I Tried the Chicken Big Mac, and I Have Opinions on This Sandwich

For those of you who are not familiar with the McDonald’s secret menu, allow me to tell you about the Chicken Big Mac. It’s a sandwich I’ve never been able to order directly from the Golden Arches. Instead, I used to order two McChicken sandwiches with cheese and pickles and ask for Big Mac sauce instead of mayo. Just remove a bun from one sandwich, stack ’em together and voila: a Chicken Big Mac.

But while going off-menu can be fun, sometimes you don’t want to do the work yourself. Lucky for us all, McDonald’s is now selling a real Chicken Big Mac, no menu hacking required.

I’m a fast-food critic who has eaten pretty much every chicken sandwich on the market, and I can’t believe it took so long for the Chicken Big Mac to become a reality. McDonald’s spent years rolling out countless “brand new” chicken sandwiches while the idea for a Big Mac with chicken has been right there, staring into Grimace’s beady eyes.

Here’s my personal take on this very special chicken sandwich.

What’s on the Chicken Big Mac?

Like the classic Big Mac, this Chicken Big Mac has McDonald’s Special Sauce, lettuce, cheese and pickles on a sesame seed bun. But instead of two all-beef patties, the Chicken Big Mac uses two fried chicken patties.

McDonald’s introduced a brand-new breaded chicken patty for this sandwich. Made of ground 100% white meat, it has a light, crispy tempura batter. This patty is also rounder and flatter, like a hamburger patty, so it fits the Big Mac bun perfectly. Meanwhile, patties used for the McChicken are made from a blend of white and dark meat, and the McCrispy uses a whole chicken breast.

Chicken Big Mac Review

ALLISON ROBICELLI FOR TASTE OF HOME

Dare I say it: This might be the best chicken sandwich of all the chicken sandwiches currently in the McDonald’s canon. Why? Because the patties are nearly identical to the best item on the entire McDonald’s menu: the iconic Chicken McNugget. In fact, I’d go as far as to say the McNugget is the best item on any fast food menu, because unlike Shackburgers or the Popeyes chicken sandwich, you can easily eat them while driving or stash them in your pocket to secretly snack on during long, boring meetings.

I’ll take my adulation a step further and posit that the Chicken Big Mac may actually be better that the original beef-based version. When the Big Mac was invented in 1967, beef was cheaper, and McDonald’s used hamburger patties that were significantly larger and tastier. Over the years, to keep the cost of its signature item down, McDonald’s has gradually shrunk the size of its Big Mac burger patties to a paltry 1.6 ounces each, meaning that in total, each Big Mac now contains barely one-fifth of a pound of beef sandwiched between three slices of bread, swimming in shredded lettuce and Special Sauce. The result is a burger that doesn’t taste very much like a burger at all.

In contrast, the Chicken Big Mac tastes like meat. The chicken patties are crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and full of flavor. For people who are as passionate about McNuggets as I am, this sandwich is a dream. In the spirit of innovation, I may hack this no-longer-a-hack sandwich by ordering it without the Secret Sauce, and replacing it with a cup of ranch dipping sauce. The Chicken Big Mac universe has no limits.

How long is the Chicken Big Mac at McDonald’s?

The Chicken Big Mac is available now and, according to McDonald’s, will only stick around while supplies last. The hungry public could devour every one of these brand-new chicken patties in a matter of weeks. My advice: Act fast.