TBG Eats: Jack in the Box's Chicken Biscuit(s)

As I pulled into the Jack in the Box drive-thru last Saturday, I was actually in the market for JitB's new Nacho Cheese Burger and Nacho Cheese Chicken Sandwich – one of each, actually. Unfortunately, it seems that the San Diego-based Jack in the Box corporation (JBX on the New York Stock Exchange: 23.04 +1.12 - corporate offices less than a mile from Mrs. Bootleg's place of employment) has drawn an imaginary nacho cheese boundary around Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

The unintelligible Eastern European accent from the drive-thru speaker box informed me that neither Nacho Cheese sammich was available in San Diego. Blasphemy! How can a city so steeped in Hispanic history NOT sell such a tasty-looking combination of cheap eats and ersatz ethnicity?!

I had a "Plan B", however.

JitB has been marketing its new "Homestyle Chicken" line of sandwiches and recently expanded into the "chicken biscuits for breakfast" field. Just as I was about to order one, I noticed that I could opt for a "Spicy Chicken Biscuit". I called another audible at the line of scrimmage and went spicy, instead.

Meh. Jack's biscuit was a billion times better than I remembered – hot, soft and still steaming. But, the "spicy" chicken breast wasn't even spicy by Americanized fast food standards. I'd call it a draw with the McDonald's version: edible, but not memorable.

On Tuesday, with Mrs. Bootleg and the boy out of the house until the early evening, I went back to The Box for the Homestyle Chicken Biscuit. And, over the course of 72 hours, we go from "meh" to "mmmmm". (Shaddap…it's late, that's all I got.)

The biscuit was as stellar as the one from Saturday, while the chicken was crisp, flavorful and not the processed-to-death Mickey D's poultry. It's not as filling as it should be, but get it with JitB's teeny sack of hash brown sticks to top off the cholesterol cocktail.

Also, I ordered these during "dinner" hours, so it was a relatively lengthy wait in the drive-thru while they fired up the biscuit oven. Just keep this in mind if you plan on squeezing one in between quittin' time and meat loaf night with the wife, Fatty.

Grade (Homestyle Chicken Biscuit): 4

Grade (Spicy Chicken Biscuit): 2.5