British Columbia

McDonalds is turning up the Heat with Jalapeno, Habenero, and Ghost Pepper McChicken Sandwiches

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McDonalds Canada is turning up the heat with their Spicy McChicken Sandwiches. We love spicy food, so this immediately got our attention.

Every two weeks, increasing levels of heat will be introduced to the Spicy McChicken sandwich, each highlighting a different chili pepper:

  • Jalapeño McChicken: January 29 – March 11
  • Habanero McChicken: February 12 – March 11
  • Ghost Pepper McChicken: February 26 – March 11

3 new sauces were created for these sandwiches using the 3 different peppers. This is the first time in recent history that McDonald’s Canada has changed the iconic McChicken sandwich but it’s just the sauce that is different.

The spiciness of the peppers is measured worldwide by the Scoville scale in units – the more units, the spicier it is:

  • The Jalapeño Pepper ranks 2500 – 8000 SHU on the Scoville scale
  • The Habanero Pepper ranks 100,000 – 350,000 SHU on the Scoville scale
  • And, the Ghost Pepper ranks highest on the Scoville scale, with more than 1M SHU

It is yet to been tasted if the sauces live up to the expected Scoville units. We will update this article with our review of each sandwich once each sandwich becomes available.

Spicy Jalapeño McChicken

Inside the burger is breaded seasoned chicken, shredded lettuce, topped with creamy Jalapenõ sauce, on a toasted sesame bun.

We had to order this burger twice because the first burger had very little sauce, so when eaten all together, you can barely taste the sauce because of the season chicken patty overpowered the sauce.

The second time I went, I paid extra to have extra sauce in the burger as well as the jalapeno sauce on the side to dip the fries and to truly taste the sauce.

The sauce has a slight hint of spice but very palatable. A good start to the 3 levels of spiciness as I’m sure most people can handle the creamy Jalapeno sauce.

Spicier Habanero McChicken

Inside the burger is breaded seasoned chicken, shredded lettuce, topped with creamy Habanero sauce, on a toasted sesame bun. Exactly the same as the other burger but with a different sauce.

We ordered this with extra sauce and there was more so we can taste it along with the seasoned McChicken patty. We found the similar thing as the Jalapeno McChicken where you need to have the extra sauce to really appreciate the added kick of the Habanero.

The colour of the sauce is more yellow/orange unlike the green hue of the Jalapeno.

It is spicier but isn’t too powerful to cause a sweat. We ordered this through the UberEats app, so we could customize with extra sauce but no option to have extra sauce on the side for fries.

Between Jalapeno and Habanero, we would definitely prefer Habanero as it has a little bit more of a kick.

Spiciest Ghost Pepper McChicken

The last Spicy McChicken is finally here until March 11. This is what everyone has been waiting for with their signature Ghost Pepper sauce. It has the most orange looking sauce out of the 3 Spicy McChicken options. Yet again, we ordered it with extra sauce, but this time they wouldn’t let us have extra sauce on the side for our fries for some reason. Either way, there was still ample sauce in the McChicken to really taste the sauce.

It is a stronger spice that lingers in the mouth, but it really depends on your own spice tolerance. We love spicy, so if you put it on a the “Hot Ones” scale, it is more like a 4/10. It’s definitely not for everyone and some will find it very spicy and some not at all. We thought it had a good kick of spice that coated our mouths but that might be because we ordered it with extra sauce.

Diana started Foodology in 2010 because she just eats out everyday! She started a food blog to share her love of food with the world! She lives in Vancouver, BC and adores the diversity of food around her. She will go crazy for churros and lattes.

3 Comments

  1. Stephen Stille Reply

    It was a real let down considering the amount of advertising stating it was spicy.
    I tried one over this last weekend and it was wimpy. No heat. Sorry to say but if you find this spicy your a wimp.

  2. I have tried the first 2 spicy mcchickens. I found them to not be spicy at all. I dont think there was much sauce on them. I think extra sauce is needed for any kind of kick or they are being careful on the amount of sauce they use for some reason. Many spicy chickens are coated in sauce. I like the Frank’s coated one from Arbys although that is not very hot but enough to actually feel a kick. I am hoping the last sandwich on the menu is actually a spicy version.

  3. Alfred Lippe Reply

    Boring. Very boring. It’s just a mcchicken sandwich with different mayo. They blanded it down so much you hardly notice the difference. From the bottom up it’s a bare bun, a breaded fried chicken patty, shredded lettuce and mayo, then the top bun. That’s it. 6 bucks Canadian.

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