McDonald's Spiciest Ghost Pepper McChicken

Spicy continues to go mainstream.

McDonald's for the past month has introduced their line up of Spicy, Spicier, and Spiciest McChicken sandwiches. By simply adding a Jalapeno, a Chipotle, and finally a Ghost Pepper sauce to the McChicken sandwich, they've added a new dimension to their poultry sandwiches.

But as the ad seems to imply, everyone is trying this and getting 'spice face' from eating spicy food. Most North Americans can't eat spicy spicy food, and this commercial gives me the impression they are making these things accessible to the masses. But if everyone is just getting 'spice face' from eating Ghost Pepper, is the sauce really that hot? I wanted to find out for myself.

I skipped Jalapeno and Chipotle all together. I just wanted the Ghost Pepper. All or nothing. I do like how they had a weekly build up of the sandwiches, like a test. Can you pass level 1? How about level 2? I used a cheat code and went straight to the final boss, and I'm glad I waited too;

I have the McApp on my phone for deals on the go. The app is buggy and the deals aren't always great, but I have gotten free fries or cheaper sandwiches for sure. When one came up for buy a Spicy McChicken and get a free small milkshake, it was time to bust out the phone at the drive-thru. The idea of pairing up the sandwich with a milkshake is brilliant, because if the sandwich is too hot, the milkshake will help you get through the pain.

The sandwich itself is $6.29, which is about $1 more than the regular McChicken. The spicy sandwiches also have their own box with a tab for the staff to indicate which sandwich is which. Mine had lettuce sticking out.

I opened that cardboard clam shell and there was the sandwich. I was excited, but not worried at all.

I was really impressed how much sauce they put on there. It was oozing all over the place, bringing a landslide of sauce and lettuce off the burger. I could smell the hot sauce. All very good signs.

Not scared at all, I took a big bite. Like a big bite. It was good. I could taste the chicken (and I like the McChicken patty), and the sauce. There was a bit of a burn. I could taste the flavour of Ghost Pepper. It had a nice bite. I kept expecting it to get waaaay hotter, but it didn't. I mean it's the hottest thing I've had at McDonald's (like the Jr Chicken, which has a small kick), probably any other fast food spicy offering for that matter too. For chili heads, this was going to be disappointing. For your average person, this was going to be spicy. I think it was spot on for the sandwich to be enjoyable for a wider audience.

The make-up is basically the same as a regular McChicken. Sesame seed bun, crispy ground McChicken patty, shredded lettuce. But instead of their mayo-y McChicken sauce, they have a small layer of the mayo-Ghost pepper sauce on the bottom, and a LOT on the top.

Would I Get It Again?

Yes, totally would. I mean McChicken is good on it's own but the added spice is good. Like the marketing suggests, its a spicy sandwich for everyone. But if you think this is really spicy and that you had full on Ghost Pepper, you are going to be sorely wrong if you ever try anything that is actually Ghost Pepper. A Ghost Pepper is over a million Scoville units, and as someone who has eaten them in challenges, there is a lot of pain, sweat and tears. This sandwich did none of that, but it was tasty and is good enough for a mini-thrill.

McDonald's 
1850 Baseline Road, Ottawa ON
McDonalds Canada
Spicy McChickens