Wendys Smoked Gouda Chicken on Brioche Sandwich

I’ll try just about anything new once, so it was a must that I order this new sandwich from Wendy’s when I rolled up at the drive-thru. I had initially planned to get some nuggets and maybe a Jr. Bacon or something, but they’ve got a new flagship item so I said yes I’d like to try the all new Smoked Gouda Chicken on Brioche.

The sandwich looks good, and it sounds good in theory as well. However, the manifestation of this chicken/cheese/sauce conglomeration is less than the sum of its parts. The best things about this sandwich are the smoked gouda and the bun. The chicken is the same breast you’ll find in their other sandwiches, I had the homestyle, but it would probably have been better had I asked for grilled. So if you want one, get it grilled. This brings me to the Dijon Aioli.

I know I asked Wendys to stop it with the ranch dressing on everything and use aioli, but now they’re putting aioli on just about everything. Well inteded for sure, but this sauce is just a little too sweet to be mingling with smoked gouda, which is overwhelmed by what essentially tastes like some sort of salad dressing. The red onions don’t help the case. Combined with a generous helping of greenery there is essentially a salad on top of this sandwich. I’d say grill those onions (would be easy to offer the French Onion Grill as well if you did this Wendy’s) and push that sauce into a more savory (less sweet) territory. In a pinch I’d just ask for the sandwich with mayo in place of aioli and no onions. Your heart is in the right place Wendy’s, you get major points for effort, but I can only give this sandwich a 3/5 rating.