Review: Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich, Club Chicken Sandwich, Italian Chicken Sandwich

Posted February 13th, 2012 | 7:49pm by Ryan

The siren song of the Buy One Get One Free Chicken Sandwich promotion at Burger King has caught me. The result was four chicken sandwiches for the price of two and a review of the 3 featured items; the Original Chicken Sandwich, the Club Chicken Sandwich and the Italian Chicken Sandwich.

I can’t seem to find much I really like about Burger King anymore besides a few things here and there. A promotional priced item is exactly what it will take to get me back, but I’m not sure if it’s even worth it. When you find out how much the Original Chicken Sandwich and its two variants cost, you might wonder if fast food has lost its identity.

The Original Chicken Sandwich is described like this:

Crispy premium white meat chicken topped with shredded lettuce, mayo, and served on a sesame seed bun. So good, we haven’t changed it since 1979. How many sandwiches can say that?

Well, just because something hasn’t been changed in over 30 years doesn’t mean much to me. The Original Chicken Sandwich ($4.49) description claims “crispy premium white meat chicken” and to that I say “bwahahahahaa, yeah OK”. There’s nothing premium going on here I assure you. The chicken is a patty shaped like a shoe insole and so packed with additives that it’s laughable to call it premium. It really is an overly sodium-laden patty, that surprisingly isn’t dried out as some might expect. The one positive I’ll give the chicken patty is it retains its slightly greasy moisture without being soggy. Burger King lettuce is always lame, limp and in need of an upgrade. The oblong shaped sub-roll-style sesame seed bun is a nice change from the same old hamburger roll on 99% of other chicken sandwiches. I found the bun to be quite good and able to contain the ingredients of the sandwich well. Burger King bread products never stand out, but this is different and maybe it just gets bonus points for that.

The Club Chicken Sandwich:

Crispy premium white meat chicken topped with thick-cut bacon, tomato, shredded lettuce, mayo, and served on a sesame seed bun. A great new twist added to an all-time favorite.

The Club Chicken Sandwich ($4.79) takes the Original Chicken Sandwich and just adds two slices of tomato and some bacon strips. I was shocked to find the tomatoes not as horrific as I’m used to from BK. I saw the advertisement in the restaurant window touting “NEW THICK HARDWOOD SMOKED BACON” and thought maybe the bacon in the Club Chicken Sandwich could possibly “wow” me. Maybe I got a bad batch of the stuff, but this new bacon was overcooked and just added a more salty flavor to the package that the tomato, lettuce and mayo couldn’t cut through. I was surprised at how little difference I noticed between the Original and the Club. You’d think that adding tomato and bacon would improve the Original and it just didn’t. I was hoping for better, my mistake.

The Italian Chicken Sandwich:

Crispy premium white meat chicken topped with flavorful marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and served on a sesame seed bun. A delicious new flavor added to an all-time favorite.

The biggest outlier of the set of three would be the Italian Chicken Sandwich ($4.69). A smattering of marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese take over the Italian for a taste of a chicken parm-esque sub. Unfortunately, the marinara is incredibly artificial tasting. I wanted to really like this sandwich, but it was the weakest of the three. The mozzarella had absolutely zero impact and I’m finding weak cheese to be a huge disappointing trend in fast food. I appreciate the fact that this style of sandwich isn’t something you encounter often at fast food joints, but you can find a local pizza joint that will do it bigger and better for probably no more than a couple bucks extra.

I sometimes find it ridiculous when fast food restaurants try to be something more than fast food. These chicken sandwiches from Burger King are fast food through and through except for the fact that they are nearly $5 a piece (upwards of almost $8 for a combo). If not for the high price, I think I’d be more fair and just take them for what they are. Advertising premium chicken when it’s not and then slapping a premium price tag will only anger your consumers. While the BOGO deal is going on, take advantage if you want to try, but I would find it foolish to pay the regular price.