Not a Whole Lot of Spice

Wendy’s feels desperate. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s they had a lock on the spicy chicken market. When they introduced their spicy chicken, major brands (McDonald’s, Burger King, etc.) didn’t have a sandwich to match, and it took them a while to find their footing and compete. McDonald’s tried, again and again, with various chickens, like the Cajun McChicken (which has sort of come back again recently) and Burger King had various fried chicken fillets tossed in spicy sauce at different times as well. But none managed to knock the chicken crown off Wendy’s head. They had the spicy chicken, no one else did.

And then Popeyes said to hold their beer, and they brought out their Spicy Chicken Sandwich, and the crown was stolen. Arguably it’s never been knocked off. Even as Popeyes tries to make variants with additional flavors added, the crunchy spicy chicken they debuted is still the reigning king, and no one else has come close. Wendy’s dropped to a very distant second, and then more brands came out with more spicy chickens and it’s not even clear that Wendy’s is still in the top five. Maybe not even top ten.

There have been rumors that Wendy’s is struggling, and might even be on a bubble where, if their business doesn’t pick up they could see big store closures. Maybe even dissolve as a brand if things keep going downwards. These are rumors right now in the food community, but you kind of get the sense that Wendy’s is really struggling to grab relevance again up against so many other fast food and fast casual chains that have eaten into their air of superiority. They no longer have the best spicy chicken. They no longer have the freshest all-beef, never frozen patties. They feel very third string now and they’re clearly doing everything they can to try and bring attention back to themselves. Most of it isn’t working.

The Krabby Patty Kollab was bad. The Ghost Pepper Chicken Sandwich was bad. Their Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger was bad. And now they have out a new spicy chicken, the Cajun Crunch Chicken and, well, it’s bad. It’s bad in different ways from their other combos… except it’s all bad in really the same ways that show Wendy’s no longer knows what it’s doing or how to make new sandwiches that actually taste good. This new Cajun Crunch is just sad on so many levels, and it perfectly illustrates why, if Wendy’s is dying, how it got here.

The basic sandwich comes on either a regular or spicy chicken patty. I got the spicy, of course, because this is supposed to be a spicy sandwich so I want the spice. Honestly, I was just a little weirded out that they even asked. “Yes, I would like the cajun flavored sandwich with jalapeno and habanero peppers on a plain patty. I wouldn’t want it spicy.” But this also speaks to a design issue with the sandwich: its spice only comes from one topping, the cheese, and without that it’s just melted cheese on a chicken patty.

There are other toppings, of course: crispy onions, pickles, lettuce, and spicy mustard. To be clear, though, the mustard isn’t spicy. I took a direct taste off it and it lacked the kick Wendy’s advertising notes say it has. It was just oddly vinegary, which actually stands out pretty strongly on the sandwich. When I took a bite I didn’t taste spice, or the cheese, or even really the chicken. Mostly I tasted this overpowering, not very good mustard that blotted out everything else. It was way too much on a heavy sandwich, truly detracting from the experience.

If I’m being honest, a big flaw with Wendy’s “improved” spicy chickens, and this goes with the ghost pepper sandwich as well, is that their big “innovation” is to put cheese on the sandwich. Cheese, though, ruins one of the most important aspects of a spicy chicken: it makes it less crispy. If you’re getting fried food you want it to have some crunch. Hell, this is a cajun crunch sandwich, so crunchiness is supposed to be part of its schtick. Between the crispy onions and the chicken patty, it’s supposed to have the big crunch. And yet this sandwich wasn’t crispy, it was soggy. The mustard, the cheese, and the lettuce added too much moisture, even as I ate it as soon as it got to me. It was just damp.

Now I do want to say that the Wendy’s by me isn’t great. I have a feeling that the management isn’t the best and the restaurant is going downhill. Sure, if Wendy’s wanted to bring me into their test kitchen so I could try a sandwich made impeccably by their corporate chefs, they could probably get me the perfect, crispy sandwich I expect. But for a fair review we eat out in the wild, and this is the place I can get their food from. This is Wendy’s as most of us will get it, and out in the wild the food is bad.

There are ways I think Wendy’s could fix this sandwich. Swap the mustard for a different, spicier sauce that doesn’t taste like vinegar. Maybe fry the sandwich a little longer to give it more crunch. Certainly get rid of cheese and just let a truly spicy sauce on a spicy sandwich shine. Pickles are fine, but I don’t think lettuce is necessary. Just a crunchy sandwich, spicy sauce, pickles, all on a bun and you have…

Oh, I just made the Popeye’s spicy chicken. Yeah, Wendy’s, just do that.