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We tried Shake Shack's new summer barbecue sandwiches - here's the verdict

We tried Shake Shack's new summer barbecue sandwiches - here's the verdict

All three items follow the same formula, more or less: pickles, BBQ sauce, bacon, and cheddar cheese.

Let's start with the $7.35 burger version. Like any Shake Shack burger, you can order a single or a double version. We grabbed a single here.

Putting pickles on burgers is a great way to bring some acid to the flavor equation and help lend some brightness to an otherwise very greasy, rich meal.

And it works. It's an incredibly rich, savory burger, even with one patty — the slab bacon and lightly sharp cheddar cheese take care of that.

Luckily, the pickles balance out the taste — but were this a double patty burger, I fear the tangy yet sweet intricacies of the barbecue sauce would be lost in the beefy mass.

Then, there's the grilled chicken barbecue bacon cheddar sandwich. Grilled chicken is a "healthy" option, but slapping cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce on it kind of nullifies that.

Shake Shack's grilled chicken is ... odd. From past reviews, we know that there's some undefinable quality to it that is disappointing.

So while the toppings are delicious, it's another example of the whole not equaling the sum of its parts.

The bacon is deliciously smokey, the pickles piquant, and the cheese rich — but the chicken falls short. It's almost dry, but not quite, and the seasoning is heavy on salt. This sandwich isn't satisfying enough to justify the $7.95 price.

The fried chicken barbecue iteration is, however, a masterpiece.

You can just see that the chicken is fried to a golden crisp — Shake Shack's fried chicken's crispy breading is one of its greatest and most satisfying strengths.

This is just as strong as the original Shake Shack fried chicken sandwich, but for entirely different reasons. While the original is a shining feat of mellow, languid flavors, this one is deliciously bold.

It's bacon, chicken, pickles, BBQ sauce, and cheddar, all crunching and crisping and melting and melding into a rich, smoky, sweet, salty, and vinegary delight. The differences between the fried and grilled chicken may be small materially — and they cost the same — but it makes a big difference to the taste buds.

These new barbecue sandwiches are absolutely delicious, except perhaps the grilled iteration, but they are certainly not healthy.

If you're looking for a healthier option at Shake Shack, try the recently released veggie burger — it's surprisingly good, and I'm not even a big veggie burger fan.

But if you're looking for a smoky, summery, bacon-heavy feast, go for the BBQ burger or the BBQ fried chicken sandwich.

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