Chick-Fil-A Spicy Chicken Sandwich – Review

It’s apparently been twenty-one years since Chick-Fil-A last introduced a new sandwich. It makes sense: whatever crack cocaine they put into their chicken to make it so ridiculously addictive must take a long time to perfect in a newly formulated delivery mechanism. But now they’re venturing even further into my jurisdiction by offering up a spicy variation of their signature sandwich.

The two questions for such a sandwich must be, first: can it possibly be as tasty as the original? And also, how spicy is “spicy,” anyway? As fans of spicy foods know, spicy is in the tongue of the be…um…the be-eater. There’s something depressing about being promised a firestorm of mouth-destroying flavor and instead feeling the need to reach for the Tabasco because you realize the food has been dialed down for the masses.

[ad#longpost]So when I learned they were taking reservations for people to come in and get a free spicy chicken sandwich, how could I say no? My addiction to Chick-Fil-A’s cuisine is well-documented. They even had a series of booths setup with red decoration, balloons, and placards for where we were to sit.

Chick-Fil-A’s spicy chicken has a decent amount of heat, though. While it won’t start a whole slew of “mouth fires,” it does give you a bit of burn. Will it make your mouth water? No. But is it tasty? Sure thing. They apparently offer up pepper jack for an extra bit of spice, though for mine I decided going without for the pure spicy experience would be best.

When you get to a showdown between spicy and original, I think I’d pick the regular version every time. Not that the spicy is bad–it’s a decent sandwich–but it doesn’t stand head and shoulders above the competition like the regular Chick-Fil-A sandwich does. But they get some credit for making a sandwich that’s a good deal hotter than, say, Wendy’s similar sandwich.

Extra credit as well for trying to make getting a free fast food sandwich into an event. For which they succeeded, in my opinion.