McDonald’s Christmas Chicken Warmer

Review of McDonald’s Christmas Chicken Warmer

What they say:

Two Chicken Selects with cheese, fire roasted red pepper sauce, slivered onions, a cool mayo and lettuce in a glazed, sesame topped bun.

Price: £4.39 for the burger only. £5.69 for a Medium Meal. 40p Large upgrade.

Calories: 560 kcal.

Tis the season to be jolly (soon) and you know that time of year is approaching when McDonald’s brings their Festive Menu to the High Street.

This year, we have the Beef and Cheese Feast (our review here) and the new Christmas Chicken Warmer.

Like the beef option, I can’t particularly see what is festive about this build and the lack of a festive pie has seen some people calling this the most un-festive McDonald’s menu in recent times…

Personally, it doesn’t bother me too much as long as I enjoy the burger.

How does the McDonald’s Festive Menu compare to their rivals?

KFC are not bringing back the Colonel’s Christmas Burger in 2017 and instead have opted for Festive Fries (fries sprinkled with the taste of toasted onions, garlic, herbs and smoky flavourings).

As of writing, Burger King have nothing on their menu to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.

I was visiting one of my not so favoured McD’s restaurants again with our new apprentice – Captain QP. More from him coming in 2018…

Service was much quicker today than our previous trip, although inside it was virtually empty and the drive-thru relatively quiet.

McDonald's Christmas Chicken Warmer

Inside the promotional box I found a quite carefully constructed build.

The bun doesn’t appear anywhere near as glazed as the imagery on the website/menu boards suggest and there is a heavy-handed amount of lettuce on-board.

I don’t associate lettuce with Christmas or Warmer.

McDonald's Christmas Chicken Warmer

The “warmer” element comes from the fire roasted red pepper sauce, which is the most pleasing component of the Christmas Chicken Warmer – that and the two Chicken Selects which are always decent with their crispy exterior and white chicken breast meat interior.

The sauce itself has only the slightest kick to it but is soon drowned out by the incessant cool mayo – you end up just tasting that pretty much the whole time and you might as well just get a Chicken Legend with Cool Mayo.

McDonald's Christmas Chicken Warmer

Every now and then there are redeeming features of the Christmas Chicken Warmer.

A slight hint of the sauce, a ping from the slivered onions and the welcome addition of Big Tasty cheese slices.

I can’t say I would recommend going for this option and at £4.39 for the burger only it is over-priced IMO.

McDonald's Christmas Chicken Warmer

It is no secret I am a MASSIVE fan of the Hot Peri Peri Crispy Wrap and on a Monday and Friday it is £2.00.

Let’s take a look at the ingredients:

Two Chicken Selects? Check.

Big Tasty cheese slices vs. Pepper Jack Cheese.

The Spicy Peri Peri sauce is better than the fire roasted red pepper sauce in my book.

Both have onions. Both have lettuce.

So you are paying extra for the cool mayo and a “bun upgrade.”

Personally, 10 times out of 10 I would get two Peri Wraps for £4 and walk away with four Chicken Selects instead of two on the Christmas Chicken Warmer.

Or… using McD’s Food For Thought, a £1.99 Big Mac and Fries and a £2 Wrap and still have money in my pocket compared to this.

McDonald's Christmas Chicken Warmer

So how has 2017 been for promotional burgers generally at McDonald’s?

We’ve had mainstays such as Great Tastes of America and Great Tastes of the World and the Bacon Clubhouse Double made an appearance at the beginning of the year.

Some McDonald’s fans have been calling it “the worst year for McD’s in the burger business” and asking “what does their R&D do?” as well as proclaiming “product development department at McD’s (has) been dreadful all year.”

Take a step back a minute.

In 2017, McDonald’s rolled out the Signature Collection to an additional 600+ restaurants in July.

They have also started implementing McDelivery and Click and Collect at an increasing number of restaurants.

All three innovations, one would imagine, would be challenging operationally… possibly explaining why we had the Big Tasty for such a long period of time over the summer months.

However, I believe we could see some interesting new developments in 2018 and beyond.

Firstly, there should be plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Big Mac. Could that be the Mega Mac? The Grand Big Mac (probably) or my favourite idea – a Signature version of the Big Mac.

I would be shocked if we don’t see Loaded Fries at some point – since their debut two years ago, they’ve been on-sale in many parts of the world and must be a contender to make an appearance.

It seems the chicken burger LTOs now use two Chicken Selects as standard (as seen again on the Christmas Chicken Warmer) but I think I speak for others when saying that a switch to the Chicken Legend patties would be an improvement.

Especially when the Wrap of the Day containing two Selects is £2.00 compared to a £4.00 burger.

Whatever happens in McDonaldland in 2018, you can guarantee we’ll be there on the front-line, mixing it up in the Fast Food Lane like we have since 2012.

Christmas Chicken Warmer? More like Mayo Lettuce Let-down.

McDonald's Christmas Chicken Warmer

Merry Christmas to all our amazing readers and have a Happy New Year!

Burger Lad®

Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/product/chicken-winter-warmer.html

Christmas Chicken Warmer

£4.39
5

Taste

5.0/10

Look

6.0/10

Price

4.0/10

Hot

  • Fire roasted red pepper

Not

  • Too much mayo
  • Price
  • Un-festive