Wendy's Jalapeno Fresco Spicy Chicken and Ghost Pepper Fries

Ghost Peppers.
I'm a little confused as to why Wendy's went with ghost peppers as a meal additive. Why? You don't know how ghost peppers are made? LET ME TELL YOU! First you slaughter an entire hillside village, bury their bodies in a mass grave, plant pepper plants above their rotting corpses and let the peppers suck their souls up from the ground before they can shoot down to hell. Are ghost peppers the blood diamond of the culinary world? I'm not sure, as everything I just told you I made up.

I've gotta tell you I was insanely excited when these fries were launched, I remember seeing an ad for them a bit ago and decreed it as a post I will do for FGFB, and here we are.

I couldn't JUST get fries....

 
The Wendy's website claims that there is melted shredded cheddar on these, but that was no where to be found. But what was found was a sweet, not really hot, nacho cheese flavor that was ok. My problem with almost every cheese fry meal out there, is that the cheese goop ends up making the fries too soggy too fast, and this was the case here.

"But Josh I'm a wimp and don't like hot stuff waaaahhhhhhh"- YOU. Well you're in luck my friend, the heat on these things is like a whisper on the wind told from another continent. It might be there, but you'll never find it. So I'm not sure where the ghost peppers were but.....oh my god, it's all an elaborate trick. These ghost peppers, much like in ghost shows, DON'T EXIST!!!!! Wow, Bravo Wendy's,  you got me. To be honest the small amount of hot there was inside the cheese, has the same sweet hotness that comes from weak jalapenos. These tasted pretty decent, and were a nice change from the norm, but were nothing to freak out about.

Disappointed in my batch of ghost pepper fries, I turned my attention to Wendy's Jalapeno Fresco Spicy Chicken.

Spicy chickens are a staple from Wendy's. On days I'm not food blogging, I'll stop in and snap one of them up just because they taste so damn good. The new Jalapeno Fresco version, was actually awesome.

The same ghost pepper cheese sauce that ruined the fries about 3 minutes in, colby pepper jack cheese, and a surprise red jalapeno bun. Now where that hotness was missing from the fries, it was found on the spicy chicken. I was unable to pinpoint what exactly it was that gave it it's heat, I had a sneaking suspicion it was the spicy chicken itself, but the jalapeno bun, the ghost pepper sauce, and the spicy chicken all came together to give you a nice spicy, sweet, cheese filled chicken sandwich that was delightful to take down. The cheese sauce made this a mess to eat, I had about 30 napkins in which to wipe my face after every bite.

FGFB PROTIP: Dip your sandwich in your fries for an extra cheese slathering

Overall I wasn't blown away by either of these. You'd figure a spice derived from mass murder would be a little more exhilarating to the senses, and deliver some kind of unique punch, as I don't think any other fast food chain has offered something as titillating as ghost peppers. I wish they have used them more effectively and didn't numb it down for mass consumption. Wendy's should have given us a proper, intensely spicy option, but instead they went with a weak substitution and watered it down for everyone.

I give Wendy's Ghost Pepper Fries a C

full of promise, but just couldn't deliver. 

 

the Wendy's Jalapeno Fresco Spicy Chicken: B

a variation on a classic, but doesn't do much.

-review by Josh

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