Chick-Fil-A has just announced a list of new menu additions and updates to current products, and I think fans of the chain are going to be excited. Something that caught my eye immediately was the major size increase to their Chick-n-Strips. I’ve eaten the current CFA strips many times, and I feel they are acceptably sized and there’s plenty of tender meaty goodness already, so this new BIGGER version is a terrific surprise for me personally. All I can say is get the dipping sauce ready. Speaking of sauce, they are introducing a new Smokey Mustard flavor to compliment the strips.

Press releases can be tedious to sort thru, especially the large ones, so I’ve taken the information and created an easy to follow post for FFC readers.

New Salad — Chick-fil-A is adding a new choice to its line of entrée salads, a Chargrilled Chicken and Fruit Salad served with Harvest Nut Granola Topping and a complementary Berry Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing.

Salad Packaging Upgrade — All 4 entrée salads will now be served in a larger, deeper salad bowl that is easier to eat out of and easily transported. Chick-fil-A will continue to intentionally cluster salad ingredients and offer individually packaged toppings (e.g. sunflower seeds, croutons, dressings, etc.), so ingredients and toppings can be easily removed or avoided for nutritional and/or taste preferences.

Chicken Salad Sandwich Makeover — While the recipe and flavor profile of the Chick-fil-A Chicken Salad will not change, the sandwich will now be served on a premium Wheatberry bread with Green Leaf lettuce. Starting at $6.05, the chain is now offering the Chicken Salad Sandwich as a Chick-fil-A Meal for the first time. The sandwich is priced individually at $3.65, and will be packaged in a clear clamshell rather than a foil bag, resembling packaging more typical of a high-end deli than a fast-food restaurant.

Cool Wraps Upgrade — Chick-fil-A will begin serving its three Cool Wrap offerings in a new, higher-quality multigrain flatbread recipe with Green Leaf lettuce. Previously served in a foil wrapper, Chick-fil-A Cool Wraps will now be served in a new clamshell packaging, much like the Chicken Salad Sandwich.

New BIGGER Chick-n-Strips — Perhaps the most significant change to the Chick-fil-A menu will be the introduction of a new Chick-fil-A Chick-n-Strips product that is 50 percent larger than the chain’s current strip offering (45 gram tender versus 30 grams). The Chick-n-Strips, which are served as part of the Chick-fil-A Chick-n-Strip Salad, will be added to the menu on May 19 along with Chick-fil-A’s cold entrée improvements, but the chain will not aggressively promote the new Chick-n-Strips as an entrée until August. Chick-n-Strips will be offered as a 3- or 4-count entrée for adults and in 1- and 2-counts for Chick-fil-A Kid’s Meals.

New Dipping Sauce — To complement the new Chick-n-Strips, Chick-fil-A has developed a new proprietary dipping sauce, a smokey mustard recipe inspired by a veteran Chick-fil-A restaurant franchisee in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

New Side Options — Chick-fil-A is giving customers a choice of side options as part of its Chick-fil-A Meals. Five additional side item choices will be available for customers to substitute for Chick-fil-A Waffle Potato Fries. A small Cole Slaw or Carrot and Raisin Salad can be substituted for free, or customers can choose a small bowl of Chicken Soup, medium Fruit Cup or Side Salad for nominal upcharge.

NOTE: These new products launch nationwide Today, May 19th.

Like many people, I liked Chicken McNuggets as a kid, but eventually developed a taste for a better piece of chicken. McDonald’s realizes this of course, and their menu includes chicken ’strips’ for people like us. They even use the words “Select” and “Premium” in the product name, to indicate superiority over their little nugget brothers. But are they really better? The short answer is yes, but there’s more to the story.

From the thick crunchy coating and seasoning outside, to the chicken breast meat inside, it’s obvious these are not the same old nuggets. The strips are big. When first opening the box they looked like one large piece of chicken. They are crispy on the outside, with a breading that reminds me of shake-n-bake fried chicken. It’s nothing like the smooth breading on the McNuggets. It’s rough and bumpy, and crumbs fall off when you bite into it. You can see large specs of black pepper dotting the crust.

The meat inside is nice and tender, though it’s a bit dry. The strips appear to be cut from real breast meat. I detected some stringy rib meat too, but that’s not unusual since rib-meat is attached to the breast area. Despite the claims of many companies who say they use 100% breast filet, the fact is lots of those products include the rib-meat. That’s a technicality, and I suppose it’s why so many restaurants can say it.

I ate my first strip plain, to appreciate the taste on it’s own, and then I used sauce for dipping the rest. They tasted pretty good overall, but there’s not as much flavor as I would like. I wouldn’t call them outright bland, but they took the conservative approach when seasoning the meat. The Barbecue sauce helped, but it usually does. Aside from my own opinion, I know these must be decent chicken strips because after my buddy took his first bite, he quickly ate all 3 of his strips without pausing to use either of the two different types of sauces. That’s always a positive sign when eating with him, because this guy puts Barbecue or Sweet-N-Sour sauce on everything.

I’m going to review a lot of chicken strips (and nuggets) over the coming weeks and months, so these strips from McDonald’s will serve as a measuring stick for those others. I am a Chick-Fil-A man myself, but I think McDonald’s has a solid product here, and I look forward to seeing how the competition stacks up.

Chicken Selects Premium Chicken Strips from McDonald’s are good, but not great. They are crisper than I expected, and bigger too. They have a decent flavor but the scale does tip towards the bland side. A little Barbecue sauce improved the overall experience, but that’s certainly not going to help the score. They would have probably rated higher if they had a bit more flavor, or a bit less dryness.

Fast Food Critic Score:4 out of 5 stars.

Nutrition Facts - McDonald’s Chicken Selects Premium Strips, 3 piece.

Calories - 400
Calories from Fat - 210
Total Fat - 23 grams
Carbs - 25 grams
Saturated Fat - 4 grams
Trans Fat - 2 grams
Cholesterol - 50 milligrams
Sodium - 1000 milligrams