The Loaded Chicken Wrap from Popeyes

Name: The Loaded Chicken
Source: The Popeyes in Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, TX
Price: $2.49 (no tax)
Ingredients: Spicy seasoned chicken strip, cooked rice, refried beans, hot sauce, Cajun seasoning
Rating: ****/***** (4/5)

Yes, I know the Loaded Chicken is not a sandwich but I think it begs reviewing because 1) I ate one recently and 2) it sort of is a sandwich. Chances are if you have eaten a chicken wrap in the last year, it has been from McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's (although this is no longer an option), KFC, or Jack in the Box. Chances are, you didn't eat it from Popeyes. That is a shame because this is the best wrap on the market.

While other places claim their chicken to be spicy but turn out bland and lame, this strip actually is spicy. The strip has flavor, and it is a good flavor, not too pungent or gross. The chicken strip itself is crispy and well breaded. While other places consider a combination of chicken nugget + sauce to be considered a wrap, Popeyes actually uses real food in combination with the chicken strip - rice and beans. I'll admit this is sort of odd. It's basically left over Southern comfort food in a tortilla but it works and it works well. The tortilla itself is soft and delicious. Everything works individually and they work together when put together. It is a little more than the price in price than the other wraps available at McDonald's ($1.29), Wendy's ($0.99?), KFC ($1.49?), Burger King ($0.99) and Jack in the Box ($2.19?) but considering this is actually filling and doesn't require multiple orders to feel full, you could consider it a good value. Next time you are considering a wrap, go with Popeyes. You will likely find yourself enjoying it.

The Grilled Double Down from Kentucky Fried Chicken

Name: The Grilled Double Down
Source: Kentucky Fried Chicken, 1712 Kingwood Drive, Kingwood, TX
Price: $4.99 (no tax, no combo)
Ingredients: Two pieces of grilled chicken, mayo, "colonel sauce", cheese (supposedly Monterrey and American), no bacon (you read that right)*
Rating: */***** (1/5)

If you have not yet heard of Kentucky Fried Chicken's Double Down chicken sandwich, you must have been living under a rock. Noted in famed unhealthy blog This Is Why You're Fat, national news site The Huffington Post, and even internationally in the UK's Daily Mail, the sandwich is receiving press for one reason: it's incredibly unhealthy. While most places are running away from an image of grease and clogged arteries, KFC has decided to wholeheartedly embrace it, getting rid of buns for chicken patties.

In other words, you no longer have a chicken patty surrounded by two pieces of bread (or biscuits), you have two pieces of chicken surrounding bacon, gravy, cheese, and "Colonel sauce" (insert your own bodily function joke here). Of course, as the writer of a blog called "Chicken Sandwich Blog", I had to try it.

The Double Down was released a few months back in selected markets, which oddly enough did not include Houston (despite being the fattest city in America at one point). Thus, like most Americans, I had to wait until this week when it got its national release to have one.

So last night, my friend Richard (who writes a great blog on crane games by the way) and I decided to go down to our local KFC at around 9PM and try one for dinner. You can imagine our disappointment when we are told that they are out of the Original Recipe, and we have to settle for the grilled. This is worse than expecting a Tickle Me Elmo and getting a Grope Me Bert. This is wanting the original Lion King on DVD for your birthday and getting the The Lion King II: Simba's Pride on VHS. This is like asking out the hottest girl in your school to prom, getting rejected, and taking your homely cousin.

But fine...hey Double Down is Double Down, right? Nope, wrong. It's not. The Grilled Double Down is awful. First of all, it defeats the purpose of eating this crap in the first place. You want the unhealthy, greasy, gross option. You don't want some KFC executive's attempt to make a "healthy option". I should note here that not too many people seemed to have tried this excuse for a chicken sandwich yet. A Google search for "grilled double down" yields essential no images of this thing and only two reviews of this thing. Anyways, I'm just ranting.

Let's get to the sandwich. The chicken itself is soggy and mushy, and like a friend once described another chicken sandwich, it's "gooey". Just take a second to think about what that means in this context. The colonel sauce is easily ignorable - it barely shows up and when it does, it brings nothing. The sandwich is incredibly dry and bland. The cheese is pointless. It doesn't add to the flavor in any way but really just makes the sandwich slip and slide and fall apart while adding yet another level of mush. I don't know where that other review got the picture above because my sandwich didn't look anything like that. And chances are, yours won't either. This sandwich is a mess. The final insult is that this piece of garbage costs $5! A $5 chicken sandwich should at least be good. I feel like I could have gotten 5 dollar menu chicken sandwiches and come out a lot happier. This sandwich shouldn't exist at all and I will never be eating it again.

Due to demand, and I suppose living in such a fat city, I didn't get the chance to try the actual Double Down yet. I will soon (after I let this grilled mess leave my colon first) and will post a review soon (UPDATE: Maybe never.). In an attempt to leave you, the reader, with a better after taste than I had with that sandwich, I will post some of the more entertaining links I discovered with my research on this sandwich.

*Pairing the Double Down with Beer

*Where Does KFC Go Now, after the Double Down

*The WWE's Double Down 2 Win Contest

*Chicago's Fox 6 Guide of Food Porn

*More Gross Food Options from the Past

*NOTE: As I noted above, I didn't have bacon in this sandwich. I was raised Hindu so I don't eat red meat, including bacon. I'm pretty sure I've had it before in my life but I don't really care for it. I've heard it's great and maybe one day, I'll eat some but not today. I realize some of the more purist food critics may say that removing the bacon ("the meat in between the meat" if you will) will greatly affect the experience. While that may be true, I really don't want to eat bacon. If you do love the taste of bacon, please feel free to take my review with a grain of salt (that is, if you already didn't have enough salt eating the Double Down). That being said, I can assure you even if bacon tasted like pure heaven, this sandwich would still be a disappointing ** out 5* at best.

UPDATE (October 2011): I don't know when this happened or why but the grilled double down is not even an item on KFC's menu anymore, which makes this review sort of like what people wrote while on the Titanic as it was going down: a review of a disaster.

Finally an Update: The Steak Escape

Well, folks, it's been forever since I updated. I've been busy (by which I mean lazy, of course) and while I haven't stopped eating chicken sandwiches, I haven't been reviewing them. I guess I will go ahead and start now.

I went to New Orleans with a friend who was there to work a convention. Near the convention center is the famed River Walk, which is basically a mall next to the river. Like any mall, it has a food court but it being New Orleans (and basically being a tourist trap), essentially every restaurant in the food court is N'orleans food, i.e. crawfish, Étouffée, jambalaya etc. I'm not really a fan of that stuff, with the exception of Po' boys. What am I a fan of is, you guessed it, chicken sandwiches.

Luckily, I discovered a fast food restaurant I had never heard of or eaten at before - Steak Escape. Their menu shows a number of chicken sandwiches and they all looked good so I decided to try one - The Cajun Chicken.

Name: The Cajun Chicken
Source: Steak Escape, 1 Poydras Street, New Orleans, LA 70130-1657 (Riverwalk Marketplace)
Price: ~$6.00 (combo)
Ingredients: Whole wheat bun, tomato, onion, lettuce, Cajun seasoned grilled chicken pieces, American cheese
Rating: ****/***** (4/5)

As I mentioned, I don't really like Cajun food per se but I do love Cajun seasoning. Thus, this was a good foray into the world of New Orleans and Steak Escape. It was well seasoned, the portions were good (Steak Escape gives A LOT of fries with your combo). The seasoning was noticeable and spicy. The vegetables seemed fresh. While the meat could be a bit dry, it was still tasty. I didn't have the opportunity to eat it right after it was made so it was a big soggy but that didn't deter me too much. Also, I think American cheese is not the best choice of cheese. It just made the sandwich mushy. The Cajun Chicken isn't great but it was good enough to convince me to go back to The Steak Escape and get the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich.

Name: The Buffalo Chicken
Source: Steak Escape, 1 Poydras Street, New Orleans, LA 70130-1657 (Riverwalk Marketplace)
Price: ~$6.00 (combo)
Ingredients: Whole wheat bun, tomato, onion, lettuce, Buffalo sauce coated fried chicken patties, shredded cheddar cheese
Rating: *****/***** (5/5)

Buffalo chicken is not an original recipe by any means. And putting Buffalo chicken into a sandwich is by no means original either (although oddly enough, McDonald's, Burger King, and Jack in the Box don't have their own variety). That being said, Buffalo chicken sandwiches have to stand out if a place wants recognition for it since everyone and their mother makes one. The Steak Escape's Buffalo Chicken stands out. Like the Cajun Chicken sandwich combo above, this too comes with a whole lotta fries and a medium drink. It too was made with fresh vegetables: lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. The chicken is great too. Like with the Cajun sandwich, the inability to eat it immediately led to a degree of soggyness but still, that didn't overtake the otherwise good flavor. The Buffalo sauce is spicy (really spicy for fast food, in fact) and the chicken is well breaded - not too heavy but still not too light. The cheddar cheese was probably not necessary but eh, it gave the sandwich a bit of flavor. Overall, this was quite a sandwich to have.

To conclude, The Steak Escape is a great place for chicken, despite the name. While I missed out on the the third chicken sandwich, the Grand Chicken, I'm sure it too is pretty good. If you get the opportunity to try out this place, I strongly recommend it and make sure to get a combo so you can get in on a massive serving of their fries as well.

Hiatus

Umm...I don't know if you've noticed but this blog is currently on indefinite hiatus.

Don't worry. I haven't stopped eating chicken sandwiches. However, I have stopped writing about them and photographing them like a lunatic. I may continue again at some point but right now I'm experiencing a combination of business and laziness that makes it hard to continue with such a fringe enterprise.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

The Whatachick'n from Whataburger

Name: The Whatachick'n from Whataburger
Source: Whataburger, 19440 Highway 59 N, Humble, TX
Price: $5.39 (combo)
Ingredients: Whole wheat bun, tomato, onion, ketchup

Rating: ****/***** (4/5)

In college I remember that late at night me and my friend would go eat Whataburger. This was something I looked forward to probably because I was hungry and there was nothing to eat. At the time, the place would be filled with the odd mix of bums, college drunks, and people who probably should be at home watching their kids. Almost every time I went there, I got this sandwich (with a diet coke [like it makes a difference, ha!] and onion rings).

The soft, fresh meat is what stands out about this sandwich. It actually doesn't taste like fast food. The flavors mix well but nothing besides the meat is particularly amazing (although that doesn't mean it's not good), especially considering the price. Additionally, the sandwich is fairly bland (that is, not spicy or anything) and as the pictures above indicate, quite a sloppy affair. However, consider not many other places are open and that Whataburger could just exploit this and make terrible food anyway, it's quite a surprise to find someone not taking advantage of their monopoly. This sandwich is a real classic.

The Spicy Chick'n Crisp from Burger King

Name: The Spicy Chick'n Crisp
Source: Burger King, 2915 W Lake Houston Pkwy, Kingwood, TX
Price: $1.00 (no tax, no combo)
Ingredients: Lettuce, Sesame seed bun, deep fried patty, onions, tomato, lettuce

Rating: ****/***** (4/5)

While the above pictures may make you reconsider getting this sandwich, don't let my poor quality photos change your mind. Rather, the unique ingredient of this sandwich, the spicy seasoning they use on this sandwich gives it a salty, spicy flavor, which makes not just a value sandwich, but also a flavorful one. This sets it apart from the other $1 chicken sandwiches. It is, however, fairly small and if you don't get any sauce (by default, mayo), the sandwich could be a dry affair. Nevertheless, because it's tasty and at a low cost, you may want to order more than one. Thus, I consider it a good buy.

The Firecracker Tendercrisp from Burger King

Name: Firecracker Tendercrisp
Source: Burger King, 2915 W Lake Houston Pkwy, Kingwood, TX
Price: $5.19 (combo)
Ingredients: Lettuce, bun, deep fried patty, onions, tomato, lettuce, Firecracker sauce

Rating: ****/***** (4/5)

I had gone to Burger King a few weeks back and had ordered the Spicy Tendercrisp Sandwich, something I was surprised to find out was not served at Burger King, which evoked a response in me similar (although not as insane) to the Burger King Whopper Freakout scenario that Burger King has been trying to make a viral campaign (of course, I wouldn't really care if there was no Whoppers served at BK since I don't eat beef). I thus ordered a regular Tendercrisp which made me really grimace at the lack of spice.

From what I have learned from another blog, this Firecracker Tendercrisp is some attempt to bring people like me back to Burger King, which I think may actually work. The two sandwiches (Firecracker and the Spicy) are not the same (if memory serves me right). This Firecracker is a hot one like the name warns you and is also sloppy (see pictures above). The meat is crispy, almost fried to a burnt degree. The sauce is bold and in a very tingling way, something like wasabi. It lingers. All in all, the sandwich is really worth a try if you were in any way a fan of chicken sandwiches or the original Spicy Tendercrisp.