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McDonald’s My Burger Big Spicy Bacon

Big Spicy Bacon

Review of McDonald’s My Burger Big Spicy Bacon

Website: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/product_nutrition.beef.1315.the-big-spicy-bacon.html

What they say:

This delicious combo from the mind of Luke Watson brings together 100% beef, cheese with peppers, bacon, sliced onions, chopped iceberg lettuce with jalapenos and piri-piri mayo bringing a little heat to a chilli, chive & sesame-topped bun.

Price: £3.99 for the burger only (subject to variation).

Calories: 648 kcal.

Welcome to the fifth and final instalment of the McDonald’s My Burger promotion and what an excellent five weeks we’ve had trying each of these crowd-sourced burgers.

You’ll have to accept my apologies for my review of the McPizza Pepperoni as I was feeling unwell that day and didn’t feel on top form.

But this week Burger Lad® is back to his brilliant, burger best and concluding My Burger is The Big Spicy Bacon.

McDonald’s Promotional Picture…

In my opinion this is the best sounding of the five and is the first McDonald’s UK burger to feature jalapeños on it.

The USA get the Jalapeño Double and Burger King have had the spicy, pickled peppers on their Angry range so I was very much looking forward to trying The Big Spicy Bacon.

As you may or may not know I’m quite a fan of Nando’s Peri-Peri sauce (when it’s not down my shirt) so the promise of a McDonald’s piri-piri mayo was intriguing.

This, plus the additional chilli, chive & sesame-topped bun, cheese with peppers and jalapeños threatens to make this the spiciest entry on the UK McDonald’s menu ever… just how would the heat levels compare to the Sweet Chilli Fiesta…?

Hot off the heels of our Firefly Pastrami Swiss review we hit the drive-thru relatively early and had the usual wait.

I even managed to drive away from my secret burger location with The Big Spicy Bacon despite being told the Big Tasty with Bacon is no longer on sale anymore. Perhaps in the excitement I was mumbling my words.

First glimpse of Week Five…

This had been made-up well today and there was an abundance of lettuce on-board, it practically fell out the chilli, chive & sesame-topped bun it was that packed with it!

The smell coming from the promotional box didn’t particularly scream of anything in particular but you could catch a distinctive pickled whiff of those uncooked jalapeños. Exciting…

I took my first expectant bite… and it was a satisfying crunch delivered from that lettuce. This coupled with the onion slices gave the burger a fresh tasting platform for the rest of the ingredients to build on.

Now there wasn’t much of the onion on my build so after the first mouthful or two I didn’t really pick up that sharp taste again but it was good and I think more would have possibly detracted from the spicy elements we’ll discuss next.

The Big Spicy Bacon…

This burger was loaded with jalapeños and this was a joy!

I was expecting maybe four slices maximum but I literally counted eight, maybe nine of them so this was definitely a positive for The Big Spicy Bacon.

I did remove one to see just how spicy they were and am pleased to report back they did provide a suitable kick. I hope in future promotions we get to see them return.

The bacon was there, it did contribute to the burger overall with that chewy texture but was fairly flat in terms of flavour.

Still, it worked nicely with the 100% beef patty and those cheese slices with pepper – again I would like to see more pepper flecks in the cheese.

Speaking of the cheese, when you manage to grab one of these burgers without the dreaded burger slide the cheese sits nicely, not melted and not looking a million miles away from the promotional picture.

Last of the My Burger 2014 promotion…

Alright Mr. Nando’s so how did that piri-piri mayo measure up…?

To me this could have had more of a stronger peri flavouring to it… but then I am used to Extra Hot in the morning because I’ve been branded a loose cannon in the past.

It definitely provides a slight spice level to The Big Spicy Bacon and is obviously something different to what we’ve seen before.

I liked it as part of the rest of the burger but anyone hoping for spice levels seen in the Sweet Chilli Fiesta are going to be disappointed. Probably for the best considering the number of people on Twitter saying that it had burned their mouths…

Lifting the lid since 2012…

Overall, The Big Spicy Bacon does exactly what it says on the tin. OK perhaps it’s not majorly “big” but weighing in at 648 calories it’s certainly got some weight behind it.

The jalapeños are the star of the show on this burger and as a whole it really works with that crispy and fresh onion/lettuce combination while giving carnivores their satisfying fill with the bacon and beef.

Cheese works too, to give us that bacon cheeseburger experience but it’s the piri-piri mayo and jalapeños that just takes it up a notch or two above the Big Uno and Ultimate Supreme.

Lot’s of lettuce on this one…

What a fantastic end to the five week My Burger promotion from McDonald’s.

I think The Big Spicy Bacon will be hard-pushed to give the McPizza Pepperoni a run for its money but I’d just like to add a personal congratulations again to the final five. It’s been an absolute blast reviewing your burgers!

We’ll be updating our original My Burger Winners post with the taste test analysis for all five promotional items within the next 48 hours… in the meantime we’ll leave you with our latest episode of BLTV.

Burger Lad®

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