

  Introduced just a couple months ago, McDonald's plans to hit hard with their spicy chicken sandwich. You can see that the lettuce is the soggy stuff again.  Just like the lettuce you find in the regular McChicken burgers.  And just like the McChicken burger, you get a lot of mayo. The chicken in this sandwich was a lot smaller than the bun.  The batter was very thin but very hard.  Don't let the packaging convince you the chicken is "crispy" because it's not.  Take another bite and you'll remember how hard it is.  The chicken inside was very dry and also very thin.  I didn't think I was eating a chicken breast when I bit into it because of its darkness but I'm told that it's real chicken breast. This sandwich was a bit more spicy than the Wendy's sandwich but not by much.

  From the two sandwiches I would definitely choose Wendy's version over McDonald's.  The quality of the lettuce and the chicken was much higher at Wendy's.  Even the ones in Toronto beat the Ohio McDonald's.  Although McDonald's sandwich was more spicy, it wasn't that much more spicy and I think they just used a lot of dry seasoning.  Because both sandwiches were in the same price range, make the extra effort to go to a Wendy's if you're planning to get a spicy chicken sandwich.

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