Subway’s featuring two chicken wing inspired subs, in an effort to remind us all that it is indeed football season, so we took a look at the BBQ Chicken Footlong to see how it stacks up.

Subway describes the BBQ Chicken like this:

Make the BBQ Chicken Footlong your game day go to. It’s mouthwatering, sweet and tangy and made with St. Louis style BBQ sauce—the perfect call for Footlong Season™. Tastes great with lettuce, tomatoes, red onion and pickles.

Unlike most chains, who typically have to circumvent their entire supply chain to come out with a new product, Subway can typically take pre-existing ingredients, move them from one sub to another and call it new. Case in point with the “new” BBQ Chicken Footlong.

Subway has long been featuring BBQ sandwiches during the summer “BBQ Season”, most notably with a pulled pork variety. So the idea here was to take the ultra flexible chicken product that is already in use for the Buffalo Chicken, Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki, and Chicken Bacon Ranch and throw in some of that sweet and sassy St. Louis style sauce and call it a day.

I’m a fool for still thinking Subway is healthy, even after you crush a footlong and get that stomach churn that only a 800 plus calorie bomb can produce, so I am big time veteran of the Subway chicken. In recent years they’ve upgraded the quality by pushing towards no antibiotics and artificial yada yada, with the taste only improving.

Opening up a Subway footlong and analyzing how close the sandwich artist came to a 50/50 split when they cut the sandwich is a fun game to play. We’re looking at almost 60/40 at best here, or as I like to call it: Dinner and Lunch. Subway suggests no cheese, lettuce, pickles, onion, and tomatoes on this sandwich, but I like to live dangerously so I added pepper jack cheese and banana peppers.

St. Louis style BBQ sauce is supposed to be tomato based, not as sweet as Kansas City style, and runnier opposed to thick based on vinegar being in the blend. This mostly ads up to what I experienced, especially the consistency. The sauce was pretty runny, more of a dressing than a sauce, some may even call it “weak”. It was definitely amply sweet with a little bit of tang. I’m not sure how it could get sweeter really unless you topped the whole sandwich in brown sugar.

BBQ chicken is a classic variety that many people enjoy, especially with game day wings. Subway’s variety is solid enough, with just enough gusto to be called tangy. I’d get it again, which is usually the barometer on whether these items are worth your time. I’d still stick with the Buffalo Chicken variety, especially now that Subway has Frank’s Red Hot on board.

Subway’s BBQ Chicken Footlong: 6/10