fried chicken sandwich – Michael Eats

Zinger Drip Sandwich from KFC

Published on May 6, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

KFC recently came out with a “Zinger Drip” menu, which seems to have nothing to do with the Zinger Sandwich that they currently serve, aside from the presence of spiciness. But sure, I like spice — I’ll check that out.

There are three items to choose from: a sandwich, popcorn chicken, and hot wings, all coated in a spicy sauce.

I went with the sandwich: “The Zinger Drip Sandwich brings bold, saucy heat to a fan-favourite classic. Our Famous Chicken sandwich fillet fully coated in KFC’s rich Zinger Drip sauce, then layered with cheddar cheese and fresh lettuce – all served on a soft potato bun. It’s a spicy, satisfying bite from top to bottom.”

It’s tasty. The Zinger Drip sauce has a vinegary, Frank’s-esque base, but with some mild sweetness and a bit of a garlicky punch to round things out. It’s not particularly spicy, but there’s enough heat to give your mouth a tingle. It’s pretty satisfying, which is good because the chicken is absolutely drenched in the stuff.

The word “drip” in the name of this sandwich is extremely appropriate — this was one of the drippiest, messiest sandwiches I’ve eaten in quite a while. After I was done, I had to lather up my hands like a doctor preparing for surgery just to get the stickiness off them.

As for the rest of the sandwich, it’s all pretty standard KFC stuff. I will say that the cheese feels entirely superfluous — the Zinger Drip sauce is not subtle, and its flavour completely wipes out the cheese, which may as well not be there.

Tasty Fried Chicken Sandwiches at Mad Bird Hot Chicken

Published on April 28, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 154 Queen Street South, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/madbird.ca/

There’s certainly no shortage of solid fried chicken sandwiches in Toronto, but Mississauga? That’s a bit more rare. So I was excited to check out Mad Bird Hot Chicken in Streetsville.

They have a variety of sandwiches, wings, and “bird bites” (chicken strips, basically). I went with the Nashville Napalm Sando: “This sando brings serious heat and Southern swagger. Our 48-hour marinated crispy chicken thigh gets baptized in fiery Nashville chili-oil, then stacked with cool Bird’s ranch, crunchy southern slaw, and tangy pickles — all hugged by a buttery brioche bun.”

You can pick your spice level from one to five; the guy behind the counter recommended three, so that’s what I went with.

It’s a tasty sandwich. Nothing about it blew my mind, but it’s nice and crunchy, the chicken is tender, and the slaw and the pickles give it a nice zippiness that cuts through the richness. I’d probably bump up the spice level to four next time, though. The spice level was pronounced, but I want a sandwich like this to really put some sweat on my brow, and this one didn’t quite take me there.

Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich from Jollibee

Published on April 27, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 800 Boyer Boulevard, Mississauga (inside Seafood City Supermarket)
Website: http://jollibeecanada.com/

I’ll give the Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich one thing: they’re not stingy with the avocado. Typically with a fast food sandwich featuring avocado, you need to pull out a magnifying glass to spot the stuff, but there’s actually a generous amount of it here.

As for the rest of the sandwich? Uh…

Here’s how Jollibee describes it: “Our New Spicy Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich starts with a crispy, juicy, hand-breaded chicken breast fillet, topped with hickory-smoked bacon, creamy Hass avocado, fresh jalapeños, crisp lettuce, and spicy sriracha mayo, served on a toasted brioche bun.”

It’s fine, mostly, but it’s a bit of a salt bomb. Between the salty chicken and the salty bacon, and with nothing sweet to balance things out, it’s a lot. The chicken was pretty dry, which somehow made the saltiness issue seem more pronounced (the fact that I had to wait 15 minutes in a mostly empty restaurant for this thing, only for it to be clearly not fresh, just added insult to injury).

The sandwich is also not particularly spicy, which is a shame. The spice level is there, but it’s quite mild.

Otherwise, it was okay. The chicken had a nice exterior crunchiness, the combo of bacon and avocado is certainly a tasty one, and the bun was nice and fresh. It’s fine, but I can’t say I’m particularly keen to run out and buy another one.

Also: the sandwich cost $13.99 before tax (!!), which might make it the most expensive fried chicken sandwich in the GTA (at least outside of restaurants with waiter service). Even local joints like PG Clucks and the Michelin-noted Chica’s Chicken are cheaper by a buck or two.

Shake Shack x Pizzeria Badiali

Published on April 13, 2026April 13, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3401 Dufferin Street, North York (inside Yorkdale)
Website: https://shakeshack.ca/

I guess Shake Shack collaborating with a local restaurant is becoming a yearly tradition, because they did it with Mimi Chinese at around this time last year, and now they’re doing it again with Badiali.

(Badiali, in case you’ve been living under a rock, is maybe the best pizza place in the city? Clearly, this is a collaboration I can get behind.)

Up first, the Spicy Vodka Chicken Parm: “Crispy, white-meat chicken breast layered over a Badiali and Shake Shack hot pepper mix, topped with Badiali’s spicy vodka rosé sauce, aged parmesan cheese, sliced mozzarella, and fresh basil on a toasted potato bun.”

This was mostly quite tasty — I mean, you can put Badiali’s rich, creamy vodka sauce on pretty much anything and it’ll taste good, so yeah, of course. The combo of that, the slightly gooey cheese, and the zippy pepper mix is a clear winner.

But the fried chicken itself was overcooked and quite dry — I was honestly having a tough time even biting through it in spots. So that was a shame.

There’s also the Pizza Fries: “Crispy crinkle cut fries dusted with Badiali pizza seasoning and aged parmesan cheese, served with Badiali’s signature housemade pepperoncini dip.”

I’m not sure if the “pizza seasoning” adds a whole lot here (and the teeny-tiny bit of parmesan definitely doesn’t add anything), but the fries are tasty and the pepperoncini dip is zippy and creamy (if a bit more muted in flavour than the version I had at Badiali a couple of years ago).

Finally, there’s the Brio Chinotto Shake: “Vanilla frozen custard blended with Brio’s classic bittersweet Chinotto flavour.”

This was a bit thin (the texture was more like very rich chocolate milk), but the taste was really nice; it has an interesting, almost gingerbread-like flavour and a mild bitterness that helps to round out the sweetness.

Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich from KFC

Published on February 24, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

I was actually kind of shocked to see that chili crunch is now mainstream enough to pop up at a giant fast food chain like KFC — but then I guess it’s been on its way up for a few years now (here’s an article from 2022 about how chili crisp “took over America”).

KFC’s got several items with the stuff, including a sandwich, Loaded Chili Crunch Tenders, a chili crunch Snacker Wrap, and chili crunch fries.

I went with the Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich: “Meet your new spicy obsession – the Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich. KFC’s juicy, crunchy, signature tripled-breaded chicken fillet is layered with spicy chili crunch oil, creamy chili crunch mayo, crispy onions, and pickles— all sandwiched between a toasted potato bun.”

I’m a fan of chili crunch, so I sort of figured this would be good, and yeah, it is. For one thing, unlike my last experience at KFC, the sandwich was hot, fresh, and made with some level of care. This seems like it should be the bare minimum, but here we are.

But even aside from that, this is a tasty sandwich — the chili crunch they’re using is a bit tangier than the norm, but it works. Combined with the heat and the garlicky punch, it’s a great topping for a fried chicken sandwich. The mayo also has some of that flavour, which is nice.

The level of spice is pretty decent, too — it’s certainly not the spiciest thing you’ll ever eat, but it’s got a nice kick. It’s a level of heat that would have been unheard of from a fast food chain a few years ago, but fast food places have been upping the spice recently.

I’m not sure if the crispy onions add all that much, and the sandwich is maybe a bit too salty, but otherwise I really enjoyed this.