We Tried a ‘Barnyard Burger,’ the Most Underrated Secret Menu Item at Wendy’s

There are two kinds of secret menu items at fast-food restaurants. Some of them, employees make for you, like the animal-style fries at In-N-Out. But for more obscure or ambitious secret menu items, there’s a DIY version, where you order multiple things and assemble the item yourself.

I made myself a Land, Air and Sea sandwich at McDonald’s once, combining a Big Mac, McChicken and Filet-o-Fish all stacked together. Then I heard whispers about the Wendy’s Barnyard Burger, and of course, I had to try it.

What is the ‘Barnyard Burger’?

In this case, “barnyard” refers to the fact that cow, chicken and pig (in bacon form) all appear on one sandwich.

It’s not a terrible idea by any means. Wendy’s has pretty solid fast-food burgers and chicken sandwiches, and the main problem with the Land, Air and Sea was that the fish patty really didn’t swim nice with the other options.

How to Order Wendy’s Barnyard Burger

I want to minimize the work for Wendy’s workers here, so no special orders. Just order a hamburger (yes, with a square patty), a sandwich with bacon and a sandwich with crispy chicken. I decided to order the Asiago Chicken Club sandwich, which comes with bacon. Then, I ordered a simple cheeseburger for the beef.

You could also order any Wendy’s burger with bacon on it, plus any chicken sandwich. Wendy’s even has the bacon-crazy Baconator, which comes with six pieces of bacon and two patties. That’s a lot of bacon, though.

How to Build a Wendy’s Barnyard Burger

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper for Taste of Home

Warning: It’s going to be messy! Easy to assemble, but messy. I took the cheesy-covered beef patty out of the cheeseburger, opened up the chicken sandwich, and added the patty. It didn’t exactly want to stay, though, and the patty and some of the toppings kept sliding out.

This makes for some waste, of course—I ended up composting the burger’s bun and the lettuce and tomato that came with it. I ate the pickles though. I’m not crazy!

Wendy’s Barnyard Burger Review

Mess doesn’t matter much if the resulting sandwich is worth it. And it is!

The chicken patty was juicy and high-quality, the beef patty was tasty, and the bacon was a step above most fast-food bacon offerings—well-cooked and smoky. The tastes don’t fight with each other. Nothing is out of place, like the fish in the Land, Air and Sea sandwich. It’s a bit weird to have chicken and beef in the same bite of sandwich, but it’s a fun change.

Part of why it’s so good, though, is that Wendy’s is, at least for me, one of the top-drawer fast-food chains out there—better than most. There’s no question you could make this sandwich mash-up with a burger, chicken patty and bacon from any other chain. But it’s my belief it just wouldn’t be as good. If I ever decide to assemble a Barnyard Burger again, I’m going to Wendy’s for the ingredients.