After months of anticipation Burger King has finally released its response to McDonald’s new chicken sandwiches. The sandwiches come in four varieties: the Ch’King Deluxe Sandwich, Spicy Ch’King Deluxe Sandwich, Spicy Ch’King Sandwich and Ch’King Sandwich. The regular Ch’King Sandwiches come with nothing but pickles on them, so we opted to try the Deluxe version, which has lettuce and tomatoes on them as well. Both sandwiches cost $6.89 plus tax in Massachusetts.
John
Spicy Ch’King Deluxe Sandwich
While I thought the chicken itself was great and that they gave us a nice hunk of chicken, the toppings on it were very strange. There was a very strange honey glaze on top of the chicken that completely overpowered the other flavors in the dish, almost to the point where my tongue was confused: while I expected to taste some juicy chicken and mayonnaise, I tasted a sugary glaze instead. Also, my tongue could not detect a SINGLE BIT of spiciness in this sandwich. I literally forgot that it was “spicy” by the time I was done.
I concentrated pretty hard to try and identify the other flavors in the sandwich, and the lettuce/tomato/mayonnaise was quite nice. But once again, I had to REALLY concentrate to identify some of these flavors. Speaking of which, I would hardly call this a chicken sandwich. While I did indeed get a nice big piece of chicken, I could not taste any juicy chicken at all. Instead, all I could taste was that glaze. The chicken was only a medium to carry the flavor of the glaze, which really takes away from the whole “chicken sandwich” thing. Overall, I would give this a six out of 10.
Ch’King Deluxe Sandwich
The Ch’King Deluxe Sandwich was definitely better than its spicy counterpart. In this one, I could at least taste the chicken. To be honest, this is almost an identical sandwich to the one I mentioned above but with one key difference: there was no honey glaze sauce. In fact, I’ll give this sandwich an extra point just for not having that god-awful sauce on it. Otherwise, I do think it needed more sauce of some kind on it, because the chicken was slightly dry. I would have probably liked for them to add a bit more mayonnaise onto the sandwich. However, this sandwich was just overall not too great, it almost tasted like it also needed a bit more salt to bring out some of the flavors. This gets a seven out of 10 for me.
Sasha
Spicy Ch’King Deluxe Sandwich
This was a very interesting sandwich, John is definitely right, my palate was struggling to understand it. It took me three bites to tell if I liked the sandwich or not. Overall, I think Burger King really stepped up their chicken sandwich game (especially compared to the crap they had before), but I don’t know how much of a hit this one is. I usually LOVE spicy chicken sandwiches but this one is not it. I also have to say that we got the one with lettuce and tomato, since I really don’t like chicken sandwiches that have nothing but chicken and pickles on them. But even the lettuce and tomato didn’t save this sandwich from this weird glaze they put on the chicken. It tasted almost like bacon, which was not a nice flavor to add to the sandwich. We did get this sandwich a second time, and it was not much better than the first time. The sandwich was still dry, and really could use another sauce. The chicken itself felt more like a glaze medium than the star of the show. So, for once, I would recommend going for the regular chicken sandwich, and would rate this one a six out of 10.
Ch’King Deluxe Sandwich
The regular sandwich was better than the spicy version, but only because of the lack of sauce. In all other aspects, it had the same flaws as the spicy version: although the piece of chicken was huge, it was 60 percent breading, so there actually was not that much chicken. The regular sandwich could also use some kind of sauce; even the extra lettuce and tomato didn’t help. I also had an issue with the breading falling off the chicken, which then slipped out of the sandwich entirely, which became one big mess. Though what made this even worse was the lettuce. What is it with fast food chains using shredded lettuce? It falls out of the sandwich, makes a mess, and then I have to spend a year chasing the lettuce to put it back on the sandwich. Props to Wendy’s for using whole lettuce leaves instead. Overall, Burger King did not impress me with this sandwich, I would give it a seven out of 10 and never order it again.
Burger King has come a long way from its Original Chicken Sandwich, however it still has a long way to go before it can match its competition. Overall we were disappointed with the sandwiches; we would’ve rather gone to McDonald’s or Wendy’s (and paid less for them too).
