Bottom Line: The Spicy Blackened Chicken Sandwich from Popeyes is an upgrade on their spicy chicken that delivers in both flavor and heat.
Popeyes may be leading in the Chicken Sandwich Wars (which makes sense seeing as they got this whole thing started), but they are not resting on their laurels. They are changing things up to keep people coming to the drive thru, and their latest sandwich is a real winner. They previously tweaked their chicken sandwich with a Buffalo sauce twist which was okay. But now they have gone back to their Cajun roots to offer a blackened version of the sandwich.
Here is the description from their website:
The Popeyes Chicken Sandwich you love but make it blackened. Marinated in Popeyes blackened seasoning that is. Our new juicy filet is served on a toasted brioche bun with crisp pickles. Try it spicy or classic.
This is not a breading and batter-coated filet, but the blackened seasoning is coated heavily enough that it acts as a type of crust. And it is not grilled as you might expect, it is sent to the same deep-fryer that cooks up their crispy chicken filets.
The chicken is plenty juicy with an immediate kick from the blackening seasoning (which has a strong note of cumin). They refer to the meat as a breast filet, but the piece on my sandwich had an irregular cut and seemed to include dark meat. But it is a big piece of chicken and it was well-cooked and juicy throughout. The spicy sauce kicks things up and pairs quite well with the seasoning. The pickles give that expected tang and work well with the other ingredients. The brioche bun is a bun with a fancy name, but it is nice and pillowy and holds everything together quite well.
Heat-wise, by about the third bite this is up to the Medium level and rising. The combination of the spicy sauce and the seasoning really gives this a kick, and my lips were burning (in a good way) by the time I was done. Chiliheads will have no problem with the sandwich, but the average mortal may struggle with it. This is not at the heat level of the Arby’s Diablo sandwich (more on that here) or the Burger King Ghost Pepper Whopper (more on that here), but it is hotter than the Popeye’s Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich and pretty good for a drive thru selection.
The Popeyes website does not have a nutrition breakout for the sandwich, and the calorie count it shows is 973. That appears to be for the combo, though, because the site shows 1,123 for the Spicy Chicken Sandwich but on the nutritional breakout page it shows 700 for the sandwich alone. So from that I will assume the blackened version is 150 calories less than the crispy version which puts it around 550. That’s not bad, but you will want to go easy on the sides lest you will be eating salads for the rest of the week.
(Fun fact: Popeyes doesn’t use an apostrophe in its name because allegedly original owner Al Copeland was too poor to add one to the sign at the time they opened.)
Apparently, they tested this version of the chicken sandwich last year, but I don’t think it ever got to my area. It is currently available for a limited time only, so I advise getting one while you can. If the blackened sandwich proves popular, maybe they will make it a menu regular. But it’s more likely they will pull a page from the Taco Bell book by taking it on and off the menu throughout the year as the fast food industry seems to think that is a viable marketing strategy these days. In any case, it’s a good and spicy chicken sandwich, so I recommend giving it a try.