Popeyes' chicken sandwich is back on the menu, but it seems smaller and less exciting the second time around
The sandwich had been back for several days at my local Popeyes, so Sunday wasn't as crazy as I expected. However, there were still several people waiting outside for the restaurant to open at 10 a.m.
The first three rushed in, then the line quickly filled up. Everyone was there for the chicken sandwich. Some people had tried it before, and some were there to try it for the first time.
My first clue that something was different should have been the calorie count. According to the sign inside the restaurant, the sandwich was 660 calories. But in a Healthline article from the time of the sandwich's original release, Popeyes confirmed the sandwich was 690 calories.
A representative for Popeyes did not offer an explanation for the differing calorie counts when reached for comment by Business Insider.
Source: Healthline
Ok, the bag felt lighter than I remembered. But it had been a long time since I'd first eaten the sandwich.
The first time I tried the sandwich, it was stacked. The chicken was thick, the bun was thick, and even the pickles looked like they'd been plucked from an advertisement.
At first glance, the new sandwich also looked different. The bun was lighter and smaller than I remembered, and it just looked smaller.
The old sandwich had dappled waves of batter on a piece of chicken thicker than my wrist is wide. The bun was perky and smooth, while thick slices of pickle peeked out from under the chicken.
But the new sandwich looked more like your typical fast-food chicken sandwich: beige, beige, and a hint of something else.
The first time I'd tried the sandwich, I was impressed by the perfect balance of its plentiful ingredients.
And don't get me wrong. The new sandwich was far from bad. The chicken was as flaky and juicy as ever.
The original bun was a darker shade of brown, and it also held its shape better.
The bun on the new sandwich was definitely lighter, flatter, and smaller, even though it still tasted excellent: sweet potato brioche with great structural integrity.
The original sandwich had three large slabs of pickle, bright green, thick, and crunchy.
The new sandwich had just two measly pickle slices, less green, thick, and crunchy than its predecessors.
On the old sandwich, the battered chicken outsized its bun, and there was plenty of mayo to glue it all together.
On the new sandwich, the chicken was noticeably smaller. The batter was just fine, although I would no longer describe it as "dappled." There also seemed to be less mayo.
We reached out to Popeyes for comment on what, if anything, had been changed about the sandwich. A Popeyes spokesperson told us that it was the same sandwich and nothing had changed.
But these were clearly two very different sandwiches.
It's possible that this was a store-to-store variation, and I just got unlucky this time. But judging by Twitter chatter about the sandwich, I wasn't the only one to notice that the new version seemed smaller.
The chicken sandwich I had on Sunday still wasn't bad by any means. It was still leagues above Chick-fil-A's pithy slider. But it was far from the transformative experience my first Popeyes chicken sandwich had been.
This sandwich was like the fourth season of "Community" or the ninth season of "Scrubs": an extraordinary thing made ordinary, a reminder of what could have been.
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