hello everyone this is running on empty food review well hello ladies gentlemen and everyone
watching welcome one and all to this newest edition of the running on empty food review series
i'm your host the report of the week this is the biggest twist of 2021
by far easily this is groundbreaking i kid you not nothing like this has ever been released before
from taco bell this is a release so momentous
that the entirety of humanity has been it's really been forced into an existential crisis
and a debate unlike any other has ensued taco bell has released the chicken sandwich taco
the chicken sandwich trend continues it's actually i can't believe that it's still going quite
frankly every place is still doing the chicken sandwich stuff and taco bell said you know what
we're gonna just we're gonna cross the line here we're just gonna do it you know we're brazen we
don't care what happens because of this we're just gonna do it you know we're gonna do it they said
they're all they're all pumped up they're excited and they did it the mad lads actually did it i
tell you you see taco bell has released again the crispy chicken sandwich taco and here's the
question and like i was saying about existential crises this is the epitome of it right here
the crispy chicken sandwich taco they have a question for you is it a chicken sandwich
or is it a taco and apparently even though the name i think just kind of gives it away
i think if you were just to look at the name crispy chicken sandwich taco you would be able to
tell that it's like it's likely a chicken sandwich themed taco and not the other way around because i
mean they're calling it a taco so it it therefore would be a taco because it's the chicken sandwich
taco um but pretending that there's more substance to that question than just that
uh taco bell is actually as part of a promotion for um this item i think they're actually hosting
a series of debates to try to figure out if it's a chicken sandwich or a taco i kid you not
what is it exactly though so it features a white meat piece of chicken i think a chicken
filet a white meat chicken filet it's marinated in jalapeno buttermilk for flavor then it is coated
and fried with a crispy tortilla chip coating and then it is drizzled with creamy chipotle sauce
and it's on a bread now with the flat bread you can then say well is it really a taco then cause
it's not in a tortilla or a hard shell etc but they're calling it a taco it's in the name so i'm
just gonna call it a taco i guess it is what it is you know you can if you want to say that it's
a chicken sandwich say it's a chicken sandwich if you want to say that it's some really weird
sort of uh gyro i don't care you could say that too you could call it a pizza really i just want
to find out if they gave birth to a monster here or not and uh we'll find out you know
some of these sorts of items you know they do make me a little uneasy it's
like they're going so far this thing it's either going to be really good or really bad
i feel like there's no room for any sort of middle ground with these sorts of releases
it actually came in a very special bag um you can see it came in this bag here i feel like
it came in maybe like a dollar tree sort of bag but you're not even paying a buck
for this you're paying way more so we'll see what it's we'll see how it actually turns out
um price for this mind you for one of these crispy chicken sandwich tacos the price is two dollars
49 cents uh for two of them you're paying 4.49 so you know what's on it no need for any more notes
and i also got some fire sauce because you never know
this is the size of it um i'm not gonna lie i already am worried a little bit i am i'm not
gonna kid you i am a little worried um because you see the size of it that it actually is quite small
compared to what the images portray um but it does come with the exclusive branding here
saying that you know it's a chicken chicken sandwich taco and uh well let's open it and
let's see what this thing looks like is it a chicken sandwich is it a taco what is it who knows
oh and the other thing i actually forgot that i ordered it this way you can get two derivatives
of it you can get the spicy version which is what everyone's interested in or you could get
the regular version i got the spicy version and all that is it comes with everything but they add
a few jalapeno slices and that's it um the regular version doesn't have any jalapeno slices the spicy
version does but that's the only difference and uh in terms of the chicken sandwich trend
there's no price difference mind you but i with the chicken sandwich trend
i know everyone likes the spicy ones i do too so didn't want to overlook that
i mean looking at this thing i would say that it's a it's a uh a taco it's more it's not an ordinary
taco granted but that's what i would call it i wouldn't say that this is a chicken sandwich you
know that's what it looks like right there i'll even adjust the light a little bit so you could
hopefully get a brighter view of it all right there's the chicken filet you can see the chipotle
sauce right there the jalapenos and the flatbread it is small though granted it is quite small
again you could see in terms of size it's not very big you know not huge it's not
as big as like a chicken sandwich would be i'll get a thumbnail shot right here
and i'll get one like this too and i've got one smiling
but that's what it looks like so you know what it looks like i know what it looks like let's find
out if this tastes good because it certainly is inventive i'll give them credit for that so let's
try it the crispy what are they called the crispy chicken sandwich taco from taco bell going in
hmm
well it's interesting it does raise a question and something that i'm gonna have to try out
really after i get this point across there's spice to it all right i'll tell you that
the spicy version um definitely does pack a punch more that more so than some of the
spicier items as a matter of fact i do have to go to the water for this
but it made me ask a question to myself you see as i'm trying it out first thing
that i can taste is the spice i can taste that chipotle sauce which there's a good amount of it
you could see the ratio of the chipotle sauce to everything else in it um definitely a good amount
you can see the jalapeno in there right very prominent very pronounced we already explained
that the chicken itself is marinated in this jalapeno likewise two things that i noticed
therefore the spice and just how chewy the uh the flatbread that it comes in is
it is very spicy i gotta get i'll give them credit they actually release the spicy item that's spicy
and um hats off to them on that a lot of the times you know the way it goes with a lot
of these places i say something spicy and you know you know that it's not um so to actually
have a little bit of legitimate authentic spice here that is a sincere compliment
but that did raise a question and here's what i was getting to with all this spice
with all the sauce that it's smothered in with the jalapenos you name it can i taste
the chicken can i really taste that chicken can i really assess the actual quality of the chicken
fillet which is the most important thing here no i can't is that intentional maybe maybe not so
i'm going to deconstruct this i'm going to take the jalapenos off i'm specifically going to go for
this end of the chicken right here i'm just going to take a bite out of that because i just want
to try the chicken and verify what that tastes like because the spice is so prevalent otherwise
well
i was able to get a nice bite of the chicken there and um i'll just show you a real quick
cross section um right here there you can see it uh the chicken itself is uh
look i'll be honest with you the chicken isn't quite it's not top of the line chicken i'll tell
you that right now and uh i'm glad that the amount of spice that's on this thing is there um because
without that spice i guarantee that i would sit here and i would not be a fan of it one bit
you know there's some items granted the quality of the item by itself the core principles of it
it's awful but you add a few things you add a few sauces you add some you know whatever it might be
with a few adjustments you could take something that's utter garbage and make it into something
decent that's what taco bell was able to do with the crispy chicken sandwich taco
especially the spicy version i'll just give you a heads up if you want to get this it's a novelty
i know that just get the spicy version you're going to be doing yourself a favor if you do
because that spice definitely makes it it makes it tolerable and it makes it a little interesting
because the chicken by itself it wouldn't be enjoyable i'll just be straight up with you
um the chicken is way too salty it's it's rather dry um there's just not a lot of substance to
it again i just bite in and it says dry and just really really salty chicken and
you can kind of taste a little bit of like the tortilla chip coating but not that much and um
you know it's like there's a little bit of a crisp to it a little bit of a crunch but again all that
i noticed is just how salty the chicken is it's just so so salty and um and just this dryness to
it also so if i were just biting into that and just eating the chicken by itself again without
any of these sauces without the jalapenos without any of that i'd be sitting here and i'd be saying
this is you know one of the worst chicken items or chicken sandwich items or chicken tacos etc that
i've ever had the saving grace on the other hand is that sauce is that chipotle sauce the jalapenos
if you want to talk about something coming into the rescue here this is the epitome of it and
the addition of that sauce the pairing of the spice the moisture that the sauce provides here
is is the redeeming quality because otherwise you got this garbage piece of chicken in this tough
uh flatbread and that would have been something that i would have given probably a one out of ten
but you add the sauce the flavor that all the things that we've already discussed
as well as the spice of the jalapenos on it and that will easily bump it up to um it's not perfect
it's not it you know it's necessarily something that i would get again i'm doubtful of that
but at least it makes it tolerable and um most certainly edible and more enjoyable
so it bumps it up i'd say to a 5.5 out of 10. you know from that like 1 out of 10
range the addition of the sauces and everything definitely bumps it up and the other thing that
was a little bit of a disappointment with the chicken itself you couldn't really taste it it
was marinated in the jalapeno at all you could taste the jalapenos that are physically there
but if you just bite into the chicken it's like what are you talking about i don't taste that
so again if you're gonna get this for goodness sake get the spicy version
everything else there's no hope so get the get the spicy version definitely makes it much more
redeemable it's not perfect it's a novelty but get it you take a picture of it show it
to your friends say oh is it a is it a chicken sandwich or is it a taco you know maybe try to
start like a heated debate and see see where it goes and um that's a really bad idea don't do that
and uh just go from there but uh yeah get the spicy version that's my recommendation
um at least there's some nice spice to it but if you don't good luck that's all that
i could say to you so today we tried out the spicy chicken sandwich or the crispy
chicken sandwich taco the spicy variant of it and that's all that i have for you
so tried it out and there you have it i'm your host the report of the week until next time