I hate to admit, but Jack in the Box has taught me a lot about food.
The fast food chain introduced me to the tough-on-the-outside-but-soft-on-the-inside ciabatta bread. With a breakfast menu that’s available all-day, they assured me it’s okay to eat breakfast at three in the afternoon, seven at night, or right before I go to bed. And, Jack in the Box got me acquainted with the smoky and spicy chipotle pepper when they released their Chipotle Chicken Sandwich in the late 2000s.
Back then, the extent of my chili pepper knowledge didn’t go beyond the jalapeño, I believed breakfast ended at 10:30 in the morning because that’s when McDonald’s stopped serving it, and the breads Subway offered were the fanciest I knew of.
Jack in the Box’s latest chicken sandwich, which uses the chipotle pepper, is the Chipotle Chicken Club. The sandwich combines a spicy crispy chicken breast topped with chipotle sauce, hickory smoked bacon, American cheese, lettuce and tomato on toasted sourdough bread.
After unwrapping the sandwich from its paper enclosure, I was instantly a little disappointed with its size. It makes a newborn kitten look big and it doesn’t look like it’s worth the $4.79 I paid for just the sandwich. The Chipotle Chicken Club Combo here on this rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is $5.49, while most other places it’s $4.99, so the sandwich will be cheaper where most of you live. However, I wouldn’t complain so much about its size if I could buy the sandwich for $3.99.
While I’m in the complaining mood, I’d like to point out the thin chicken breast patty I got with my sandwich. Look at it in the photo below. They must’ve gotten it from the most flat-chested chickens on the farm. However, while the chicken patty was thin, it was also crispy. Well, the edges at least. Even after the 10 minute ride home from the drive-thru to my place, the chicken patty had a lot of crispiness. However, what was even more impressive was how much crispiness it had the following morning.
Oh, I should let you know that I now have a habit of splitting a fast food sandwich in two before eating it and putting the other half in the fridge so I don’t consume all the fat and sodium in one sitting. Anyhoo, after I microwaved the other half for about 40 seconds in its wrapper, I took a bite and noticed the chicken patty’s ability to maintain some of its crispiness. Ain’t fast food technology scary great?
With my complaining about the sandwich’s size and the flat chicken patty, you’d think I don’t care for the Chipotle Chicken Club. Well, I have to say it’s my favorite Jack in the Box chicken sandwich, because the chipotle sauce makes up for most of the sandwich’s faults. The chipotle sauce tastes as if Jack in the Box combined their taco sauce with their mayonnaise, but with a bit more smokiness. It’s a tasty sauce and it gives the sandwich a nice heat that might cause some of you to reach for some cool liquid relief. I was surprised the sauce had flavor and wasn’t all about the heat, like other chipotle items I’ve tried.
If you’re a bacon fan, the amount of piggie in this sandwich will satisfy your pork needs. I wouldn’t call the bacon included crisp, but I wouldn’t call it limp either. The sourdough bread is a little greasy, but as someone who has consumed his fair share of Sourdough Jacks, it wasn’t a surprise. As for the tomatoes, they made my sandwich look like Quasimodo’s back and didn’t really add anything, unless you consider having an ingredient that easily falls out something. I’d suggest ordering the sandwich without tomatoes or discard them and make the farmers who harvested them cry.
If you’re planning to try the delicious Jack in the Box Chipotle Chicken Club, do so soon because it’s only available for a limited time.
(Nutrition Facts – 686 calories, 329 calories from fat, 35 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 77 milligrams of cholesterol, 1,292 milligrams of sodium, 580 milligrams of potassium, 54 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 6 grams of sugar, and 34 grams of protein.)
Item: Jack in the Box Chipotle Chicken Club Sandwich
Price: $4.79 (sandwich only)
Size: N/A
Purchased at: Jack in the Box
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Tasty, spicy chipotle sauce. My new favorite Jack in the Box chicken sandwich. A good amount of bacon. Impressive, but eerie, crispiness. Reasonably priced combo, if you’re paying $4.99. My new found willpower to not eat an entire fast food sandwich in one sitting.
Cons: Thin chicken patty. Kind of small. The tomatoes are useless. Awesome source of saturated fat and sodium. My lack of chili pepper knowledge in the mid-2000s. I used to think Subway bread was fancy.