Bachelor on the Cheap

It even says "Crispy" on the packaging, but is it?

By Mike Thayer

There's been a chicken sandwich war going on in fast food, it started in 2019 and it's still going on today.  

Shots fired!  Chick-fil-A made headlines in 2019 becoming the third largest fast food chain, led with their classic chicken sandwich.  Popeyes reacted by putting a new chicken sandwich on the menu and consumers went crazy over it, so crazy in fact, Popeyes ran out of ammo. Already armed with a spicy chicken sandwich, Wendy's entered the battlefield that year by bringing back their spicy chicken nuggets, fans of the item went in a Twitter frenzy.  

Where has McDonald's been in all this?  While the McChicken remains on the menu, McDonald's has made two failed attempts to 'introduce' a chicken sandwich that can compete with Chick-fil-A and Popeye's.  Unveiling a brand-new crispy chicken sandwich this year, it's available in three offerings: original with crinkle-cut pickles, spicy with pickles and a “spicy pepper sauce”, and a deluxe version with pickles, lettuce, tomato and mayo.

I recently sampled the McDonald's 'original' with crinkle-cut pickles, trying every restaurant's classic sandwich first during the course of this challenge, to see who makes the best one.

In this Chicken Sandwich War Challenge, sandwiches are evaluated and scored on the following criteria:  Visual appeal, the meat, bun, meat to bun ratio, crunch factor, the pickle/mayo and of course, overall taste.  There are 1-9 points available for each category for a total possible total score of 63. 

The 'New' McDonald's Crispy Chicken Sandwich has a typical fast food preparation appeal - slapped together - with more thought going into the packaging than the sandwich.  There wasn't much of a crunch in the chicken and the pickles were 'eh'.  The bun, a potato roll, was dry, there's no mayo on this sandwich and the buttering of the bun didn't register.  McDonald's has missed the mark with this latest attempt to compete with Chick-fil-A and Popeye's and only scored 45 points of a possible 63.  Priced a bit over $4, I'm giving McDonald's Crispy Chicken Sandwich 3 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars.  It's not a repeat buy. 

This sandwich is not so crispy...

Related:  KFC's Chicken Sandwich