Jack and Wendy went to the levee to fetch a pail of water in preparation for her new spicy innovations. Jack fell down and broke his crown because Wendy’s Spicy Sriracha Chicken Sandwich blew away his expectations.
That’s how the nursery rhyme should be updated because Wendy’s take on sriracha is impressive. My complaint with most fast food “spicy chicken” is that it’s never actually spicy. Wendy’s takes the pedal to the medal – quite possibly in a Lexus Sriracha IS – and delivers. It’ll make any O.G. Huy Fong Sriracha fan tear up.
They say you eat with your eyes first and Wendy’s nailed it with the vibrant but non-off-putting colors – the orange/red palette with the sriracha-infused bun, golden chicken breast, red onion, fresh green spring mix in a bright red box was working for me. Maybe there was some food psychology at work there.
I was also impressed by the size and poundage of the sandwich. Wendy’s didn’t skimp on the ingredients. There was a large piece of breaded chicken overflowing from the bun, a solid layer of spring mix and an appropriate amount of bacon.
The first thing I did was taste-test the bacon because soggy and stringy bacon can ruin a sandwich. Crispy? Check! The thick-cut bacon was a thing of beauty. I then proceeded to devour the sandwich. The breading itself was already a little bit spicy so I was enjoying the heat. On my third bite, I got to the sriracha aioli in all its glory and boy was it packing heat! As a balance to all the heat on heat on heat, I appreciated the red onion. It not only added a brightness to the sandwich – visually and taste-wise – but it also added a pleasant textural crunch.
About half way through, my nose started to run a little bit from the heat; the sriracha taste bud onslaught was in full force. Each sniffle exponentially increased my love for this sandwich. I loved the “afterglow” as well; my mouth had a pleasant spicy tingle after each bite. Related to the hefty size and poundage, every bite had the perfect ratio of chicken, spring mix, red onion, sriracha aioli, and bacon.
If I had to nitpick, I couldn’t taste the sriracha jack cheese at all. It was completely overpowered by the spice in the chicken breading as well as the sriracha aioli. I also don’t think the sriracha-infused bun added anything. It was a soft bun, but nothing about it seemed sriracha-infused because there was no heat to it. Also, the more I stared at the orange-colored bun, the odder I thought an orange-colored bun was.
Regardless, I didn’t mean to eat the entire thing but I did because it was so dang good.
(Nutrition Facts – 670 calories, 35 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 110 milligrams of cholesterol, 1690 milligrams of sodium, 51 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fiber, and 39 grams of protein.)
Purchased Price: $5.39
Size: N/A
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pros: Wendy’s packs heat and makes any O.G. Huy Fong Sriracha fan proud! Crispy thick-cut bacon is a thing of beauty. Red onion works well. Pleasant spicy tingle after each bite.
Cons: Sriracha jack cheese and sriracha-infused bun didn’t really taste like anything.
Man, I hated this sandwich. The sriracha sauce both did not taste anything like sriracha and was not all that spicy. It pretty much tasted like the sauce they put on the spicy chicken sandwich at Burger King, which I hate. I also thought that this would be the spicy chicken breast, which would have made sense and also saved the sandwich, as the Wendy’s spicy chicken is one of the best fast food items. But it was the regular chicken and it was pretty dried out.
It still has growth hormones!
I was not really a fan of this one. I liked the jalepeno fresco chicken sandwich SO MUCH so I was excited to try this new one. They have a sriracha dipping sauce that tastes more like sriracha than my sandwich did, and it way really dry with hardly any of the aioli. (And my local Wendy’s is pretty generous with their mayonnaise on regular sandwiches, so maybe there’s something in the way they’re being told to prepare it that’s leading to less of it being on there?)
It was a big dud for me. Not even close to a 9/10. If anything, the bun was the nicest part—well toasted with just the right amount of spice.
I usually skip Wendy’s because they never have hot sauce or jalapenos. Tried this sandwich 2 weeks ago and have stopped 5 times since. Not quite as hot as I like it, but It’s better than any other fast food sandwich. Hey, I think I’ll go get one!
LOVE IT!
It may not be Chinese or Mexican Spicy, but who is? Among all fast food options, this is legit hotness.