Call me crazy, but I think brunchfast is sort of a ridiculous concept. Maybe it’s the word. “Brunch” is already a portmanteau of the words breakfast and lunch. To add “-fast” at the end makes it breakfast-lunch-breakfast, which just doesn’t compute, in my mind. I will admit this, though: the brunchfast menu is pretty intriguing. Adding breakfast items to regular fast-food sandwich offerings is something that really hasn’t been done before. It’s innovation! The world is moving at lightning speed because now you can have eggs on your chicken sandwich!
The key question in my mind after I heard about brunchfast was whether the items would actually manage to compete with McDonald’s all-day breakfast, which was obviously the intent. Everyone loves the Egg McMuffin, especially now that it’s being fried in real butter and offered at all hours of the day. And Jack in the Box’s new Bacon & Egg Chicken Sandwich seems specifically targeted to take on this beloved classic, what with its English muffin bun — the first English muffin bun the company has actually ever offered.
So, being the discerning fast-food consumer I am, I decided to pit that Bacon & Egg Chicken Sandwich against a similarly-styled McMuffin (menu hacks, yo!). Would the Jack in the Box n00b be able to compete with the McDonald’s tried-and-true favorite?
Two confessions, before I get started:
I had never actually eaten a McMuffin before this face-off. I much prefer the biscuit sandwiches. And those McGriddles, oh, those McGriddles! The only thing I’d ever ordered from Jack in the Box before the face-off was the two-tacos-for-a-dollar deal, which I’d like to say is the best thing on the menu, but obviously I have no grounds for that opinion. I’d also ordered the churros a few times. (As a complete aside, they’re pretty tasty and worth checking out.)
The Quest for the Sandwiches
To really milk the all-day breakfast deal, I hit up the restaurants for my chicken sandwiches after my 6 p.m. yoga class. (Because health, y’all!) I’m entirely not sure, but I think got lucky with brunchfast: the nearest Jack in the Box to the gym offered the new menu the very day it was announced, even though the company said it was rolling it out over the next several months. So ordering the Bacon & Egg Chicken Sandwich was no trouble at all.
McDonald’s was where things got tricky. Well, not tricky. Just…custom. Even though I prefer the drive-through route, I decided to go inside to order my sandwich, because I didn’t want to tie up the line of cars with my weird order. I’m considerate like that.
I’m not generally one to customize my order, so I was worried that I’d face opposition, but the kid who was working the register when I went in was very accommodating (if not a bit confused). As it turns out, Egg McMuffins don’t generally come standard with bacon and eggs (at least, not at 7:30 at night), so I had to modify my sandwich even more than I expected. I ended up paying an extra dollar for the addition of bacon, and another extra dollar for the fried chicken filet, which came on the side, in its own container. Lesson: Jack in the Box’s sandwich comes completely assembled and without hassle. Which is certainly a mark in its favor.
And cost-wise? The sandwiches were actually pennies (er…dimes?) apart: $5.18 for the Jack in the Box version, $5.40 for the unassembled McDonald’s knock-off.
The External Sandwich Comparison
The McDonald’s version was definitely chunkier, due to the non-breakfast-specific nature of the chicken filet. On a Crispy Chicken Sandwich, the thing is the perfect size, but this appeared to overwhelm the sandwich, which also came with a smaller English muffin bun. The whole thing weighed in at 221 grams, a full 22 grams heavier than the Jack in the Box sandwich.
Another observation re: the chicken portion: Jack in the Box’s chicken filet looked much more appetizing than McDonald’s, which paled in comparison. Like, literally. It looked far less fried than Jack in the Box’s. And me, I like my chicken well fried. I was tempted to eat those crispy edges off the Jack in the Box filet, but I resisted, for the sake of the face-off.
Post-weighing and picture-snapping, it was time to sample the sandwiches.
Tasting The Sandwiches
As Jack in the Box was the first to come up with the Bacon & Egg Chicken Sandwich, I decided to give it the first shot in the taste test. I sunk my teeth into the sandwich. I chewed. I swallowed. I observed. It was a decent breakfast sandwich, with the salty, meaty flavors combining well. And make no mistake: That chicken patty really added to the experience.
Next, I tried my McDonald’s hack of the sandwich. I chewed more. I swallowed again. I observed. I am doing very important work and expect to become famous by Wednesday.
The biggest thing that stood out to me was the difference in flavor of the McDonald’s chicken filet. Although it’s hard to tell exactly what goes into the batter, it’s definitely some sort of herb. Maybe sage? Whatever the case, it’s a flavor that works well on a lunch sandwich, along with tomato, lettuce, and mayo, but not so much on a breakfast sandwich. That herby flavor was actually a bit distracting.
The other thing about that chicken filet: It overwhelmed the other ingredients with its sheer size. While the Jack in the Box fried chicken filet was a uniform thickness (I’d guesstimate it at 1/2 inch), the McDonald’s filet was almost a full inch thick. Taking a bite of the sandwich was difficult; picking out the flavors of egg, cheese, and bacon was near impossible.
Finally — and this one was interesting to me — I realized a big difference between the English muffin buns several bites in. Yes, the Jack in the Box one was larger, but it was also quite a bit greasier than the McDonald’s bun.
Which is not to say that was a bad thing. The Jack in the Box version actually felt more lubricated, less dry — which I realized was due to the sandwich’s “creamy bacon mayo” sauce. (Whether that was what soaked through and left my fingers slick with grease is difficult to say, though.) Is the sauce an unfair advantage over the McDonald’s sandwich? I don’t think so. Jack in the Box’s sandwich was created with a purpose, right down to the fancy-tasting sauce, as opposed to the McDonald’s McMuffin McMashup I created.
Declaring the Winner
Which leads directly into my declaring the winner of this competition: Jack in the Box’s Bacon & Egg Chicken Sandwich. Is there any surprise in that? In every category, the sandwich came out on top: convenience in ordering, cost appearance, flavor. This sandwich was created to beat out McDonald’s, and it has — at least for me.
Whether it can actually help Jack in the Box beat McDonald’s all-day breakfast is a tough call, though. I had to custom-order this sandwich. Most people who are hankering a fast-food breakfast aren’t going to go to that trouble — they’ll either think of Jack in the Box’s heartier brunchfast sandwiches, or they’ll default to their favorite Egg McMuffin spot. Also, they can get McGriddles as buns, so who’s messing with a McMuffin anyway?
