Wendy's Launches New Cheeseburger to Dominate Chicken Sandwich Wars

While the fast-food chains are turning all their attention to chicken sandwiches, Wendy's is going [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

While the fast-food chains are turning all their attention to chicken sandwiches, Wendy's is going back to basics with its latest offering. On Thursday, the company unveiled the new Bourbon Bacon Cheeseburger to celebrate National Hamburger Month. Wendy's even teamed up with Postmates to offer burger lovers a way to try the new sandwich for free through this weekend.

The new bold burger features the trademark square Wendy's patty, topped with American cheese, Applewood smoked bacon, crunchy onions, and a new "sweet but savory" Bourbon Bacon sauce. "Wendy's is the home of the number one bacon cheeseburger for a reason: our beef is always fresh, never frozen and our Applewood smoked bacon is cooked in an oven daily to bring Wendy's signature quality and flavor that we feel is a cut above the competition," John Li, Vice President of Culinary Innovation for The Wendy's Company, said in a statement.

The new sandwich will be added the "Made to Crave" section of the menu, which also includes the successful Pretzel Bacon Pup Cheeseburger and the Jalapeno Popper Chicken Sandwich. Customers can get a free one with a Wendy's order of $15 or more through Postmates, now through Sunday, May 9. You just have to enter the code "BOURBON" during checkout. The Bourbon Bacon Cheeseburger costs $5.79 on its own.

The burger has already earned positive reviews on Twitter. "Your new bourbon burger is the best thing on the menu right now 10 out 10 amazing loving it!" one person tweeted. "Between pretzel pub and the new bourbon bacon burger Wendy's has been knocking it out of the f— park these past few months can we get a round of applause," another tweeted. However, one Reddit user was critical of the sauce. "Way too sweet and overpowering sauce," they wrote. "The sauce tastes like a slightly bourbon-y, very slightly bacon-y, very slightly ketchup-y... pancake syrup."

Wendy's can afford to focus on new burger offerings since it already has a popular chicken sandwich on the menu to compete with other chains in that sphere. In February, the company launched the Jalapeno Popper Chicken Sandwich, as well as the Jalapeno Popper Chicken Salad. The chicken sandwich wars started in 2019 when Popeyes launched its popular sandwich, inspiring other chains to work on their own. Burger King, which is coincidentally owned by the same company that owns Popeyes, hopes to launch its own nationally before the end of the year.

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