Famous Death Row Last Meals
Debunking Beer Can Chicken: A Waste Of Good Beer, And Dangerous
Photo: Erik R. Trinidad
Now that folks at Domino's Pizza are finished revamping their pizza recipe, they've turned their attention to their chicken offerings, introducing new Boneless Chicken (basically nuggets), and a reboot of their Chicken Wings. Here's how they rate:
The Claims: Domino's new Boneless Chicken is "lightly breaded with savory herbs, made with 100% white breast meat." The revamped wings are "now tastier than ever. Sauced with your choice of Hot, New Sweet Mango Habanero or BBQ Sauce." The Boneless Chicken can be "customized" with those same three sauces for dipping, in addition to the standards, Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing.
The Price: Boneless Chicken comes in 8-, 14-, or 40-piece combos, at $6.99 (410 calories), $10.99 (710 calories), or $29.99 (2030 calories), respectively. The new wings also come in eight, fourteen, or forty, for the same prices. (580-680 calories, 1010-1200 calories, 2890-3420 calories, respectively.)
The Verdict: Boneless Chicken, Grade C. Chicken Wings, Grade D. When approaching this review, I realized that it should be as much about the new sauces as the actual chicken. The sauces are a part of each item's menu description after all, and they are the only vehicle to add any unique taste to items that essentially ... taste like chicken. With the exception of the basic, generic-tasting Ranch and Blue Cheese dressings --which are only intended to be paired with the wings -- both the Boneless Chicken and the new Chicken Wings embrace the same three sauces: a Kicker Hot Sauce, a basic buffalo wing sauce that has about as much kick as Frank's RedHot Sauce; a new Sweet Mango Habanero Sauce (my favorite choice for the Boneless Chicken) which is basically a sweet and sour sauce with a little bite; and the BBQ Sauce (my favorite with the Chicken Wings), which is as good as any pre-packaged fast food barbecue sauce can be, with a nice touch of factory-engineered smokiness to it.
As for the chicken itself, it's not worth buying on its own. (I'm sure Domino's intends it to be lucrative add-ons for pizza orders.) The new Boneless Chicken comes in nuggets similar to those at Wendy's -- only smaller -- and they are decent, with soft white breast meat lightly breaded in a coating of breadcrumbs, a few herbs, salt and pepper. The revamped Chicken Wings are definitely not worth getting (at least the ones I got fresh at one particular New York City location), unless you really want to serve wings at a pizza party and don't feel like going to a separate place for them. They are small, subpar and not meaty at all. Juxtaposed with Domino's signature items, these chicken choices seem to exist only to make their pizzas look more appealing.
Read about how Domino's new pizza recipe has doubled profits at The Huffington Post.
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Fast Food Reviews
Arby's Angus Three Cheese & Bacon Sandwich
Grade B
Our tester said: Arby's is no stranger to roast beef sandwiches, so rather than introduce something completely new, they've decided to improve upon something they're already known for. The beef is sliced and piled into a decent portion that delivers a good texture per bite, without being too sloppy. The bacon is decent; chewy with a slight crispness that goes well with the soft Italian roll.
Domino's Chicken Wings
Grade: C
Our tester said: The revamped Chicken Wings are definitely not worth getting (at least the ones I got fresh at one particular New York City location), unless you really want to serve wings at a pizza party and don't feel like going to a separate place for them. They are small, subpar and not meaty at all.
Domino's Boneless Chicken
Grade: C
Our tester said: The new Boneless Chicken comes in nuggets similar to those at Wendy's -- only smaller -- and they are decent, with soft white breast meat lightly breaded in a coating of breadcrumbs, a few herbs, salt and pepper.
Wendy's Asiago Ranch Chicken Club
Grade: A
Our tester said: While these three sandwiches are merely enhancements of existing sandwiches, the new combination of toppings makes all the difference. At its core, the chicken breast fillets are as good as Wendy's gets; the Homestyle variety is breaded and seasoned like a KFC fillet, the breaded Spicy one packs decent heat for a national fast-food chain, and the Grilled version is lighter in taste and texture. All three are tender, plump and juicy. And, typical of Wendy's chicken sandwiches, the fresh tomatoes and lettuce take the edge off of the chicken's saltiness, while the soft bun complements them all.
Taco Bell's Quad Steak Burrito and Quesadilla
Grade: C+
Our tester said: This "new" burrito and quesadilla may pack more meat, but it is not inventive on any other front. It is what it is, and "what it is" is an obvious attempt at damage control, a food item to remind the public that you can get actual beef chunks -- and plenty of them -- at Taco Bell. Sure, the Quad Steak items are filling and have that familiar fast-food Mexican-inspired taste you expect from Taco Bell, with a spiciness you can control via your preference of thier Mild, Hot, or Fire Sauce. To be fair, the abundance of steak pieces does alter the texture of the burrito, with more beef per bite during your eating experience, rather than the mouthfuls of mostly rice you get with the regular steak burrito. But apart from that, this "new" burrito is nothing new at all. Taco Bell may claim to "think outside the bun," but they didn't think much further than that in this one.
McDonald's Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon & Cheese Burger and Snack Wrap
Grade: C+
Our tester said: This "new" version of the Angus Third Pounder is really nothing new at all -- and it boasts the highest calorie count of any burger on the menu (at the time of writing). Sure, it will satisfy your hunger, and the beef is tasty, but the sauce flavor is lacking. My gripe with this sandwich is that when trying to analyze its flavor, I was searching for the chipotle taste in the BBQ sauce, but couldn't find the deep, smoky spiciness that chipotle peppers are known for. In fact, when I sampled the sauce by itself, it was rather familiar: It tasted exactly like the brown barbecue sauce served with Chicken McNuggets, and more recently, in the McRib sandwich.
Burger King's Jalapeno & Cheese Stuffed Steakhouse Burger
Grade: B-
Our tester said: For a fast-food chain known for the "heat" to come from flame-broilers, not spices, this new burger actually packs a lot of kick and is quite spicy -- when you find it, that is. The distribution of the jalapeño bits in the patty isn't always even and there is no "bite" in every bite. The saltiness of the cheese takes down the heat a tad, just as the lettuce and tomato attempt to offset the mild spiciness of the poblano cream sauce (which only has a hint of spice above what seems to be plain mayonnaise).
Chick-fil-A's Spicy Chicken Biscuit
Grade: B+
Our tester said: While we expected this breakfast biscuit to be on the way-too-buttery side, we were surprised it wasn't too salty or greasy. The biscuit is soft and firm yet moist enough that it doesn't crumble when being handled. By itself, the biscuit has the right amount of salt, and is actually a bit sweet, with the flavor of sweet cornmeal, as in a good piece of cornbread or the batter around a corn dog. The spicy chicken filet packs a bite, more than expected, with a satisfying aftertaste of pepper – and if it's not hot enough for your morning palate, you could always add a packet of Texas Pete's Hot Sauce. The chicken's spiciness is offset by the sweetness of the biscuit, giving it a nice overall balance. It's the perfect part of Chick-fil-A's complete breakfast, which also includes tater tots, plus orange juice or coffee.
Starbucks Veggie, Egg, & Monterey Jack Sandwich
Grade: B-
Our tester said: Although the sandwich was fresh, and the bread was a better quality than the Dunkin' Wake-Up Wraps' tortillas (which were kind of hard), our panelists thought there was just too much bread, not nearly enough vegetables (we only had two or three peppers buried in each sandwich's egg), and it was bland. "More salt," begged one panelist. "More flavor!" When it came to the cheese, though, the Monterey Jack of Starbucks had an edge over Dunkin's low-cal cheese, which, said one panelist, "tasted like fake cheese food." Starbucks, add more vegetables and amp up the spice, please.
Dunkin' Donuts Wake-Up Wraps
Grade: B+
Our tester said: Everyone on the panel agreed this wrap (which isn't really a wrap at all) had the kick you want in a breakfast sandwich. It was more highly spiced than the Starbucks Veggie ABS, and the sausage had good flavor. The tortilla, though, could use a remake. It tasted just a touch stale. Dunkin', we'll come back for the spice, and the low-cal ease, but freshen up the tortillas, please.
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3-04-2011 @2:25PM bilchamberlin said... WOW! Maybe they should go back to the drawing board with these chickens, they dont seem to stand out at all..... what could they do? Hmmmm
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3-04-2011 @2:54PM Hand-rolls rule! said... The wings look really unappetizing! They should be juicy and meaty but instead appear small and dried-out. Plus, they're kind of expensive. What a rip off!
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3-15-2011 @11:38AM MikeyMike said... The "new" wings are disgusting. They are smaller and you get fewer per order (this is in reality a price increase versus the old 10 piece wings which were typically $6.99 depending on location). The "new" kickers are just "kickers" without the spice added. Basically they are just Tyson Wal-Mart chicken nuggets reheated (neither the boneless nor the wings are actually fried or cooked as they should be...even McDonald's stuff is at least deep fried). Both the wings and boneless chicken arrive at the store frozen, they are sprayed with non-stick spray, then heated in the oven. It's no wonder they turn out nasty and slimy.
If you want chicken done right go to a chicken place. If you want sandiwiches or pasta done right go to a sandwich or pasta place. If you want pizza done right...well Domino's can't even get pizza right...they disguise their bland dough and toppings with copious amounts of some mysterious oil blend that arrives from some plant in Texas in one gallon bottles. And the pizza sauce sauce? Blechhh. Finally you don't really get real mozzarella cheese any longer...it's "pizza cheese." If you are lucky you get a pizza with properly managed dough and somewhat fresh toppings. If you are unlucky (most customers) you get slimy overproofed dough with rotten vegetable and sweaty meats from the broken makeline.
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3-28-2011 @3:37PM Paula said... Thank you for this review. I tried the "new chicken" last night, and even attempted to use their suggestion of replacing Kickers with the plain nuggets and hot sauce, and it did, in fact, blow. Poor value, poor quality. They need to bring back the Kickers.
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4-12-2011 @12:33AM Kevin Schneider said... The boneless wings are crap - but then most boneless wings are. The regular wings, though, are generally pretty good. I've gotten them a few times now and have yet to get a bad batch. They're juicy and tasty. Yeah, my homemade ones are better, but I'd say these are on par with national chain wings places.
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