Wendy’s came out with a new sandwich—and in case you could not tell, Wendy’s is our favorite fast food chain. Usually their new stuff is good but not anything mind blowing. This new sandwich, though, proved phenomenon enough to justify dedicating an entire article to it. This was Wendy’s attempt at stealing the spotlight from McDonald’s, who is due to release three new chicken sandwiches on Feb. 24, and dare we say Wendy’s seems to have succeeded; we are no longer as excited for the new McDonald’s sandwiches. That said, we will still try the new McDonald’s sandwiches, and you can read about it here. (In case you are not familiar with the chicken sandwich supremacy wars, we recommend checking them out, as they are pretty hilarious.)     

Let’s get into the sandwich, delightfully titled the Jalapeño Popper Chicken sandwich. It was inspired by one the best appetizers ever: jalapeño poppers! It consists of “juicy chicken breast, jalapeño cream cheese, shredded pepper jack cheese, Applewood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese sauce and, of course, jalapeños,” according to the Wendy’s website. We all love jalapeño poppers, so we decided to each get our own sandwich (Jonathan got the grilled chicken one, John got it with regular chicken, Sasha got it with the spicy chicken). The sandwiches will cost you $5.99 plus tax.

Jonathan 

Now if you’re someone who is not great with spices and loves grilled chicken (I’m not sure how many of us are out there), then the Jalapeño Popper Grilled Chicken sandwich is definitely your mood. The spice is still there, but you can definitely take a few bites before each sip of Sprite (instead of taking it after every bite like some of the other sandwiches). I felt as if the jalapeno was more of a flavor than really a hot spice, which is something that is sometimes lacking in a grilled chicken sandwich. Thus, I think the jalapeño sauce and jalapeño themselves complemented perfectly with the grilled chicken and the bun. So would I recommend this sandwich? The grilled chicken sandwich is a niche sandwich that I know some would love. Like I said, if you aren’t the best with spices and love grilled chicken, then yes. However, if you either are good with spices or would much prefer crispy chicken (or both), I highly recommend going with one of the other sandwiches. If you are unsure which you would prefer, the price is definitely worth the try, as I would easily rate this sandwich a seven out of 10.

John  

I may be a little biased because Wendy’s is (by far) my favorite fast food chain, but the new Wendy’s Jalapeño sandwich was the best fast food I have ever eaten in my entire life, and I am not even exaggerating. The fried chicken was incredibly juicy and flavorful, and the jalapeño added a spicy and unique touch to the sandwich. Usually, I am not a massive fan of bacon on sandwiches because I feel that it overpowers the flavor, but that is not the case here, where it adds another dimension of flavor. Before this sandwich, my go-to fast food was Wendy’s spicy fried chicken sandwich (with extra mayonnaise and extra lettuce of course).

I have two criticisms of this sandwich, and if these were fixed, this would be a solid 10/10 in my book. The first criticism is that the sandwich is not spicy enough: I am not the kind of person that loves spice, but for a halapeño sandwich, I felt myself yearning for more in the spice department. Maybe this could be done. My second criticism is I would have loved a little extra sauce, but I think this is mainly personal (anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE my sauces).

Overall though, I don’t want people to see these criticisms and assume that the sandwich was bad because it absolutely was not. These are very nit-picky and honestly kind of personal, to the point where I’m not even sure whether these changes would improve the sandwich for everyone or just for me. This sandwich gets a nine out of 10 from me, the highest rating I have given since I have been writing food reviews!

Sasha 

I have to say, when we go to Wendy’s, I rarely get anything other than their spicy chicken sandwiches because honestly I don’t think they have anything better on the menu. But I have to say I was very impressed by this new sandwich. As you may already know, I hate bacon, so the bacon off of my sandwich was eaten by John. But even the slight remaining taste of bacon did not ruin this sandwich for me. It was a beautiful combination of chicken, cheese and jalapeños. It had a similar “pub-y” feeling as their Pretzel Bacon Pub Sandwich, but to a lesser degree, if that makes sense. 

The only not positive thing I have to say about it is that I wish they were more generous with the jalapeños (like come on it’s literally called a JALAPEÑO popper sandwich). Even though there were a good seven or eight slices of jalapeños on the sandwich, that was really not enough. The bites that did not have a piece of jalapeño in them honestly tasted majorly worse than those that did.

 I was also really surprised that the sandwich was not as spicy as I expected it to be, considering that I got the spicy chicken and there were still maybe 8 jalapeno slices on the thing. That thing should’ve been spicy but really was not. Or maybe I have to cut down on the amount of spicy food I eat. Overall, the sandwich was very good, even with its steeper price (by Wendy’s standards); I would rate it an eight, maybe even an 8.5.   

All in all, well done Wendy’s. We are not the only ones who enjoyed the sandwich: It has received good reviews online with many people agreeing with John that it is their best sandwich yet. They definitely succeeded in taking away the spotlight from McDonald’s release. We also have to mention that there is a salad version of this sandwich, but what monster goes to Wendy’s for a salad?