The Cluck Does Not Stop Here

Suggested by fans, rumored for months, and then released internationally, the Chicken Big Mac has been something of the stuff of legend. The burger, featuring two fried chicken patties in place of the all-beef patties (famously sung about in the jingle) traditionally featured, is the first major shake-up of the sandwich in the United States. Yes there have been minor variants before, like the Mega Mac, which saw four patties and a little extra cheese on the burger, or the Big Big Mac, which features Quarter Pounder patties in place of the standard burger patties, but while other countries have gotten more interesting variants (like the BLT Big Mac in Australia and New Zealand, or the Mega Tomago Mac in Japan, consisting of three patties, a fried egg, bacon, and cheese), the U.S. had remained pretty staid in how they like their Mac to be Biggified.

But that is no more. Now the Chicken Big Mac is available in the U.S. (and other territories) for a limited time, and everyone is going crazy for it. Well, okay, maybe no one is going crazy for it, but McDonald’s fans have been awaiting this day for a long, long time. Featuring two juicy tempura chicken patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese and pickles on that signature sesame seed bun (with, notably, no onions this time), the Chicken Big Mac is now available for people to eat and discuss, so that’s exactly what I did. I went over to my local McDonalds and grabbed a Chicken Big Mac meal (with medium fries and a sweet tea) so I could sample it and see what all the fuss was about.

Honestly, it’s not anything all that special. Credit where it’s due, this is a substantial sandwich. The chicken patties have some heft to them, being slightly thicker than the traditional burger patties. I don’t know if I buy their sale pitch that these are “tempura fried” when their breading seems pretty similar to the chicken nuggets (which McDonalds says nothing about tempura frying them), and even if they are there’s no crispiness to the patties, not once you get them covers in special sauce and other ingredients. It’s just chicken, breaded and served on a bun.

Worse, the flavor of the chicken is lost on the sandwich. The chicken tastes like their standard chicken, not any different from the meat in their nuggets or other applications. It’s fine meat on its own, but when it’s applied in other ways it’s meant to be the showpiece. You get their chicken nuggets or their other chicken sandwiches to taste the chicken, and generally it’s substantial enough to hold up against whatever the restaurant slaps on top. But that’s not how it works here. This is chicken applied to a sandwich that wasn’t meant for chicken, and it shows.

The Big Mac is a delicately balanced burger, and you only realize that once you try a variant that throws off that balance. The sweet sauce, the bite of the pickle, the crunch of the onion, it all works together to offset the strong flavor of the beef patties. It harmonizes, elevating the whole experience. McDonald’s chicken doesn’t have that strong flavor, though. It’s milder, simpler, meant for dipping in barbeque sauce or getting topped by mayo. When you slap all the other flavors of a Big Mac on top (even while skipping the onions) you lose that delicate balance. It becomes less than, on the whole.

When I bite into the Chicken Big Mac I get the substantial texture from the chicken, but I don’t taste the chicken. I taste the bun, and the sauce, and that’s about it. The chicken doesn’t come through. Hell, I barely even notice the pickles. It’s just sauce and bun. I blame part of this on the fact that McDonald’s decided to up sauce applications on their burgers, making everything wetter. That’s great on a burger, where you need that wetness to balance the dry patties, but it works as a detriment here, especially with a flavorful sauce like McDonald’s “special sauce (Thousand Island, we all know it’s Thousand Island). It can’t hold up.

And, honestly, I do not know why they removed the onions from the burger. Yes, onions have a strong flavor and it might have been that they’d be more noticeable on the chicken version. One more topping to detract from the lack of chicken flavor. They would have added some extra, needed crunch, though, and that sharp bit of flavor would have let me taste something other than sauce or bun. I really missed the onions here, and their absence was noticeable. If this sandwich sticks around, I do hope Mickey D’s corrects this oversight.

The mouthfeel of the burger is nice, I will note. It has a strong, chewy feel and I don’t doubt I’m getting a lot of food (and a lot of calories) from this burger meal. But I’m not really enjoying it in the process. It doesn’t make my mouth happy the way a standard Big Mac does. It’s more eating it because it’s there and because I bought it. I don’t crave the flavor. I don’t find myself wanting to immediately eat another bite as soon as I’m done chewing. I ate half of it to evaluate it for this review and, now, I’m wondering if I’m even going to bother finishing it.

It’s weird to me that McDonald’s could drop the ball on a premiere sandwich this hard. They had plenty of time to test it, international markets giving feedback, and yet when it comes around to the U.S. (and other territories) getting the burger, this is what we get. A sad, limp, slightly sodden version of a Big Mac without all the flavor. McDonald’s spent a lot of time promoting this burger and getting it ready, but the end result does not live up to all the hype.

I’ve never really understood the need for this burger. It’s a variation of the Double Cheeseburger McDonalds already sells, but with one slice of cheese instead of two. That’s the big difference, and it doesn’t seem logical because if you’re going for a Double Cheeseburger, part of the reason is for the cheese. Otherwise you’re just eating a sad burger with two meat patties. The McDouble was introduced as a “value” burger, and when it first came out it cost just two bucks. Double bucks, double patties, McDouble. Makes sense. Of course, while it remains one of the cheapest things on the McDonald’s menu, that menu itself has gotten hideously expensive, to the point that this burger cost me $3.29 for a sad, slightly cheesy double meat sandwich.

Flavorwise it was fine. The single slice of cheese is barely noticeable so it really does feel like I’m just eating a double hamburger. That’s not entirely bad as I did notice the flavor of the onions on there more, and it was a decent flavor. The burger is also substantial, filling me pretty well such that I actually had to wait a bit before digging into the chicken burger I got along with. But would I get it again? Probably not. McDonalds has enough other options on the menu that this feels like an “also ran”. It’s fine, but not impressive by any stretch.

With that said, I actually liked it better than the Chicken Big Mac. That frankly says a lot about the new specialty chicken sandwich McDonald’s is offering.