Burger King's Chicken Parmesan Sandwich is a fancier iteration of their occasional menu item, the Italian Chicken Sandwich. The Chicken Parmesan Sandwich comes with crispy or grilled chicken breast, mozzarella and shaved Parmesan cheeses, and marinara sauce on an artisan-style bun.
The suggested retail price is
$4.79, but my local Burger King has them for $4.99. Fortunately, Burger King has a
buy one, get one free coupon online, so I tried both the grilled and crispy versions.
I'm not sure what "artisan-style" means. Artisan, or artisanal, bread brings to mind someone making bread slow and steady with great care, which doesn't really work if you have to mass produce tens of thousands of buns (or more) and get them to where they're going. Regardless, Burger King's artisan-style bun is similar to brioche bread though not quite as rich or buttery. It has a denser, more substantial feel than your standard burger bun, while still remaining soft. The density holds up better to sauces without soaking them in.
The sandwich is pretty simple: sauce, cheese, and chicken. I like simple and it works here.
The sauce was pretty good, tangy with a decent, seasoned sweetness, as well as a thick consistency that clung to the bun. If you like your chicken parmesan with a lot of sauce, it was used judiciously on mine, with enough for flavor for every bite while keeping it neat and tidy.
I was impressed by the mozzarella. You get a creamy, thick melted slab of it. The parmesan was a bit hard to pick out. I like that they used shaved bits of it, but it was a bit lost against the mozzarella (which isn't typically known as a strongly-flavored cheese).
Since I tried both the crispy and grilled, I'll start with the crispy chicken breast (i.e. the fried and battered version). While I got a nice thick piece of chicken, my particular patty much have been sitting for a while as there was no crunch to it and the chicken was a little dry. I've had BK's crispy chicken breast where it was right out of the fryer and had a satisfying crispy layer of batter, so I noticed it all the more when this one was kinda soft and soggy. There's not too much seasoning to the batter, but that's fine because the cheese and sauce provide a lot of flavor.
My grilled chicken patty, on the other hand, was super juicy (you can
see the glimmer of juices in the picture). Between the two, it's better seasoned and tastier, but also more salty. If the crispy one was actually crispy, I would go with that (because the sauce and the cheese make up for the flavor), but because it wasn't this time around, I liked the grilled chicken better. Still, with chicken parmesan, you want that crispiness.
Overall, I enjoyed BK's Chicken Parmesan Sandwich. It is pricey (but comparable to BK's
regular menu chicken sandwiches), but pretty good and really the only chicken parmesan burger-type deal you're going to find at a fast food chain. If the parmesan had a better bite to it and the crispy chicken was consistently crispy
and juicy, I'd say it was excellent.
Nutritional Info - Burger King Chicken Parmesan Sandwich - Grilled (247g)
Calories - 470 (from Fat - 130)
Fat - 15g (Saturated Fat - 2.5g)
Sodium - 1600mg
Carbs - 46g (Sugar - 7g)
Protein - 37g
Nutritional Info - Burger King Chicken Parmesan Sandwich - Crispy (256g)
Calories - 610 (from Fat - 230)
Fat - 25g (Saturated Fat - 4.5g)
Sodium - 1720mg
Carbs - 60g (Sugar - 10g)
Protein - 36g
