They're pretty late to the Chicken Sandwich Wars, but Wingstop has finally joined in with some of its own.
Last week the fast-food company, known for its wings, unveiled chicken sandwiches in 12 flavors.
I tried Wingstop's chicken sandwich, and I think there's one reason you should too.
If you thought the Chicken Sandwich Wars were over, you were wrong.
Wingstop
There's a new fast-food competitor throwing its hat (its sandwich?) in the ring, and that's Wingstop.
Wingstop
The company, known for its chicken wings, debuted its first-ever chicken sandwich last week.
Wingstop
Technically, it launched its first dozen chicken sandwiches.
Wingstop
That's because Wingstop is selling 12 different chicken sandwiches. All have the same basic components, but differ in the dry rub or sauce used on the chicken patty.
Wingstop
The 12 flavors are lemon pepper, hickory smoked BBQ, Louisiana rub, Hawaiian, garlic parmesan, spicy Korean Q, Cajun, mango habanero, atomic, original hot, mild, and plain.
Wingstop
At a recent media event previewing the sandwiches before their launch, I had the chance to taste several of them.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
Disclaimer: Insider tried the sandwiches for free but was under no obligation to write a positive review.
I didn't try all 12 sandwiches, but had a good mix of dry rub and saucy sandwiches, and of milder and hotter flavors.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
I sampled the garlic parmesan, Louisiana rub, lemon pepper, original hot, mango habanero, and spicy Korean Q. (So, everything pictured here, except swap the Hickory smoked BBQ sandwich for the spicy Korean Q.)
Sarah Jackson/Insider
Here's how they looked.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
(They were cut up for serving.)
The buns were very lightly toasted. They were similar to a brioche and pretty standard for a chicken sandwich.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
The sandwich comes with the tried-and-true chicken sandwich topping, pickles.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
The pickles added that bit of tang, helped make up for some of the crunch missing from the heavily-doused chicken, and kept the sandwich from being a sad chicken-and-bread-only situation. I did appreciate that Wingstop's sandwiches had more pickle slices on them than some chicken sandwiches from competitors. (Ahem, Chick-Fil-A.)
Sarah Jackson/Insider
After trying the sandwiches, I thought they generally leaned a bit toward the too-salty side for me.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
As mentioned above, some of the sandwiches are dry rub. For others, the chicken is tossed in sauce, giving it a more robust flavor than competitors' sandwiches, which may add a dollop of sauce, but usually on the bun. Since the bun is sometimes smaller than the chicken, this means you may not taste any sauce in your first few bites, and you're probably getting less sauce overall since it's not the larger sandwich component, the chicken, that's sauced.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
For this reason, I thought the saucy sandwiches in Wingstop's lineup beat out competitors for consistency of flavor with each bite. You knew each bite would have the intended flavor since the chicken, not the bun, was coated in sauce, and pretty evenly and generously at that.
With that in mind, the downfall of Wingstop's saucy sandwiches is that none of the chicken in any of these sandwiches had that satisfying crunch that you'd get from, say, a Popeyes chicken sandwich.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
And none of the sandwiches, dry rub or saucy, had a particularly thick piece of chicken, unlike what you might find in a chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A or Popeyes, for example...
Sarah Jackson/Insider
...which brings me to my conclusion: If you just want a plain or spicy chicken sandwich, Wingstop won't be your best bet. You can find thicker, juicier, crunchier chicken elsewhere.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
But if you want to try a flavor other than plain or spicy, you just might find what you're looking for at Wingstop.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
I love spicy foods, so I was surprised to find that my favorites of the six I tried were the garlic parmesan and the lemon pepper.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
The sandwiches cost $5.49 a la carte and come with a dip of your choice. The options are ranch, bleu cheese, honey mustard, and cheese sauce.
Wingstop
The combo, which is $7.99, includes the sandwich, dip, fries, and a drink.
Wingstop
To get people to try the new sandwiches, Wingstop gave away 100,000 of them through a promotion it called The Chicken Sandwich Split.
Wingstop
This involved people signing "break-up letters" with their favorite chicken sandwiches at competitors like Popeyes, Chick-Fil-A, KFC, and more.
Wingstop's Chicken Sandwich Split
Here's the template for the letters. In return for signing one, customers received a promo code to try a Wingstop chicken sandwich for free.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
I took part in this and used my promo code to try the Atomic chicken sandwich.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
Wingstop says this is the spiciest of all 12 sandwiches.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
It is the only one of the sandwiches with a full 5-out-of-5 spice rating.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
I got bleu cheese as the dipping sauce with it.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
My experience eating the sandwich was...strange. It didn't taste spicy to me, but my lips were on fire after taking the first bite. It's possible that my lips felt the heat but my taste buds didn't because they're used to very spicy foods while my lips of course have not.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
I enjoyed the sandwich more with the bleu cheese dip, even though the patty was already pretty saucy.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
As for the Chicken Sandwich Split, Wingstop says all 100,000 sandwich promo codes were claimed in less than a day. The company also says it sold more than 1 million sandwiches, which is roughly four weeks of its supply, in six days, so it's temporarily sold out.
Sarah Jackson/Insider
They exceeded their sales expectations by 300% based on market test results.
"The launch of our Wingstop Chicken Sandwich in 12 flavors exceeded our expectations on all fronts," said Wingstop CEO Michael Skipworth in a statement. "Our craveable product and viral campaign drove unprecedented, extraordinary demand from both our core guests as well as brought a lot of new Wingstop fans into the brand. Thanks to strong, trusted relationships with supplier partners, we anticipate having chicken sandwich supply back in restaurants soon, so fans and new guests alike can get their hands on their new favorite chicken sandwich."
Sarah Jackson/Insider
The sales show many consumers want to be able to customize their food. Since most chicken sandwiches at major fast food chains are still somehow only available as plain or spicy, Wingstop's 12 new flavors give it a key way to appeal to those customers. If you're one of them, you might want to try one or a few of Wingstop's new sandwiches — that is, when they're back in stock.
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