The Chicken Big Mac changed my entire Big Mac worldview

Full confession: I don’t remember the last time I had a Big Mac. It was probably when I was a kid and we got a free one from the McDonald’s Monopoly game. (Hey, whatever happened to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s adaptation of that Daily Beast article?) For me, the Big Mac is too much bread. Especially when the Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese — the perfect McDonald’s burger — is available.

But as someone who ate a lot of McChickens during late-night McDonald’s visits (along with what I’m assuming were illegally mixed half-chocolate-half-strawberry milkshakes), the Chicken Big Mac intrigued me.

Where I found it

This one is probably a shocker: McDonald’s.

What I paid

My McDonald’s was selling the Chicken Big Mac for $5.89 and the meal for $9.99.

My thoughts

Thinking about the Chicken Big Mac as an offshoot of the McChicken is a mistake. This is a Chicken McNugget sandwich.

Seriously. The two chicken patties in the Chicken Big Mac are indistinguishable from two giant McNuggets. I’ve eaten two gimmick fast food sandwiches this week. (Hello, Wendy’s Krabby Patty Kollab Burger!) This is my favorite of the two.

So what is the Chicken Big Mac? If you’re unfamiliar with McDonald’s burger that’s been a classic since the late 1960s, the Big Mac is two beef patties sandwiched between three (three!) buns with shredded lettuce, diced onions, pickles, American cheese and the mysterious Big Mac Sauce. (It’s just another variation of Thousand Islands, folks.)

The Chicken Big Mac makes two changes. The first, obviously, is to swap out the beef patties for chicken patties. The second is to lose the diced onions. I wasn’t sure about the omission of onions when I first read about the Chicken Big Mac, but I guess diced onions are more of a burger thing than a chicken thing? (Diced onions are perfect for a cheeseburger Garbage Plate, so that checks out.)

I was worried that the Chicken Big Mac would be too heavy of a sandwich. (Taste-wise, that is. I’m strong enough to lift a Big Mac of any variety.) But that middle bun squashed down perfectly between the two chicken patties, absorbing the Big Mac Sauce.

Final verdict: BUY

I enjoyed the Chicken Big Mac so much that I’m now questioning my lifelong stance on the classic Big Mac. Do I owe it a second chance? Or is the magic in the Chicken Big Mac the McNugget-y chicken patties?

The Chicken Big Mac is a limited time item at McDonald’s. I’m not sure how long it’ll be around, but maybe the fast-food chain will consider making it a permanent staple of the menu?

There’s one thing I won’t be changing my stance on, though: The terrifying Officer Big Mac head that served as a prison in old-school McDonald’s PlayPlaces. If you got stuck in one of those, good luck trying to figure out how to get out.