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

Burger King vs. McDonald's vs. Subway - Breakfast Sandwich Show Down

There's a war a brewin' and it's not in the middle east.

It's in the USA and it's over your breakfast buck. Recently BK has touted stealing the recipe for the Sausage McMuffin with Egg from McD's, saying it's not original but it's a buck. (McD's has price matched although that is not reflected on the menu.) Subway has entered the breakfast sandwich fray as well with both muffin and flat bread breakfast sandwiches.

So who's winning? Who will be king of the hill for your fast food breakfast buck.

Recently our esteemed panel of judges headed out in my jeep for a Muffin Sandwich throw down. We ordered sausage, egg and cheese version at each place 2 sandwiches, one for eating hot and fresh at the drive in window and another for dissecting at home. While it was a close call, there were significant differences.

Winner - BK Breakfast Muffin sandwich. Best over all taste and best sausage. $1.00 Nutritional info coming.

Close second - Sausage McMuffin with Egg. Slightly buttery aftertaste with strange egg texture pushed it in to second. $1.00 (currently) 450 calories, 27 g fat.

Last place - Subway Egg Muffin Sandwich with Sausage. Not a lot to like and the most expensive. $2.45 nutritional info coming

The differences between the firs two were in the sausage and egg. Everyone liked the sausage in the BK sandwich better and while the egg in the McMuffin tasted more like an egg, there is always a unnatural rubberiness to those McDonald's egg circles. The muffins were very similar with McDonald's doing the best job of toasting it. They get a small amount of brown right around the edge. It gives it a nice crunch.

The Subway sandwich was much more greasy and had much less taste. To be honest it would have fared better if we had added the veggies but that wouldn't have been fair. The egg part was the least flavorful of the three. Unlike their other sandwiches, they don't make the bread fresh on premises.

The egg parts are all from different origins. While they all claim to use real eggs, the McDonald's and Subway sandwiches both get the egg part delivered by truck twice a week. The BK people cook up the egg fresh on premises and we thought that came through, although they use an egg mixture they get from corporate.

So enjoy that BK sandwich while it lasts. Actually make one at home.

Food Inc, or get ready to hold on to your cookies

There's a film out there that I'm sure probably falls into the category, "Things you wish you never knew."  It's called Food Inc and it lays bare the dirty little secrets we don't want to know about America's Food industry. (i.e., the bad things in a twinkie, I'm sure, duh.) 

I'm all for knowledge and eating healthy but the previous work by one of the narrators, Eric Schlosser, "Fast Food Nation" was manipulative and biased.  This movie smells the same way.

The surprising fact is that Chipotle is helping to promote it. The chain will sponsor free screenings across the country and will even give out promotional items at its stores.  (I'm thinking fake plastic vomit)

Reuters says, "Bringing this message about America's food practices to consumers gives Chipotle an opportunity to showcase its eco-friendly "food with integrity" philosophy."

Remember "Fast Food Nation" was all about slamming McDonalds and how unhealthy its food was.  Now the chain McDonalds started, Chipotle, is helping Schlosser get his particular brand of nausea out to its masses.

Next up, Bizarre Foods and Twinkies in a strategic partnership.

Cheer Me Up Before You Go Go

There's a great scene on Friends, the TV show, where Phoebe's unpopular psychologist boyfriend tells the gang that the cookies they are eating aren't love, they're just cookies.  He leaves and they hurl the cookies at the door. While that's true, cookies aren't love, some times they are a great substitute.  When you're depressed or sad food can be such a comfort.  No wonder we have such an obesity problem with so many people on anti-depressants and the rest of us using cookies as a love substitute.  

 

I tell you right now I could sure go for something.  Not that life isn't great. Compared to the way most of the world lives, I have it made. It's just that even with the convenience, the wealth, the food, the shelter, the cars and cable TV, the leisure time, shopping malls - even with all that life can be hard.  And when life is hard we need to eat.  Eating helps.

 

I know this isn't right.  We should look deeper and find the root causes of our unhappiness and deal with them on that level.  But who has that kind of time?  Maybe some day I'll have the opportunity for reflection and figure out why I tend to emotionally crash from time to time.  Why some days there's a itch that only a Big Mac can scratch.  Oh, yes, now I see, it was a symptom of my early childhood memories dealing with the issues of subconscious repression and denial stemming from intergenerational reltaionships and the foregoing .....  Sheesh.

 

I think I do want fries with that.

 

What's your favorite cheer me up food?

Restaurant Food and NaCl

I've been trying to cut back on salt.  While it's a great "flavor magnifier" I used to use it too much.  Since cutting back I almost never add salt at the table, while trying to cook with it in moderation.  What I've found is that my taste buds have really adjusted.  I really enjoy the food taste and don't need that salt kick.

But this is making me a pariah in the American food culture.  We Americans love our salt and have grown so accustomed to it that we demand it of our food providers.

I noticed this a couple nights ago when we had some good friends over for dinner.  This family is a big eater of prepared food and almost never cooks from scratch.  I made, I think.., the Red Pepper pasta, and their whole family asked for the salt shaker throughout the meal.  Trust me, it didn't need it. None of my family used the shaker once. The difference had to be the prepared food they normally eat.

I also really notice the salt in restaurant food.  Everything is incredibly salty at most of the family oriented (Applebee's, Chili's...) restaurants here in the midwest. But if that's what people expect, that's what the restaurants are forced to serve.  What a catch 22.  If they make normal, un-salt-encrusted food, people would say it doesn't taste good.  We've become addicted.

All I know is I've never been happier with the way food tastes.  It's just harder to eat out and almost impossible to buy something already prepared for those times when we're in a pinch. No pun intended.

 

What are your favorite ways to cut back on salt or what spice alternatives do you recommend?