McDonald’s Indian Chicken Review
McDonald’s Indian Chicken:
What they say:
Two pieces of succulent crispy chicken with a sweet and sticky onion relish, in-between a garlic naan.
Price: £4.69/£5.89/£6.29 (subject to variation).
Calories: 590 kcal.
Great Tastes of the World returns to McDonald’s and the chicken option available for the first half of the 8-week period is the brand new Indian Chicken.
When we revealed the line-up (way before any other news outlets) I was encouraged to see the Indian Chicken on the list.
Thoughts took me back to one of my all-time favourite chicken promotional items – the Chicken and Chutney Indian.
That stunning build featured a Chicken Legend patty, shredded lettuce, onions, spiced-onion chutney and a yogurt and mint mayo – our review (from a fledgling BL® website) here.
Then I saw the ingredients for the new Indian Chicken.
I’m not going to make it a secret that I am hugely disappointed not to see the yogurt and mint mayo return.
This really helped contribute to the Chicken and Chutney delivering an enjoyable Indian-inspired experience.
In its place, a garlic mayo which is the EXACT same sauce as on the returning French Stack. Yawn.
I saw a quote recently from Paul Pomroy, Chief Executive Officer for McDonald’s UK saying “This is the toughest trading period we’ve had.”
So, it makes operational sense to have the same sauce on two LTO burgers (less wastage, lower purchasing costs/economies of scale etc.)
But it is the customer that is short changed IMO. And of course we no longer get a Legend but instead, two Chicken Selects.
Off the bat, I am going to say this is one of the more bizarre McDonald’s burgers I have encountered.
First the naan.
OK, it gives off a bit of a WOW factor at first but the sensationalism of McDonald’s serving a chicken burger in-between two naan breads soon wears thin.
I was almost expecting a “naan style bun” but this really is like someone has plonked a load of discarded Big Flavour Wrap ingredients between two Sharwood’s mini naan breads.
There might be a subtle garlic-flavouring to it but that is difficult to distinguish. Plus it makes for an awfully dry burger.
I can’t be bothered to re-visit the Chicken Selects as a burger argument but as you are all aware, there are many detractors to the concept.
Whereas the Chicken and Chutney Indian really did a good job of associating itself with a Chicken Tikka Starter, the Indian Chicken just seems like a hodgepodge of lazy ideas.
It is certainly not better. Nor does it come close to the magic of the Thai Special.
That garlic mayo (you can also sample that on the French Stack) is there… sort of faintly hiding in the background to help attempt lubricate and provide a hint of garlic to your palate now and then.
Lettuce is joined by cucumber and red onion (untidy chunks on mine) which do an OK job (I actually quite enjoyed having the cucumber on here).
Again, this stinks of just throwing some ingredients we already have in our Wrap range on a “burger” and charging anything up-to and around £6.29 for a Large Meal.
There is one minor positive to McDonald’s Indian Chicken however.
I do like the sweet and sticky onion relish which if you check the components is made up of 25% carrot.
There’s an element of spice here which gives you that slight association with Indian cuisine. Strangely, I can’t help but think of the sachet of sauce you get with an Original Curry Pot Noodle when sampling this.
And yes Paneer is a cheese which features in many Indian dishes but I just don’t get why the cheese slice is on here – it seems very out of place.
I’m left scratching my head a bit in post-eating review mode.
As you can see from the pictures or if you’ve had this already, the McDonald’s Indian Chicken looks “clumsy”. Like it could fall over at any minute. And arrived in the clamshell upside down.
I bet operationally the staff that make these things daily will be glad to see the back of it and I can only imagine the state of the thing when it arrives to you via Uber Eats.
Overall, the Indian Chicken is a bit of a strange and unusual burger, which seems like a gimmick to bring attention to the Great Tastes of the World range in 2019.
Maybe that was the plan?
The naan is initially interesting but then turns into a dry chore. The build itself is messy and feels like an ensemble of cross-sell ingredients put together in the vain attempt to resemble an Indian-inspired McDonald’s burger.
A Chicken and Chutney Indian beater it is not.
The Indian Chicken will be available, subject to availability until Tuesday 22nd October at participating restaurants.
Burger Lad®
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/product/the-indian-chicken.html
