Review: Green Burrito - Charbroiled Chicken Torta

I popped by my localCarl's Jr./Green Burrito recently to try their new Charbroiled Chicken Torta. The torta is a kind of Mexican sandwich and the Green Burrito's version takes a soft Telera roll and fills it with pieces of charbroiled chicken, guacamole, hot sauce, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato, and refried pinto beans.

The suggested retail is $3.29, but it's slightly more expensive near me at $3.59.

With chicken chunks, the Charbroiled Chicken Torta should be eaten carefully if you want to keep your chicken pieces inside the torta. The chicken was juicy enough, but not particularly seasoned much beyond salt. That's not always a problem, but I'll get back to that later.

The cheese looked like a blend of cheddar and Jack, but didn't provide too much flavor with the amounts given.

The Telera roll is pretty much a bun-shaped bolillo roll; very dense, but also very soft.

The guacamole mostly delivered notes of buttery avocado and didn't have much of a tang. The beans imparted a pasty texture and subtle flavor. The lettuce and tomatoes were pretty fresh and mostly standard.

The hot sauce was inconsistently applied with some mouthfuls generating a fair amount of heat and some not.

So the problem: the torta had a lot of light base flavors but no zing... no pow. The quality was good and I liked the flavors, but it was missing that last bit to put it over. If it was a burger, it would be missing ketchup, mayo, and the like. I think a tangy salsa and more cheese would go a long way in really making the Carl's Jr. Charbroiled Chicken Torta sing. As it stands, I'd recommend asking for some taco sauce or something if you're aiming to try it.

Nutritional Info - Carl's Jr. Charbroiled Chicken Torta (293g)
Calories - 520 (from Fat - 160)
Fat - 18g (Saturated Fat - 5g)
Sodium - 1420mg
Carbs - 65g (Sugar - 7g)
Protein - 23g