Subway Buffalo Chicken Crunch [Review]

AndrewSeptember 27, 2015

Test market items are one of the best things in the world of fast food. Clearly anything released on a grand national scale needs to be beta tested at first to prove at least someone will order it in the wild. Lucky for me, Subway is testing out a “new” sandwich in my local area. The Subway Buffalo Chicken Crunch sounds good on paper because who doesn’t love throwing crispy chips on sandwich? Subway even seemed to have gotten the flavor profile right when they threw Cool Ranch Doritos on a Buffalo Chicken sandwich, so let’s take a look and see if this sandwich lives up to my own perceived, invented hype.

The Ingredients

Subway Bread Unit (Italian Herbs & Cheese pictured)
Subway Grilled Chicken Strips marinated in Buffalo Sauce
Ranch Dressing
Doritos Cool Ranch Chips
Cheese (Pepper jack)
Veggies (Lettuce, tomato, pickle, banana peppers)

If this sounds largely familiar, it’s due to the fact that this sandwich has been out for years posing as the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Just add some Doritos chips, which are already in every single Subway in America, and you have yourself a “brand new” item. The only thing that really matters in this review is if you can even notice the chips among the other ingredients and if they actually enhance the experience.

First Impressions

To be honest, the standard Buffalo Chicken at Subway is my go to “splurge” sub. Not the healthiest sub, with the white wash of decadent ranch and coming in at 420 calories and 15 grams of fat (6 inch without cheese), but it’s still not the worst thing you can eat their by far. So the base of this sandwich is very solid. The new chicken at Subway (revamped last year) is pretty juicy and tasty, although chewy in some poor spots. The Buffalo sauce is not really spicy but at least it’s got a decent amount of flavor. The combo of cheese, crunch/spicy veggies, and ranch provide a good backdrop for the chicken.

Subway’s biggest weak spot to me is their bread and how it’s toasted. The toasterwave they use has never impressed me, paling in comparison to Quiznos in functionality and flavor enhancement. Combine that with the fact that the bread logs at Subway always seem to overpower, seemingly blocking most of the other flavors involved, I knew that these Doritos had an uphill battle.

A couple of bags of already opened Doritos lay at the end of the toppings station, with a handful (4 or so) placed on top of my sub and then promptly crumpled and crushed when topped with the top bun and wrapped up in paper before checking out. A six inch sub was a full blown $4.75 so the extra Doritos definitely cost you. After taking a couple of bites into the sub, I had to acutely make an effort to taste the Doritos at all. Even with a couple solid fragments of chips surviving the sandwich press, the Doritos were masked by the multitude of other toppings. The sandwich did have noticeably more crunch than usual thanks to the chips, but the flavor was only marginally apparent.

Subway Buffalo Chicken Crunch – The Verdict

In my opinion, this is one of Subway’s best sub options, even without the Doritos. On paper, this sounds like a great addition, but in actual execution it’s hard to notice with other toppings present. The sandwich does get crunchier (good) and whenever the Doritos taste shines through it is only for the better. The issue is that it just doesn’t happen enough. If this sub makes it nationwide (don’t see why it wouldn’t), go with less toppings to begin with to experience more of the Doritos action.