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Burger King just brought back the Crispy Chicken Parmesan. We tried all three versions to find out which one is best.
Burger King just brought back the Crispy Chicken Parmesan. We tried all three versions to find out which one is best.
Irene JiangMay 23, 2019, 18:31 IST
Burger King brought back the Chicken Parmesan Sandwich by popular demand. We tried all three versions to see what all the hype was about.Irene Jiang / Business Insider
The Crispy Chicken Parmesan first entered the Burger King stage in 2017 hand-in-hand with the cast of Jersey Shore, which reunited for a "family dinner" in an ad for the sandwich. It had a brief stint as a limited edition item on the chain's summer menu for two years before it was retired.
Now, it's back for a limited time - and with two new sister variations that allow customers to substitute their crispy chicken with grilled chicken or spicy crispy chicken.
BK took their "Italian(ish)" burger on a tour of Little Italy in a Facebook video, where residents of Little Italy were given Crispy Chicken Parmesan sandwiches to try and reactions ranged from "not bad" to "eh, pretty good."
Motivated by these glowing reviews and a flare-up of our chronic FOMO, we decided to join the fun and try all three of BK's Chicken Parmesan sandwiches.
All three sandwiches made an equally uninspiring first impression.
The OG Crispy Chicken Parmesan looked very beige with no visible tomato sauce.
The golden-brown crispy chicken did look good, though, and it was layered with white cheese between two brioche buns.
The crunchy breaded chicken was the highlight, if a little bit too salty. The sweet bun was a little off-putting, but overall the elements all worked well together to deliver a satisfying Parm-like bite. The tomato sauce, however, was barely there.
The Grilled Chicken Parmesan looked like a grilled chicken sandwich topped with tomato sauce and lots of cheese, because that's what it was.
We were skeptical...
...And rightfully so, as it turns out. The weakest of the trio, the Grilled Chicken Parm was decidedly not intriguing. The rubbery texture of the salty grilled chicken clashed loudly with the heavy cheese, sweet bun, and tomato sauce. There's a reason chicken usually goes with cream.
We were most excited about the Spicy Crispy Chicken Parmesan because food is almost always better spicy.
Out of the three, it looked the most appetizing, with a beautiful red-brown hue.
However, spice just doesn't belong in the blend of flavors that make up a Chicken Parm. It just ended up distracting from an otherwise harmonious blend of crunchy, fluffy, and salty.
We all agreed that the original Crispy Chicken Parmesan was by far the best. The Spicy Crispy Chicken Parmesan came in second at a respectable distance, while the Grilled Chicken Parmesan lagged far behind both. While the BK Chicken Parmesan Sandwich doesn't come close to Little Italy, we can agree with our fellow taste-testers in Burger King's video: It's not bad — eh, it's pretty good.
