Bottom Line: The Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich from Chick-Fil-A delivers a nice twist on the premium poultry sandwich and the spicy version brings a kick.
The fast food establishments continue to wage the Chicken Sandwich Wars with each lobbing a new salvo into the field on a regular basis. Chick-fil-A is currently winning amongst the purveyors of poultry as it is the Number 3 chain in sales in the U.S. (as of last year) and the only chicken joint in the Top 10. But they are not resting on their laurels and they continue to add new items to the menu all the time. Case in point, the new Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich that they are currently advertising pretty heavily on television–especially during NFL football games–adds a southern twist to the premium chicken sandwich.
This is a variation on their regular sandwich which includes their original breast filet drizzled with honey, topped with pimento cheese, and served on a toasted bun with mild pickled jalapeños. You can also order it with their spicy filet (which is what I did), and that is the way to go if you are looking to bump up the burn.
The chicken is the excellent filet you expect from this place. Cooked well and plenty tender, but not at all greasy. The breading does not deliver too much crunch, but it still has some nice texture with good seasoning and the flavors from the spicy marinade. That drizzle of honey delivers a nice pop of sweetness that goes quite well with the spices and the peppery taste from the filet. Then those sliced jalapenos stand in quite well for the pickles that are typically on a Chick-fil-A sandwich, delivering the expected tang. The pimento cheese has the creaminess and sharpness you expect from that southern staple and there is a little bit of sweetness in there as well. They are not quite as generous with the cheese as the promo pic suggests, but you can definitely taste it on the sandwich. The bun is fairly standard, but it holds everything together well enough.
Heat-wise, this gets to about Medium on my scale and delivers a tingling that lingers for a while. The filet did not seem quite as high on the burn as spicy sandwiches I have gotten from Chick-fil-A in the past, but it still had a kick. The pimento cheese acts as a counterbalance to the heat, but then those jalapenos are there notching things back up again. I would have liked a few more of those and will probably order extra next time (which bumps up the price by twenty-five cents), but it still worked out okay as is.
As for the calories, the spicy version clocks in at 600 cals (570 with the regular filet) which is about 150 more than the Spicy Chicken Sandwich. That’s not terrible for the drive thru, but you might want to pass on those Waffle Fries which run 420 cals to on order. A cup of their chicken noodle soup (which is really quite good) runs only 170 cals in case you want to do a soup and sandwich type of thing.
This is yet another item that is on loan from Limited-Time-Only-Ville and it will disappear at some point. But as mentioned above, they are advertising it pretty heavily, so perhaps it will stick around through at least the end of the year. It runs $7.25 for the sandwich or $10.95 for the meal with fries and a drink in my area (forty cents less on both for the regular version). That’s a little steep for the drive thru, but Chik-fil-A has always been like that. This one is definitely worth checking out, but if you miss out then just make up a batch of my pimento cheese and put that on one of their Spicy Chicken Sandwich and you will have something that really brings the heat.