In my first head-to-head fast food challenge, the Burger King double cheeseburger came out on top over the McDonald’s double cheeseburger. In this contest, I throw McDonald’s back in the ring, this time in a battle of chicken sandwiches. McDonald’s McChicken sandwich versus Wendy’s 99 cent Crispy Chicken Sandwich, to be exact.
As before, one of the major factors I look at when comparing to products – namely, the price – is relatively moot in this case, since one sandwich costs 99 cents, and the other one costs one dollar. For all practical purposes, this is a toss-up.
Which takes us to my next factor: looks. In my boat, one of the major factors in how I view food is how the food looks when I take first take it out of the wrapper. In the case of the McDonald’s McChicken sandwich… eh… nothing spectacular to write home about. It looks like a bun with a chicken patty, lettuce and mayo. Which is good, since that’s what it is. The sandwich doesn’t exactly look like a work of art, but it doesn’t look like something thrown together out of whatever was on hand, either. The Wendy’s Crispy Chicken sandwich, on the other hand, has a really good look to it. This could certainly be a case where different restaurants, at different times of the day, have better/fresher ingredients, but the Wendy’s bun looks fresher, not as pressed down (which could be a factor in the sandwich’s wrapping, of course), and the chicken patty itself looks… more natural. While the McDonald’s chicken patty looks like a processed chicken patty (and not like an actual cut of chicken breast), the Wendy’s chicken patty looks like it was cut and breaded. Both fast food places use processed chicken in this inexpensive sandwich, but Wendy’s managed to make their version look a little more appealing. In this category, Wendy’s is the victor.
My next area of comparison is in the size of the product. As said before in my double cheeseburger comparison, when comparing two items of equal cost, the value is (in part), determined by the size of the product. In this case, the Wendy’s Crispy Chicken sandwich and the McDonald’s McChicken sandwich are fairly equal. The McDonald’s McChicken sandwich seems to be a bit heftier than the Wendy’s Crispy Chicken sandwich, but that could just be a figment of my imagination. I must admit that I’m not eating the two sandwiches side by side, as I wanted each sandwich to be as fresh as possible when I ate it.
Note: After looking at the respective nutritional figure for each sandwich I see that the two sandwiches are nearly identical in weight. Go figure.
The third aspect I look at, and the most important (in my view), when discussing food items, is – of course – how they taste. Here is where the Wendy’s Crispy Chicken sandwich starts to pull ahead of the McDonald’s McChicken sandwich. Two reasons for this: first is that the Crispy Chicken sandwich has a real piece of lettuce on it, as opposed to shredded lettuce favored by McDonald’s, and the second reason is… well… mayo. I’m not a huge fan of mayo, but on a chicken sandwich, I find it a good thing, to deal with what could otherwise be a dry sandwich. McDonald’s, in my opinion, really overdoes it, putting on far too much mayo, in my opinion. Sure, I could ask for less, or none at all, or request the mayo on the side, but since this is a comparison of two menu items, I thought the excess mayo worth mentioning. Wendy’s, on the other hand, while the chicken patty itself is not as spiced as the McDonald’s patty (and frankly, if I were eating just the chicken, the McDonald’s sandwich might win), the overall experience is better. Barely.
Verdict: The Wendy’s Crispy Chicken sandwich wins this battle, but only barely. If I would order the McDonald’s McChicken sandwich the way I’d prefer it (either without mayo or with the mayo on the side so I could choose the amount to put on the sandwich), then I think the McDonald’s McChicken sandwich is better. But, as I said, this is a comparison between two menu items, and based on that, the Wendy’s Crispy Chicken sandwich is better. Hint: Wendy’s recently introduced a similar chicken sandwich, but with buffalo (hot wing) flavoring… it’s a lot better!
Nutritional Information: Like in my double cheeseburger comparison, I thought it would be a good thing to include some health info, for those of you who are more concerned with that than I am.
