McDonald’s Alabama Chicken

29/04/201903/05/2019 Burger Lad 4698 ViewsMcDonald's

McDonald’s Alabama Chicken Review

Alabama Chicken:

What they say:

Two succulent crispy chicken pieces, bacon, cheese, crispy onions and a seasonal lettuce with a smoky BBQ mayo in a cornbread style bun.

Price: £4.69/£5.89/£6.29 (subject to variation).

Calories: 647 kcal.

Great Tastes of America returns for its 13th consecutive year at McDonald’s and the first new burger in the line-up is The Alabama Chicken.

This is the first time that the eight week promotion will have two different chicken offerings alongside the four beef options.

As reported first on BURGER LAD®, The Alabama Chicken will be available weeks 1 through 4 with The Nashville Chicken replacing it for weeks 5 through 8.

Today I will be taking advantage of the offer on the MyMcDonald’s app – by spending £5 and getting £1 off.

A decent enough deal… but you are probably better placed spending £10 and getting a £3 discount than ordering £20 of food and getting £5 off – you do the math.

On paper, the Alabama Chicken sounds reasonable – the main ingredients of interest (IMO) being the crispy onions and smoky BBQ mayo.

The promotional box it comes in looks as you would expect from the Great Tastes of America LTO.

One side has the Alabama Chicken graphic with the opposite side displaying the Nashville Chicken logo.

Inside, I am greeted by a semi-scruffy looking build – I don’t believe that you can really make these look great balancing all the ingredients on two Chicken Selects.

I’ve got a keen eye for such things and straight away spot that the bacon and cheese are the wrong way round – it should be bun heel, selects, cheese and then bacon.

Not a big deal and the majority of customers wouldn’t know different.

There also seems to be a splodge of the BBQ mayo predominantly on one side of the burger which we will discuss later in this review.

And… I’m not going to bother re-visiting the argument regarding using two Chicken Selects as the “burger”.

Although many would prefer a return to the Legend as patty of choice for chicken LTO at The Golden Arches, it looks like this format is here to stay.

The bun is a good choice and looks the part – I’d say it makes the overall burger feel a bit more premium. Which it should, considering you are paying nearly a fiver for two Selects in a bun with some additional ingredients.

Maybe stick to the Wrap of the Day?

It has got to be sampled though and first we are going to analyse that smoky BBQ mayo.

The sauce is the undeniable star of the show – that saying, the show isn’t an award-winning series and the cast isn’t quite A-List… or B… or possibly C.

The smoky BBQ mayo is slightly interesting and reminds me of a cross between the black pepper mayo at KFC (but not in the same league) and the Big Tasty Sauce.

In fact, the Alabama Chicken scarily reminds me of the Chicken Big Tasty but with a different bun and a few tweaks.

The bacon is non-descript. I still don’t trust visiting my local McDonald’s at this time of day in case of receiving LBB (leftover breakfast bacon).

Looking at the promo images, I am more than adamant it is LBB. Or just undercooked.

Houston… we have an overload… a lettuce overload.

This was spilling out all over the place – just a bit too much on my Alabama Chicken.

You get a definite smokiness throughout which is complimented by that unique, almost burnt taste of the crispy onions. A staple in the kitchen at BLHQ and one of my favourite toppings on burgers and/or wraps.

My main problem about this also stems from the sauce distribution.

As you can see from the lifting the lid shot above, most of the sauce was dispersed in one area which meant I got a lot of bites where it all seemed just a bit dry. That was a shame.

Overall, the Alabama Chicken is an alright burger but not one to rave on about.

It isn’t outstanding, nor is it terrible. It just seems like a Chicken Big Tasty Mark II – a middle of the road, average burger which just has a different (decent) bun and crispy onions.

Worth a sample for the smoky BBQ mayo but this will be my one and only during Great Tastes of America.