When McDonald’s introduced the new “Southern Style” chicken sandwich, there were many eyebrows raised due to the obvious similarities with the classic sandwich from fast food competitor Chick-fil-A. Yours truly interviewed a CFA rep to get their take on the copy-cat situation, and you can read that exclusive interview here. Now, six weeks later, I’ve had a chance to eat the McDonald’s sandwich on many different occasions, and feel that I can accurately comment and compare it to the item from CFA.

Is McDonald’s sandwich as good as the Chick-fil-A? The short answer is No, but the differences are less than expected. I’ve touched on each main aspect below.

Seasoning and Taste - The McDonald’s chicken breast tastes very much like the CFA. There is no doubt they spent a lot of time and effort studying the competition. If you close your eyes and take a single bite of the McDonald’s sandwich, you might think you’ve just sampled a Chick-fil-A. It has a good flavor, and it’s a close match.

Size Matters - On average, I’ve found the slab of chicken in the McDonald’s sandwich to be consistently smaller and less meaty. The Chick-fil-A breast is bigger.

Moist and Juicy - MickeyD’s chicken has a tendency to be a little dry when compared to the moist and juicy bird on the Chick-fil-A. I’m assuming that’s because it’s a frozen pre-breaded filet, as opposed to fresh chicken hand-breaded by CFA daily. Aside from this dryness, I found the filets are quality cuts of chicken, tasty and satisfying.

Breading - The McDonald’s breading has a similar appearance, but it doesn’t have nearly as many bumps and ridges. The irregularities in the CFA coating produce a nice range of textures from a thin and tender skin-like quality, to slightly chewy in the thicker spots. McDonald’s breading is more even and uniformly applied, which leads to each bite tasting and feeling exactly like the last one. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I enjoy the variety in the CFA crust. It feels more natural to me.

Buns - The buns are also very similar, but Chick-fil-A does a better job of buttering them. Sometimes my McDonald’s sandwiches had barely a drop on the top bun. And they don’t seem to be toasting them at all. The bun is light and fluffy, but would really benefit from a little toasty goodness. I’m not sure why they skipped that step.

Pickles - There’s not much difference here. Chick-fil-A’s pickles have crinkled ridges compared to McDonald’s plain straight-cut pickles. They both taste fine, and neither will disappoint. Some people remove the pickles, making it even less an issue.

Chicken, Bread and Pickles. With only three main ingredients, there’s nothing to hide behind. No cheese, sauce or layers of vegetables. It’s a simple sandwich, but those three ingredients have to be Spot-On to really make it work. Chick-fil-A has made that combination a legend in the fast food industry. McDonald’s effort to reproduce the formula is a success for the most part, but falls short of the original.

The Southern Style Chicken Sandwich from McDonald’s is better than I expected, and the overall taste and quality is solid, especially considering the massive scale on which they’re prepared. It’s not as good as the Chick-Fil-A, but it’s a BIG improvement over the McChicken sandwich. This item is certainly not going to lure away any fans of CFA, but it’s good enough to make some new fans of McDonald’s.

Price: $2.79 / Website: McDonalds.com

Fast Food Critic Score: B

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Nutrition Facts - McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich.

Calories - 400
Calories from Fat - 150
Total Fat - 17 grams
Carbs - 39 grams
Saturated Fat - 3 grams
Trans Fat - 0 grams
Cholesterol - 45 milligrams
Sodium - 1030 milligrams
Protein - 24 grams

McDonald’s USA has launched a national casting call inviting all consumers to submit a video or audio remix of the popular Big Mac chant. The winning remix will be featured in a new McDonald’s Big Mac commercial that will air at the end of July. Semi-finalists will be selected by a panel of judges and the winner will be chosen through an online voting system July 22. The only requirement is that you use the famous phrase “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” They have even prepared an audio kit with beats, loops and sounds you can download and use.

Visit MySpace.com/BigMacChant to learn more and get started.

McDonald’s recently gave the “Moms’ Quality Correspondents” access to one of their poultry facilities to learn how Chicken McNuggets are made, so they can give their children the answer to that often puzzling question. According to the press release this is “unprecedented”. From what I can tell, these Moms work for McDonald’s. They have their own website, McDonaldsMom.com which feels much like an advertisement, or pseudo reality TV show. These are not people off the street, like you and me. I’m not really sure how “unprecedented” or unbiased we can expect it to be.

I can understand wanting to defend their product. Chicken McNuggets have been blamed for the ills of the world. More than almost any other fast food item over the years, they’re the one I’ve seen the strangest, and most numerous stories about. But the reality is, they’re not that bad, and many stories are false or exaggerated.

Anyway, I’m not sure this is the best way to convince skeptics of the wholesome nature of the Chicken McNugget. We shall see. In addition to the McNuggets, they apparently have a whole series of tours to various McDonald’s facilities arranged, and there will be videos, interviews and all kinds of good McDonald’s coverage to follow.

Here’s a couple highlights of the press release.

“Beginning their tour at Keystone’s hatchery, the Moms learned about food quality and safety protocols, including incubation operations and traceability — the process used to trace chicken menu items in restaurants all the way back to the egg. They also learned about McDonald’s stringent animal welfare practices in place to ensure safe handling of the birds. The Moms then visited a broiler farm to witness how the chickens are cared for, fed and nurtured until fully grown. Keystone Foods representatives also discussed the bio-security measures that are taken to ensure McDonald’s strict food safety standards are met.

On the second day of the tour, the Moms visited the food production facility where they saw first-hand how the meat used to make Chicken McNuggets is carved from boneless, white meat chicken breasts. The same white meat is used in all McDonald’s premium chicken menu items including Premium Chicken Salads and Sandwiches as well as Snack Wraps.” — McDonald’s USA

Visit McDonaldsMom.com to learn more, and follow their adventures.

From Jeff at Knowzy.com — A couple years back, Nintendo gave DS owners free Wi-Fi at McDonald’s. That agreement is now null and void - the agreement a two year contract between Ninetendo and McDonald’s Wi-Fi provider Wayport. The agreement wasn’t renewed. Under the Nintendo - McDonald’s agreement, the DS would connect automatically to McDonald’s Wi-Fi. Now it’s not so easy. Most public hotspots, including McDonald’s require a web browser for Internet access. The DS has no web browser, without one of two hardware add-ons. It turns out both of these were discontinued last year as well. Read the full story.

Also, make sure to check out Knowzy’s Complete Guide To McDonald’s Wi-Fi.

McDonald’s has finished the switch to using a zero trans-fat cooking oil for it’s famous french fries. This marks an important event in the world of fast food, and while some criticize the company for not moving fast enough, McDonald’s says they are confident the rest of their menu will be free of trans-fat by the end of 2008. Currently McDonald’s uses over 75 million pounds of cooking oil per year.

My friend Jeff at Knowzy.com had alerted me to this article recently published by Chicago Business News, and today I woke up to discover a story by MSNBC dated yesterday, which says McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner made it official during Thursday’s shareholders meeting at the company’s corporate headquarters.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past couple weeks, you’ve probably seen and heard the advertisements for McDonald’s new “Southern Style” chicken sandwich and biscuit. You might have even tried it already. And if you’re a fan of Chick-Fil-A, you are probably thinking that Ronald McDonald found a way to infiltrate the CFA headquarters and sneak away with the secret recipe, because the new sandwich from McDonald’s is so similar it could be the long-lost brother of the legenday Chick-Fil-A sandwich. How did this happen? What does CFA think about it? That’s what I wanted to know, so during my recent conversation with CFA’s Corporate PR man, Mark Baldwin, I gathered up enough courage to ask him.

FFC: Let’s get right to it — McDonald’s copied Chick-Fil-A. I know it. You know it. McDonald’s knows it. Everybody knows it. — How does that make you feel?

CFA: We are flattered that McDonald’s is enamored enough with our products to be willing to clearly imitate our original Chick-fil-A Sandwich and Biscuit. Based on the reactions we’ve seen from customers thus far, they are making good choices and realize the superiority of Chick-fil-A’s products and people.

FFC: Have you tried their new sandwich? What did you think about it?

CFA: Yes, we all have tried the Southern Style chicken biscuit and sandwich and, to be honest, they did a good job copying our products. It will probably do well on Sundays (when Chick-fil-A restaurants are closed)!

FFC: It seems McDonald’s was very thorough when replicating the CFA sandwich.

CFA: There are, however, some key differences in the two products. Since Truett Cathy created the first chicken sandwich in the early 1960’s, Chick-fil-A has been preparing each sandwich fresh daily at the restaurant. We hand bread our chicken sandwich and breakfast filets in the store, while our competitors have frozen, pre-breaded chicken shipped to their restaurants. We even make our biscuits from scratch every morning.

FFC: They seem to have done a good job in duplicating the seasoning and flavor. Did they hire a team of food spies to steal the secret recipe? Maybe they tied up and kidnapped Truett Cathy (CEO) and forced him to spill the beans? (laughing)

CFA: No, they didn’t tie Truett up to get the recipe, but two of their Atlanta franchisees finally realized the impact Chick-fil-A was making, and convinced their corporate folks to try a chicken sandwich. You might be interested in this article that explains McDonald’s entry into the chicken sandwich market.

FFC: Very interesting stuff. Mark, I want to thank you and Chick-Fil-A for being gracious enough to visit with me today. I realize the circumstances are a bit unusual. In closing, is their anything new and exciting coming up for CFA?

CFA: We will be releasing some pretty significant news ourselves next week — basically, 180 degrees different from the Chicken Sandwich and Biscuit hype. You may want to fast over the weekend, because there will be plenty to try!

My thanks again to Mark for the candid converstaion.

I love Chick-Fil-A, and I’ve been eating at McDonald’s since I was a kid. It’s an odd feeling for me, to see one copy the other. They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. So considering that McDonald’s is the #1 fast-food chain in the world, and they are copying somebody else, this would seem to confirm my belief that Chick-Fil-A is, and has been for many years, the best chicken sandwich in fast-food.

How do I think the new offering from McDonald’s compares? I’ve tried it once, and it was a very good sandwich. I’m going to have it again soon, and bring some friends along with me. I will follow-up with my review, plus the opinions from my guests.

To quote myself from a previous review — “I grew up eating McDonald’s food, and no matter what anybody else says about them, there will always be a place in my heart (no heart-attack jokes please) for items like the Quarter Pounder, Chicken McNuggets and their world famous French Fries. These classic favorites from my past are showing their age, but it’s nice to visit the old friends to see how they are doing.”

Skip ahead a few weeks to today’s review of the Chicken McNuggets.

Some would say this is chicken, and fast food at it’s worse. But it’s not that bad. The chicken meat is not gray in color as some people would have you believe. There was a time when nuggets were made from a combination of light and dark chicken meat, therefore making the center an off-white shade of blended colors, but it was never the so-called “gray meat” that’s been described and exaggerated so often. A few years ago McDonald’s made a change to using “all white meat”. Whether that was actually an upgrade or not is debatable, but most people would probably consider it so.

Anyway, if you are expecting chunks of a fine breast filet at this price, you are being unrealistic. These are not ‘natural’ cut pieces of filet, they are formed-shapes made from minced breast and rib meat. They also include Mechanically Separated Meat or MSM, a product that’s been used since the 1960’s. The meat is not the best quality, but it’s also not from an alien planet or manufactured by mad scientists in a laboratory. It’s real chicken - with nutritional value - and it will satisfy your body’s hunger.

The nuggets are battered and deep fried, with a crust that’s golden brown, light and crispy. Aside from the switch to all white meat, these are the same nuggets I grew up eating, and they still taste pretty good. McDonald’s has more expensive, more natural chicken strips for the crowd that desires something better, but the nuggets continue to be popular among loyal fans, and it seems that kids universally love them.

Included with the nuggets is your choice of dipping sauce: Barbecue, Sweet N Sour, Hot Mustard or Honey Mustard. These bite-sized chicken pieces wouldn’t be the same without tasty liquid flavors to dunk in. It’s all part of the McNugget experience.

The product is not without controversy. Aside from the tales of gray alien meat and cardboard-like taste, some more legitimate concerns have been raised.

The 2004 documentary “Super Size Me” alleged that McNuggets were, at one point in time, made from sick and/or old chickens unable to lay eggs, and that they also included chemicals such as tertiary butylhydroquinone (phenolic antioxidant), polydimethylsiloxane (anti-foaming agent), and other ingredients not used by a typical home cook. As of 2007, these two ingredients are still listed as possible ingredients of the vegetable oil that is used to fry McNuggets.
Source - Wikipedia.

There are plenty of such claims on record, but sorting thru them and trying to separate fact from fiction is not something I’m qualified to do. I will leave that job for the nutrition experts and investigators. Ever since I was a kid, it seems somebody has been trying to prove McNuggets have a dark side. Wisdom or Witch Hunt? God only knows.

Chicken McNuggets from McDonald’s are one of the original, legendary fast food icons. They still taste pretty good as long as you aren’t expecting too much. They are great for dipping, and include a nice selection of tasty sauces to choose from. I loved them when I was younger, but they are not something I find myself craving anymore. The trip down McNuggets memory lane was fun, but when I’m eating at McDonald’s the higher quality, better tasting and more natural Chicken Selects will be my choice.

Fast Food Critic Score:3 out of 5 stars.

Nutrition Facts - McDonald’s, Chicken McNuggets (6 piece).

Calories - 250
Calories from Fat - 130
Total Fat - 15 grams
Carbs - 15 grams
Saturated Fat - 3 grams
Trans Fat - 1.5 grams
Cholesterol - 35 milligrams
Sodium - 670 milligrams

In case you haven’t heard, McDonald’s has introduced a new “Southern Style” chicken sandwich that is remarkably similar to the Chick-Fil-A sandwich. They also have a breakfast version, and they are offering customers a chance to try them both for free, with the purchase of any medium or large beverage. The event will take place on May 15th, from 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. customers will receive a Free Chicken Biscuit, and then from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. a Free Chicken Sandwich.

It’s no secret I love the Chick-Fil-A sandwich and named it Editor’s Choice, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the McDonald’s version compares. I will be standing in line with the rest of you on the 15th. The only thing better than food – FREE food.

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

Millward Brown, a firm specializing in global market research, has released it’s 2008 BrandZ Top 100, which measures the world’s most popular brands by their dollar value. McDonald’s remains head and shoulders above the rest of the food service industry, coming in #8 overall, perched comfortably between Apple and Nokia. Coming in at #56 is Starbucks, with Subway not far behind at #73. Read the full report (PDF).