Thanksgiving Stack from Tim Hortons

Thanksgiving Stack from Tim Hortons
Location
: 1084 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.timhortons.ca/

I’ll admit that I tend to ignore Tim Hortons.  I know they’re beloved (and pretty much always busy), but I’m not a coffee drinker, and I don’t know if I’ve ever had a savoury item from them that I thought was much better than okay.

But a Thanksgiving sandwich with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce?  Yeah, I’m all over that; I don’t care who’s serving it.

Thanksgiving Stack from Tim Hortons

Here’s how Tim Hortons describes it: “The Thanksgiving Stack is prepared to order, served hot out of the oven, and features thick slices of seasoned 100 per cent Canadian carved turkey breast, homestyle stuffing, cranberry sauce made with 100% real cranberries, crispy onions and mayonnaise, and is served on a toasted potato bun.”

I will say that I saw the woman behind the counter prepare this, and yeah — it’s literally hot out of the oven.  The whole sandwich goes in the oven for something like 30 seconds, and it is noticeably hot and toasty.

Thanksgiving Stack from Tim Hortons

It’s totally fine.  It’s kinda one-note salty and nothing really stands out (the turkey is vaguely dry and the stuffing is standard boxed fare), but the bread is soft and fresh and the flavours all work well together (unsurprisingly).

The biggest issue here is that the crispy onions are on the bottom of the sandwich, between the cranberry sauce and the turkey, and by the time it was served to me, they had almost entirely sogged up.  They should probably be applied to the sandwich last.

Festive Chicken Sandwich from KFC

Festive Chicken Sandwich from KFC
Location
: 3401 Dufferin Street, North York (inside Yorkdale)
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

The Festive Chicken Sandwich at KFC is one of those things you pretty much have to try.  Or maybe that’s just me?  Maybe normal people don’t feel an odd compulsion to try every weird new thing from a fast food joint?  Who can say!

The KFC website describes the Festive Chicken Sandwich as “buttermilk marinated chicken fillet and savory stuffing, drizzled with buttery garlic oil, plant-based mayo and cranberry sauce.”

It’s an amazing idea in theory, though in execution, it’s just okay.  The main problem is that the fried chicken and the stuffing are both so salty that the whole thing adds up to a pretty serious salt bomb.

Festive Chicken Sandwich from KFC

I’ve never particularly thought about how much KFC’s fried chicken kinda has the same flavour profile as cheap, store-bought stuffing — but once you’re eating them at the same time, it’s pretty much all you can notice.

The cranberry sauce is actually pretty essential to offset some of the sandwich’s saltiness and cut through the richness a bit, but there wasn’t that much of it, and there’s only so much it can do.

As for the “buttery garlic oil,” if it was there, it was completely overwhelmed by the chicken and the stuffing.  I couldn’t taste it.

Otherwise, the sandwich was fine.  The chicken itself was pretty dry and had obviously been sitting out a bit, and the overall flavour is very one-note salty.  But it’s not unpleasant to eat, I guess.