McDonald's Chicken Big Mac Review | The Blog

Today, we are reviewing McDonald’s Chicken Big Mac. This limited-edition item was recently made available on the McDonald’s menu. It’s a variant of McDonald’s signature product, the Big Mac. The Big Mac is well known for its two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun. The Chicken Big Mac uses that same formula but substitutes two fried chicken patties for the burgers and eliminates the onions.

The Chicken Big Mac made its limited-release national debut in the U.S. on October 10th. Prior to that, it was test-marketed in Miami and has made an appearance in the U.K.

The Construction

The following are the specifications that make up a Chicken Big Mac. I didn’t add anything to the standard Chicken Big Mac, which includes:

Two “Tempura” Battered Chicken Patties
Three-Slice Bun
McDonald’s Special Sauce
Lettuce
American Cheese
Dill Pickle
Dimensions: 4.0″ (Diameter) x 2.5″ (Height)
Weight: 11 ounces (including box)
Location Purchased: Stallings, NC
Purchase Price: $4.99

The Chicken Big Mac has two decks: the upper deck has pickles, and the lower deck has cheese. Both decks have lettuce, a chicken patty and “special sauce.”

Normally, I don’t go for a mayonnaise-based product, but I felt the special sauce was an integral part of the Chicken Big Mac experience. McDonald’s Special Sauce is widely considered a Thousand Island Dressing variant.

The Experience

Chicken

The chicken patties on the Chicken Big Mac look and taste like the famed Chicken McNugget, which uses a tempura-style batter coating.

Like the Chicken McNugget, the chicken is good but not great. The tempura batter could pretty much be summed up the same way. One thing I do like is that the patties are not overly salted, which I’ve sometimes seen with fried patties on a sandwich.

Score: 1.75 out of 4.00 points

Bread

One thing that always made the Big Mac special in my book was the three-slice bun. The bun is lightly toasted, which I enjoy. This gives it a slight crispness, yet the bread is soft in the interior. Sesame seeds never hurt, either.

Score: 1.25 out of 2 points

Condiments

While I’m not a fan of mayonnaise, I do think the special sauce is satisfactory. The problem is there was too much special sauce and too much lettuce. The lettuce had a slight wilt. The sauce overpowered everything else, including the chicken patties. The cheese and pickles on the Chicken Big Mac are both satisfactory.

I question McDonald’s decision to eliminate the onions on the Chicken Big Mac. I think it the sandwich would have been better with onion.

Score: 0.75 out of 2 points

Intangibles

As mentioned above, the sauce overpowered the sandwich. At the same time, this sandwich had a lot of lettuce. In the end, I felt like I was eating a giant Chicken McNugget with toppings on it.

The bun was tasty, but didn’t manage to hold the sandwich together in one piece. As a result, the Chicken Big Mac was a messy experience. Messy sandwiches don’t garner intangible points in my book.

Score: 0.75 out of 2 points

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

When it comes to a sandwich, the sandwich experience itself should exceed the sum of the components. This wasn’t the case with the Chicken Big Mac. I kept wondering what could have improved the sandwich. I don’t think less sauce or lettuce would have drastically changed the score. A little onion probably would have had a better effect. While many of these components work for burgers on a Big Mac, they fall short with chicken.