Healthy Fast Food, a review of grilled Chicken Sandwiches at Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's

Eating healthy can be tough, but even more so when you're relegated to fast food. If you're able to bypass the Big Mac or Whopper, which grilled chicken sandwich should you get? We at Cooking for Dads set out to answer that age old question.

We narrowed the options down to the grilled chicken sandwiches at McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, the most nationally available chains. Both McDonald's and BK only have one option while Wendy's has 3. We chose the basic grilled chicken sandwich at each, with lettuce and tomatoes and accepted the way they served it to us. Here is the run down on the information for each sandwich.

The Review

Wendy's Grilled Chicken Sandwich - $4.60 - 370 calories

BK Tender Grill Chicken Sandwich - $4.60 - 470 calories

McDonald's Classic Grilled Chicken Sandwich -$4.19 - $420 calories

All of them come under the Big Mac as far as calories (576) so right off the bat you're ahead. Here is our take on their tastes by each component.

The Meat:

BK - Nicely seasoned and juicy, cooked just right. We like the char burns on the meat from the flame broiling.

McDonald's - Surprisingly bland. We were surprised there wasn't more sodium at least. The chicken was in dire need of seasoning.

Wendy's - The meat has nice texture but the seasoning is a little sweet, and there's a chemical after taste.

The Buns:
BK - Tougher than the rest but a nice taste. The Wendy's and McD's buns were much softer.

McDonald's - The best bun of the bunch with great texture and nice white bread taste - just like mom. The Classic McD's bun.

Wendy's - Again nice texture but really quite sweet. The is a lot of sugar in this bread.

Over all Sandwich:

BK - Well, you can tell from the picture which one we liked. The only one that's almost gone. The BK Sandwich was heads and shoulders above the others in over all taste as a sum of it's parts. The meat matched the bread and the crisp lettuce and juicy tomato, they all worked together in ensemble. We will definitely get this one instead of a Whopper.

McDonald's - Not a terrible sandwich, but definitely lacking in interest. We would have expected more McDonald's magic in this one. Definitely get the Big Mac. This one's not worth it.

Wendy's - I'm a big Wendy's fan, but this sandwich is not an option. The bread is sweet, the meat is sweet, the sandwich is way too sweet. (We like sweet things but this is just too much of it) Maybe if you got it without the sauce it would help, but I would stick to the burgers or the fried chicken here.

So that's it for healthy fast food for today.

Remember when possible, cook well.
Rob Barrett, Jr.
Cooking for Dads