Hungry Jack's Grilled Chicken with Bacon & Cheese

The Grilled Chicken with Bacon & Cheese is $10.91 and 1,748 kJ. It takes the flame grilled breast fillet from the Grilled Chicken and adds melted cheese and crispy bacon, keeping the fresh salad and the creamy Ranch dressing.

What makes this one worth knowing about is where it sits on the board. At 1,748 kJ it carries bacon and cheese and still comes in below every fried chicken burger on the menu, and below most beef burgers too. Adding the two heaviest toppings available to the lightest base still leaves you ahead.

The bacon does more here than it does on a beef burger. A flame grilled breast fillet is lean and mild, so there is room for a strong salty note without anything getting crowded out. On a rich beef patty bacon competes; on grilled chicken it fills a gap.

Ranch stays, and it is doing double duty. It softens the salt from the bacon and it keeps moisture against a lean fillet. Without it this build would eat dry, which is why the burger uses a dressing rather than plain mayonnaise.

The numbers are 28g protein, 21.7g fat and 1,036mg sodium. That sodium figure is the one thing to watch, since it is well up from 661mg in the plain grilled version, and the bacon is where all of it comes from.

Who it suits: someone who wants a loaded burger without the energy cost of a loaded burger. It is the most sensible compromise on the menu, and it does not taste like a compromise. Grilled Chicken with Bacon and Cheese calories still leave room for chips.

Pair it with Small Thick Cut Chips at $2.00, or compare against the Bacon Deluxe at $13.45 for the beef equivalent.