Fast Food Review: Burger King Chicken Minis

I never was able to try the Church's minis, and that's a shame, because I really like Church's fried chicken. But a few months back, when advertisements for the minis started appearing everywhere - including my mailbox - I went to no fewer than five Church's locations. None had the minis; none knew if they were ever going to.

The other night I was driving past Burger King when I noticed a sign reading "BK Minis." Burger King is my least favorite fast food chain (by far) but still I thought Why not? Especially when I got close and noticed that the minis look similar to the ads I saw for Church's minis. (There are two kinds of minis to choose from: burgers and fried chicken. But the former seemed too close to the BK "Burger Shots" of a couple years back, and I did not enjoy those.)

A four pack was only $2.99, which seemed like a reasonable amount. A couple of minutes later I was back at home.

I always like it when instructions are included on how to eat a product. It's even better when those instructions include "Enjoy."

Not terrible looking at first, although the warm mayonnaise leaking out and drenching the side of the container wasn't terribly appetizing.

Now I see why one of the instructions was "Tear" - the chicken patties are fused together. That's just weird.

The first bite was a surprise - it was initially amazing. The bun was the best bun I may have ever had from a national fast food chain. It was warm and soft like it had just been freshly baked. And the chicken was crispy. I was hit with a strong reaction: this tasted remarkably similar to my beloved KFC Chicken Littles.

But then I chewed it a little more. This was not a Chicken Little. The chicken, while definitely crispy, had no chicken flavor. It was just a processed blend of something with a vaguely chicken-like texture. The only real flavor was the breading.

I could not help but think how good these could have been with higher-quality chicken. And I'm not talking about Thomas Keller's fried chicken, I mean something along the lines of Church's... or hell, even McDonald's. But these thin, bland, conjoined pieces of chicken just didn't do it for me.

So I decided to add some additional flavors to the minis:

My jalapeno sauce that has made several appearances on this blog over the last few weeks. This was definitely a nice distraction. If I'd had some goat cheese I would have thrown that on, too.

Bull's Eye Carolina mustard sauce and pepperoncini. Also good.

Pickled red onions and barbecue sauce. This was too much. I like those flavors but they were so overpowering that they became all that I could taste... even the great bun disappeared.

The Chicken Minis are not the worst thing I have ever had from Burger King - not even close. And as I wrote, at first bite I actually kind of liked them. The buns were fantastic and the chicken was crispy. But it wasn't very good chicken, and overall that ruined the experience for me.