What is the Taco Bell Cantina Crispy Chicken Taco?
Taco Bell brings back its Crispy Chicken and puts it in a flour tortilla with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and your choice of avocado ranch or creamy chipotle sauce. The protein is crispy, white-meat chicken that’s marinated in jalapeño buttermilk, seasoned with Mexican spices, and has a tortilla chip coating.
How is it?
I loved the previous product that featured the Crispy Chicken – the Crispy Chicken Sandwich Taco. But it was small and quite basic, with the regular one having just the chicken and chipotle sauce in a flatbread.
The Cantina Crispy Chicken Taco is slightly more substantial. But if you look at the ingredients, it’s basically a Crispy Chicken Soft Taco Supreme, except the sour cream is replaced by a different sauce. The flavors from the vegetables and cheese also made this taste Taco Supreme-esque.
So far, I’ve been on Team Crispy Chicken, and this product doesn’t change my mind. On its own, it has a great taste and fantastic crunch, and those attributes still come through in this menu item. After trying both varieties, I prefer the Creamy Chipotle one. I enjoy the smoky and spicy sauce’s flavor, and it pairs well with the chicken’s seasoning. As for the Avocado Ranch, even though there was a decent amount of sauce despite what my photo shows, it was a little difficult to notice, making the taco less flavorful than the chipotle one.
Anything else you need to know?
Before I saw pictures of the Cantina Crispy Chicken Taco, I had images in my head that this would have the white corn tortilla shell that came with last year’s Cantina Crispy Melt. But sadly, this is not the Cantina Crispy Crispy Chicken Taco. But I’d totally eat the Cantina Crispy Crispy Chicken Taco if it ever gets made.
Also, you might end up with a stubby piece of meat as I did with the chipotle one. Its length was shorter than half a tortilla. But since it was thick, I cut it in half lengthwise and made the chicken stretch from end to end. So just a heads up, you might end up with a couple of meatless bites if you don’t check under the tortilla.
Conclusion:
Although not much imagination went into the Cantina Crispy Chicken Taco, it’s a solid product that highlights the chicken strips.
Purchased Price: $3.89*
Size: N/A
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Avocado Ranch), 7 out of 10 (Creamy Chipotle)
Nutrition Facts: Creamy Chipotle – 270 calories, 13 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 690 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein. Avocado Ranch – 270 calories, 13 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 700 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.
*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.
I’ll be trying these! I was a fan of their chicken sandwich taco and these scream memories of the snack wraps that used to exist at McDonalds and Wendys that I miss so much.
I liked both. Probably rate them about a 7.5 out of 10. Both of mine actually had plenty of chicken, two strips each. But I agree with the author about the name. When they said “Cantina”, I was expecting something like the Crispy Melt. These are just soft tacos with a chicken tender for the meat.
Mine both only had one tender in it and I was still hungry after but they were really good but more like a snack. So next time I’ll prob get a beef and bean crunch wrap with this as a side lol The grilled cheese burrito is gone now 🙁 it was my favorite.
Bah! Bearer of bad news…the grilled cheese burrito is wonderful and was a fave of mine too…
Seems like with Taco Bell’s verbiage they use crunchy to refer to a shell offering and crispy to the chicken tenders. Guh though, it’s confusing me now too! When they came out with the “cantina” melt it seemed to be named that way because of the fried white corn tortilla…I am so in the weeds with Taco Bell!
I dug the ones on the flatbread, looking forward to these.
Fortunately it was only 2.49 here.
In the short ride home it managed to loose most of it’s crispiness, but the taste was ok.
I suspect it will become a after thought in a few days when they release the Flamin’ Hot Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco