Hungry Jacks, Chicken Mini

Hungry Jacks have launched a new addition to their mini burger range - the chicken mini. You might remember that I was reasonably impressed with the rodeo mini - the onion rings retained their crunch and the smokey BBQ sauce was applied with a deft hand. I wish I could say something equally nice about the chicken mini - but I can't...

Eating a chicken mini is like eating a savoury pillow - identically cloying the whole way through. The formed chicken patty had exactly the same texture as the bun. I presume the lettuce and breading on the chicken patty was supposed to add some crunch - it unfortunately didn't. And the rich kewpie-style mayo, though pretty decent on its own, simply added to the underwhelming monotony of the burger.



I swapped out my fries for onion rings. Although the Hungry Jacks website describes them as "delicious onion rings in breadcrumbs" I'm still to be convinced that they contain any actual onion. Though crumb was a bit sad the rings were crunchy and onion-y but there was this weird unidentifiable fake flavour in the background.




My recommendation - skip the chicken mini, order the rodeo mini and stick with the chips.

Hungry Jacks, City Cross Arcade

Like a moth to the flame, occasionally I get suckered in by fast food gimmicks. I've read for years about sliders in the US and was therefore fascinated by the new range of Hungry Jacks mini burgers. These burgers are NOT sliders - they are simply small burgers.

I try not to eat much in the way of junk food and ordered both the rodeo mini and the cheese burger mini (or that's how I'm trying to rationalise to myself) so I didn't have to return.

The meal arrived in under 5 minutes in kind of kitsch retro packaging.



I ate the rodeo burger first. I'm not sure what Hungry Jacks marketing thinks about the average consumers intelligence but for some reason lots of sweet BBQ sauce is supposed to evoke images of cattle rustling cowboys - hence rodeo. Used sparingly, I can handle commercial BBQ sauce - but a deft touch was not used here - the sauce overwhelmed everything. The burger patty was the usual dry hockey puck and the bun was the cloying the spun sugar/duck feather doona standard but the cheese helped give the burger some fatty flavour. Surprisingly, the onion rings actually stayed crunchy (does anyone remember the disastrous KFC nacho burger?) which saved the burger. 



Up next - cheese burger mini. Sadly, the cheese wasn't melted and there was no pickle. The burger really needed something sharp to cut through the sugary tomato sauce and provide some extra texture and flavour. 



Fortunately I like to stuff my cheese burger with fries - this is a bit of a hangover from my high school days. 



The chips provided the extra salt and crunch the burger needed.

Anyway - the service was fairly prompt and the price of $4.95 for burger mini, chips and a drink is cheap for lunch by anyone's standards. The burger wasn't great but that's not what you expect from Hungry Jacks - you get a fatty, salty, sugar bomb that satisfies rather than nourishes.