It's a great day for McDonald's fans, as the chain has finally gone nationwide with its
latest entry into the Great Chicken Sandwich War.
No, they haven't yet rolled out their long-anticipated Crispy McChicken that's still bouncing around
the test markets right now.
No, these latest additions to Mickey D's menu are chicken breakfast sandwiches, word of
which leaked out last October.
A McDonald's rep broke the news to People magazine with the following slogan:
"What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Set your alarm for more reasons to visit McDonald's for breakfast in 2020."
"Well that's irrelevant, isn't it? Stupid. The chicken, obviously."
"Well, where did the chicken come from?"
"Well, it came from the e...Ah."
Linda Van Gosen, McDonald's vice president in charge of menu innovation, told CNN Business
that these chicken sandwiches were developed in response to demand for more chicken offerings
and more breakfast offerings.
McDonald's former CEO Steve Easterbrook explained McDonald's menu expansion in a somewhat less
customer-centric way, admitting that a successful breakfast sandwich launch would give the company
a fighting chance in the battle for chicken supremacy.
But what exactly are these new McDonald's menu items everyone is getting so excited
about?
Well, one of them is the McChicken Biscuit, which is meant to be the chain's answer to
Chick-fil-A's über-popular chicken biscuit only, you know, made with a McChicken patty
rather than one of Chick-fil-A's fried chicken fillets.
The other offering, a Chicken McGriddle, is a little more unique in that it puts the chicken
patty between two maple-flavored pancakes a menu item perhaps inspired by the fact that
people have been hacking the chicken-with-hotcakes sandwich for years.
Of the two chicken breakfast items, the McGriddle is actually the healthier of the two, with
a mere 390 calories and 14 grams of fat, as compared to the 420 calories and 20 fat grams
you'll take in from chowing down on a McChicken Biscuit.
The McChicken Biscuit is the menu item with the most to prove, however, especially since
Chick-fil-A has been setting the chicken biscuit standard for a long time now.
Is there anything McDonald's can do to make its chicken biscuits stand out?
Well… apparently not.
Thrillist describes the biscuit itself as disappointing, with its doughy center and
brittle exterior, while the chicken patty was, in their words, "unexciting".
The Impulsive Buy weren't too impressed with McDonald's take on the chicken biscuit sandwich
either, remarking that a dry chicken patty paired with a dry biscuit just cries out to
be slathered with some kind of sauce which is something you'll have to ask for on the
side, as sauce doesn't come as part of the standard McChicken Biscuit order.
The Chicken McGriddle, at least, met with a more favorable response from reviewers.
Business Insider went so far as to call it:
"The sandwich heard 'round the fast-food breakfast world."
The publication also positively gushed over how the soft-sweet, maple-flavored bun goes
a long way towards overcoming any dryness inherent in the chicken patty itself.
The Impulsive Buy came to much the same conclusion, remarking:
"[T]he grease and maple syrup pockets of the McGriddle cakes provided the lubricant that
the biscuit lacked."
The reviewer did mention, though, that this sandwich could have been truly outstanding
if only it was made with, say, Popeyes chicken, instead of that boring old McChicken.
Whatever you make of them, these chicken breakfast sandwiches should now be available at all
U.S. McDonald's restaurants.
The only question, of course, is for how long?
While these two menu items are supposed to be available for a limited time only, Van
Gosen clarifies that individual restaurants can decide to keep the chicken sandwiches
on their menus for a longer period of time.
As they have already been available at about half the chain's locations for the past few
months, these sandwiches probably won't be inspiring any mass sellouts or riots any time
soon.
Still, if you're really dying to try these items, you might want to do it fairly soon
just in case they fail to hit the mark, and end up joining the ever-growing scrap heap
of McDonald's menu failures.
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