Taste Test: McDonald’s Create Your Taste Chicken Fillet Burger

McDonald’s has brought out a grilled chicken option as part of its “Create Your Taste” DIY burger menu to woo those of us who are health conscious or just like the taste of sweet, sweet poultry. Here’s our verdict.

The fast food giant has been on an epic quest to reinvent itself in recent years. No longer content with being associated with a cheap and easy feed, McDonald’s just wants to be “a little bit fancy“. Bringing out the Create Your Taste concept was a big step towards its goal and now touchscreen menus that allow you to build your own burger are in most McDonald’s outlets across Australia.

When it was launched a few months ago, there were only beef and veggie patty options available. Now that Create Your Taste has had time to mature, McDonald’s has decided to introduce grilled chicken and salads to provide healthier alternatives.

You probably don’t care to hear what shredded lettuce tastes like, so we’ve given the salads a miss. Let’s get straight into the grilled chicken. The patty comes in the form of a piece of flattened grilled chicken breast, thin and wide.

To complete the illusion that we’re eating something healthy, we first tried the chicken in a lettuce wrap in lieu of a bread bun. It’s not the freshest looking piece of lettuce and it lacks that satisfying crunchiness, but it does cut down on the calories and carbs you consume. I can see this option being popular with people who are on diets and watching their calorie intake.

What surprised us was how juicy the chicken was. It’s easy to overcook breast meat, leaving it dry and stringy, but McDonald’s has done a good job at cooking it just right. The fillet is lightly seasoned and has a pleasant flavour that goes really well with the rest of the vegetables in the burger.

We also tried the chicken with a brioche bun. Normally, pairing a brioche bun with a beef patty can make a burger taste fatty and heavy but with a chicken fillet the burger doesn’t taste overly rich. This can be a good thing if you’re looking for a light meal in between lunch and dinner, but if you’re looking for a substantial feed, this probably won’t do it for you.

Overall, the chicken fillet isn’t particularly remarkable but it is a welcome addition to Create Your Taste. Points on the juiciness of the fillet although it would be nice if the piece of meat was a bit bigger.

Score: 8/10