Spicy Food Challenge: Tasting America's Hottest Fast Food
45sThis segment hooks viewers with a high-stakes challenge and the promise of ranking iconic fast food items, tapping into foodie curiosity and competitive spirit.
▶ Play ClipIn this video, the host and his friend embark on a taste test of the spiciest menu items from major fast food chains across the USA. They rate each item on spiciness and overall quality, ultimately crowning Jollibee's spicy chicken joy as the best tasting and Dave's Hot Chicken's reaper tender as the spiciest.
The host aims to try the spiciest fast food item from every major chain in America to find the best tasting and spiciest.
Rated 4/10 for spiciness and 5.7/10 overall. Described as having a cayenne pepper kick, crispy exterior, and juicy interior.
Spiciness rated 3.5-5.5/10, overall 5-6/10. Flavorful and crunchy but texture was inconsistent.
Spiciness rated 1-2.5/10, overall 2.5/10. Described as chewy, dry, and tasting like bad barbecue sauce.
Spiciness rated 4-5/10, overall 7/10. Saucy and balanced heat, but chicken was chewy.
Spiciness rated 1-1.5/10, overall 2-2.5/10. Bland burger with no heat.
Spiciness rated 1/10, overall 2-3/10. Oily, not crispy, and lacked heat.
Spiciness rated 5/10, overall 3.8/10. Dry chicken, untoasted bun, inconsistent spice.
Spiciness rated 9-9.5/10, overall 2.5/10. Extremely spicy but flavorless, chewy, and not crispy.
Spiciness rated 4/10, overall 2.9-4.5/10. Inconsistent, one sandwich was not spicy.
Spiciness rated 5.8/10, overall 7.9-8/10. Well-balanced spice, flavorful, but lacked crunch.
Spiciness rated 6-6.8/10, overall 8.9/10. Great balance of sweet and heat, but undersalted.
Spiciness rated 5.5/10, overall 9/10. Perfectly cooked, juicy, umami flavor, and balanced spice.
Jollibee wins best overall spicy item. Dave's Hot Chicken wins spiciest item.
Jollibee's spicy chicken joy is the best tasting spicy fast food item, while Dave's Hot Chicken's reaper tender is the spiciest but worst tasting. The video emphasizes that spice without flavor is not worth it.
"Title accurately describes the video's content: trying every spicy fast food item in America."
What was the spiciest fast food item according to the video?
Dave's Hot Chicken Reaper Tender.
08:22
Which fast food chain won best overall spicy item?
Jollibee with their Spicy Chicken Joy.
26:48
What score did McDonald's Hot and Spicy get for overall quality?
5.7 out of 10.
01:13
Why did the reviewers dislike Dave's Hot Chicken Reaper Tender?
It was extremely spicy but flavorless, chewy, and not crispy.
09:07
What was the main criticism of Popeyes' spicy chicken wings?
They were undersalted.
26:15
How did Chick-fil-A's spicy chicken sandwich score on spiciness?
5.8 out of 10.
13:01
What was the overall rating for Burger King's Fiery Chicken Sandwich?
3.8 out of 10.
07:26
Which item was described as 'the most bland burger I've ever eaten'?
A&W's A2 Double Spicy Pop.
05:12
Dave's Hot Chicken: Spiciest but Worst
Demonstrates that extreme spice does not equal good taste.
08:22Chick-fil-A's Balanced Spice
Exemplifies how to balance heat with flavor for an enjoyable experience.
12:44Jollibee's Perfect Execution
Shows that proper cooking and seasoning can make a spicy item delicious.
22:02Winner Announced
Jollibee wins best overall, proving that quality matters more than heat.
26:48[00:00] I'm going to try the spiciest fast food menu item in all of the USA. But why do this to myself? Because spicy food has become America's biggest obsession. Every fast food restaurant is loading up their menu with some sort of Diablo this or Fiery that. So, we're going to try every
[00:16] single famous fast food spot in America their spiciest item to find out which is the best tasting and which is the spiciest. Starting with McDonald's. Welcome to Macd. What's your spiciest
[00:28] item on the menu? are hot and spicy. This is called the hot and spicy and it has a flame on the actual packaging. They're marketing this to be really spicy. Cheers. Honestly, it's pretty spicy for McDonald's. Like the spice is there. It lingers a little which I like. It's
[00:42] nice. It's like cayenne and pepper. Also, is that dark meat? I mean, it's nugget meat. First, we're going to rate this how spicy it is out of 10, and then we'll give our overall score, good spice tolerance. And I'll say I'm going to try and rate this in a way that very broad, not
[00:58] just my own taste. But I would give this like on a spiciness scale like a five for fast food. And I'm giving this a window for fast food on spicy 1 to 10. This is a four for me. But the question is how good is it? So let's rate. We're rating this off of all the general things. Texture, flavor, salt
[01:13] levels. I'm surprised I wrote this rating. I'm going to be dead honest with you. 3 2 1. A 5.7. What am I insane? I thought this was crazy good. It's above average good, but it's not on its way to a 10 good. Listen, I'm standing by my number. My sandwich was freshly cooked. It was crisp on
[01:29] the outside. The inside was juicy. It was seasoned really well with salt. And I tasted chicken and it had a good spice. I mean, I would eat that again. McDonald's has kind of been popping off lately. to always hate their food and every time I go back, I'm like, is this getting better? This is
[01:45] a big scoring disparity, but we're moving on. Next up, the place with my favorite logo of all time, Chicken Express. What's the spiciest item on your menu? We have a spicy tender. We'll do um the spicy tenders. And then do you guys still have that serendipity hot seasoning? The hot seasoning.
[02:00] Okay. Cheers. Flavor-wise, not bad. No, it's very flavorful. Salt's good. Crunch is good. The crunch is nice. I thought adding the seasoning was going to make it too salty, but it's not that salty. pepperc corn numbing quality. To me, this is like a three and a half. Three. Four. Almost to a four.
[02:17] Check out, dude. I would put this almost at a six. What? 5.5. My bite's kicking. It's in the back of my throat a little. Spice score down. Now it's time to rate the overall. All in all, I'm going to give it a five. It's seasoned nicely, but the texture is bad. Christian. Christian. I give it a
[02:33] six. It had a good amount of spice, but it was addicting and flavorful and crunchy. It wasn't dry. Mine wasn't. I enjoyed it, but I wish it was spicier. That's fair. I'll raise mine to a 5.5. I would go back for another bite. The crisp is good. Like you get a crunch when you bite it, but then
[02:45] it goes. A very middle of the ground chicken. Not our spiciest, not our best. We can find better. Moving on to Zach's where we pulled up knowing the spiciest option available. The fabled tenders with nuclear sauce. Let's taste. Thank you. Appreciate it, man. I'm kind of scared to see what's in here
[03:01] because it says F nuclear on the receipt. Why am I scared? I'm pretty nervous. Oh, dude. The smell on that. It's hidden. Oh, cheers. That's not spicy at all. It's not spicy for nuclear. It smells spicy. It's very acidic. It tastes like bad barbecue sauce. Spice level, I think, is like
[03:17] item. We can make it as spicy as you want. What a load of horseshit. Terrible tender, too. Chewy, dry, and the texture is that might go into my top three worst bites of fried chicken I've ever had
[03:30] in my entire life. I think that's a one. Oh, I was going to go two and a half. I'll mash here. It's two and a half. Sure. It didn't taste like gross. Out of all the pieces of chicken that you can eat, it is appealing at all. Moving on. By default, Zach makes it into the top three because there's
[03:46] only three so far. Something tells me they won't be here for very long. On to the next. What's the spiciest item on your menu? I got like a spicy sandwich. KFC giving us the hookup. This is the spiciest sandwich that they offer. Topped with hot honey Sriracha. Let's see if this leaves a
[04:00] mark. It's pretty good. There's some There's some kick. That's like a balanced heat for me. That's a five on a heat. I'd give it more of a four cuz the sweetness is kind of dying it down. This is sauced really nicely though. This is one of the sauciest sandwiches I've had in a long time, which is kind
[04:13] chewy chicken from this, and that is bothering me. But the salt level is good. The crunch is like 70% of what I want. Seasoning is nice. KFC kind of coming up. This could be a big one. I'm going to stand heavy on this one. Three, two, one. A seven and a seven. Wow. Above average, above mid. Not in
[04:33] the territory of excellence, but in the territory of good. The only thing that was carrying this than anything else. Moving on. And a new leader at the top. Now for our live check-in on our spicy
[04:46] leaderboard. Here's our top three now. We'll check back in later as the competition heats up. Next, A&W, an unlikely competitor, which begs the question, can A&W's A2 double spicy pop make an
[04:59] impact? Yours looks a lot better than mine. Mine looks pretty. Hey, yours does look pretty crappy if I say. Let's just go for it, man. It's got jalapenos and a spicy sauce. Even with a jalapeno, that's not spicy. Spice level is like a one and a half for me. Yeah, I'll give it a one on spicy.
[05:12] On flavor, somehow I taste absolutely nothing at all. It's a bland burger. This is the most bland burger I've ever eaten. I'm not even going to pull my board out. I'll give it a 2.5. I was going to say to lower. I was say two. Two. For me, it's disappointing out of two. You I don't want to talk
[05:26] about this anymore. Moving on. The coveted Five Guys burgers and fries. Something about Five Guys feels like you walk in expecting an elevated fast food experience and what you get is somehow the same if not below average fast food experience for an insane price. These fries for a medium fry was
[05:43] almost $9. There are fast food joints running like $9, $8 specials for both a burger and fries and a drink. And a drink. It's okay to price something premium if the product is truly good enough to sell for that price. So anyway, let's snack. These smell very cayenne. It's crazy how they look so
[05:59] hot. You think they'd be crispy. They never are. It's just an oily roasted potato. There's no heat. Spice board one. Yeah, I would say one. There's There's There's heat and flavor, but not
[06:11] I don't even need the white board. That French fries are two. I'm going to give this a three. It's a terrible French fry. It's got to be one of the worst French fries. Moving on. All right, we're at Burger King. What's the spiciest item on your menu? Basically, any of our fiery items.
[06:26] Yeah, we'll do two fiery chicken sandwiches. Yeah, we Yes. All right. Anything on for you today? Uh, that's it. Melc, why are you tripping this woman up, dude? What are you doing? That was so hard to
[06:40] deal with. Burger King using the American Express. That's not me. I don't know what you're talking about. Bing bing bing bing bing bing. Fiery. So fiery. Oh, thanks. This is my new technique.
[06:55] Yeah. Hell yeah. That's great. Let's see how fiery it is. Wo. It's really sweet. On a spicy note, I think this is spicier than McDonald's. And there's tomatoes to cool it down. For a spice, I want to say this is a even five. It's higher than McDonald's. Yeah, I I'm getting the spice.
[07:09] It's inconsistently spicy. Some parts are spicy, some are not. But the ones that are spicy, I would agree are a five. First of all, this is dry. Look at how dry that is. I want to be it's like the fry on this chicken might be one of the worst fries I've ever seen on a
[07:26] fast food piece of fried chicken. I mean, the batter has fused with the chicken and also simultaneously become uncrispy. The bun at first sight, I was like, "Wow, that's not a bad looking bun." And then I realized that they didn't toast it whatsoever. One, two, three,
[07:40] and a double 3.8. Wa! Holy. And you said 1 2 3 and we flipped threes. I think we need to make out And after seven spots, here are our leaders on the best item. Burger King tops the spicy board,
[07:55] but surely that cannot hold for long with what might be our spiciest item by far. Coming up, we're at Dave's Hot Chicken. Could this be the spiciest one on the list? You're a Hot Ones uh alum, so you should be able to handle this. Yeah,
[08:10] once a month. Have you had it? This? No. I'm kind of scared. They made a sign a waiver. It looks harmless. It really does. It doesn't look that bad. Okay. Cheers.
[08:22] It's spicy. Need salt. Oh
[08:34] yeah. Oh my god.
[08:51] Oh my god, dude. What the spicy score? I've had some pretty spicy stuff. If my chicken sandwich was a 10, I feel like this is like a I'll give it a nine. It's a nine. Dave's Hot Chicken Reaper. That's a nine and a half. It's by far the worst tasting chicken we've had all
[09:07] day. It's the same problem that Dave's Hot Chicken always has, which is it lacks in crispiness. What should be a nice crispy crackle is instead of hard bark. Not in a good way. Not like brisket barbecue bark. Their breading is always tough and chewy. Completely flavorless. No salt at
[09:19] all. Didn't taste like chicken. All I tasted was spicy hot Carolina Reaper. And it's burning my mouth. Did they succeed in making it spicy? Yes. Did they succeed in making a good tasty piece of chicken? No. Horrible. From what I remember, it wasn't crispy. It wasn't juicy. It was chewy. I
[09:32] I'll ever eat that again. 3 2 1. Now you might be thinking, "Oh, but you guys rated it poorly cuz it's so spicy." Honestly, no. If I remove spice completely from the equation, my score remains the
[09:46] same. It is by far the worst piece of chicken that we've ever had. It is not good. It every time we've come here, I've been disappointed. If you're Dave's Hot Chicken, I understand that it's should at least be able to be Burger King. But you know what's a whole lot better than this chicken?
[10:00] Mine. The one that I made on my second channel. Yes, we now have a second channel. What for? For recipes only. You missed the recipes, go over there, give it a subscribe, check out that recipe. The links in the description. Moving on. and Daves by a large lead. Hops the spicy leaderboard,
[10:14] but bottoms the overall leaderboard. Yeah, it was spicy, but it also sucked. Will we find a spicier item? And will it be more balanced? Only one way to find out. We're here at Arby's. Can we do two
[10:26] quarter pound smoked brisket sandwiches with the spicy? How far do we run out of these spicy one? Maybe. Let's just like go to a different Arby's. Hi. Do you guys have the spicy sauce? I apologize.
[10:38] We've now gone through two separate Arby's. And by the way, there are not very many Arby's in Austin, Texas. We've gone to two, which might be all of them. There may be one more. I don't know. Arby's, you're cut, dude. You're cut. Oh god, Wendy's. Hi. What's the spiciest item on your menu? A spicy
[10:53] sandwich. What's the spiciest item you have on your menu? Okay. When is spicy? Anything else? Uh, do you guys have the Cajun crunch chicken sandwich? The new the Cajun crunch spicy chicken sandwich. Is Spice get home chicken? Yeah. Get this sandwich. Two of them,
[11:10] though. Oh, look. Spicy Cajun. Let's go. Let's go, dude. Chicken. Oh my god. Vic. Holy.
[11:23] They're definitely not on there anymore. The drive-thru people are watching us right now. Like, they're they're all piled up at the window watching us. Watching you slap the ads first was probably what it was. Like, who's getting shot out here? It did show a couple times. Handshot. Yeah,
[11:38] we are at Wendy's. Our chicken looks different. Mine is red and yours is not red. I wonder if they gave you the wrong chicken. Let's find out if it's spicy or not. Cheers. Oh yeah, mine's spicy. It's got like a peppery bite to it. It's got some sting, but it's also a little bit of warming
[11:51] of the ground, but it's hotter than I expected. The only thing spicy I taste is the onions, that Cajun crunch. This is honestly a a four flat on spice for me. Flavor-wise, this is like the
[12:03] seasoned nicely, but that's all I taste is just salt. Everything else is absolutely trash. I don't trace the mayo. I don't taste anything. Let's give it a rating. One, two. A 4 and 1/2 and a 2.9. Wo,
[12:17] you're really low. One inconsistency dropped it. I didn't get a spicy burger. The only thing I enjoyed was the crispy onions. Everything else was flat. If this is the bottom and this is mid, this chicken sandwich is like right here. Moving on. Wendy's a mid sandwich and a mid
[12:29] spot on the leaderboard. On to the next. Welcome to Chick-fil-A, guys. Do two spicy sandwiches, please. Thank you. Have a good day. You, too. My pleasure. Cheers. That's pretty spicy. This is way spicier than I remember. I'm really happy with that. That is seasoned really well. I will
[12:44] say I think Chick-fil-A is showing off one thing, which is balancing spicy. And by that, I mean most people want to enjoy their meal and have a level of heat that's just enough to excite, but not so much that it stops you from taking the next bite. That is balancing spice. And
[13:01] they balance their spice really well. I got to say on a spice level, this is like a 5.8. It's almost a six for me. On the point with balance, I don't think this is going to be like, oh, I would say honestly, it's like a 5.8. This is one of the spicier items we've had,
[13:16] but it's perfect. My biggest complaint, as usual, it is lacking crunch. The edges have crunch, but the interior just lacks breading. And the problem with that is really hot fry oil gets to the muscle and it fries up the muscle and then you get this like stringy chewy band around the
[13:31] chicken. That's why it's important you have the protective outer layer of the breading. And also I want to be crunchy. Let's give it an overall rating. Overall rating in 3 2 1 a 7.9 and an eight. Woah. Real close. I didn't want to cross into the eight threshold. I was like it's even. I
[13:47] wanted to finish the whole thing. It's delicious. The keyword was balanced. Most Chick-fil-A I want sauce. I don't think that needed sauce. That's a good point. The balance of the spice really made this sandwich special. I will say it put it a higher rating for me, too. I would have gone into
[13:59] the eights for this sandwich had it been breaded better. That's literally all it needed. You saw mine. Mine was crunchy. I had better breading and I'm basing it off my sandwich. If you had mine, honestly, I think you'd put it in the eights. Inconsistent sandwiches give inconsistent
[14:12] scores. Moving on. And just to check it in on our spicy leaderboard, Chick-fil-A enters as a not so close second place onto Poo Comparero. Every time we've gone here, we've been both surprised and also let down. I have a good feeling about this one. What's the spiciest item on your
[14:26] menu? I have the spicy sandwich. Okay, cool. Can I get two of those? Anything else, guys? Poo compar. We're back. Here we go. Cheers. This is not spicy at all. The sauce is got a little
[14:38] even get to experience it even if you do get the sauce. I'll give it a one. Pat me at one and a half for spice. Honestly, it's a very sweet chicken sandwich. I don't know why it's so godly. sauce and the seasoning and also the bread and butter. Everything's sweet about it. Just sweet
[14:52] on sweet on and the bun's sweet, too. The chicken is underseasoned by about 25%. I would say it needs salt. I don't taste any flavor on it much. I know exactly where this sandwich is. Do you? Yeah. 3 2 1 A five and a 4.3. Yeah. Not Not too far. I like the bread and butter pickle edition. It adds
[15:07] a little bit of sweetness. The chicken itself was good enough that it brought it up to mid. I like a good sweet chicken. Like I love a good orange chicken, but this wasn't the sweetness I mid sandwich, mid chicken. This place has been mid over and over and over. Moving on. I don't
[15:23] want to eat any more chicken sandwiches. Culver, please do something else spicy, please. Culver's. Hi there. What's the spiciest item on your menu? The spicy crispy. Um, it comes with lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo. Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do Culver's fried chicken. This looks very overfried,
[15:38] but I could be wrong. They gave me one pickle. Here we go. It's pretty spicy. It's really heavy on the pepper. It's almost like a country chicken fried steak. I give it a spice of 5'8. Mine's pretty spicy. I was going to say right below a five. Like 49. 49. That said, it
[15:50] yeah, it was peppery, spicy. I like the texture kind of. I just didn't like the tomatoes and the whack lettuce and the one or two pickles and the bread was whack. Overall, I think I know it's rating. 3 2 1 4 to 3.9. An edible sandwich. And that is all I'll say about it. Moving on. Culver's
[16:09] cracks the top three on spice, but it's barely a competition. Will we find something spicier than Dave's? because I really I really hope not. That that was horrible. Next on to Texas's favorite and quite literally my least favorite fast food restaurant, Waterburger. What's the spiciest item
[16:23] on your menu? Probably the pico deayo. What? I like the pico de gallo burger. Yes. In a sea of spicy chicken sandwiches. A spicy burger emerges. I'm so sick of eating chicken. But unfortunately,
[16:35] it came from Waterburger. Hands down the most overhyped fast food restaurant in human existence. But maybe this is good. Maybe this will turn the tide because of the creaminess. I don't think
[16:47] there's any spice in there. That's a one on the spice level. There's no spice at all. Literally zero spice. I like the sauce. It's like a creamy sort of jalapeno sauce. It's got like a peppery, creamy, mayoy taste. Salt levels were lacking. 50% of where it should be. The beefy flavor was
[16:59] somewhat evident. I didn't taste the cheese. It's all just turns into one texture that not that exciting. All I smelled was Texas toast kind of vibe. Just butter and bread, which is cool, but there's no spice, no pepperiness, no vinegar. I think the sauce was the standout for me. And
[17:11] not even the pico de gallo for the pico for the names sake. The sauce. Ready? 1 2 3. A 3.8 and a 4.6. Oh, you went kind of high. I think I was enamored by that it wasn't a chicken sandwich, but it's still below mid. Still below mid. Moving on. Coming up, we can have a new top spicy
[17:26] contender with the Diablo. El Diablo. Perfect. Can I get two of those burgers, please? Thank you, too. Take it easy. Two Diablo. Diablos. This could actually be spicy because you got jalapeno poppers on the top and jalapeno on the bottom. Jalapeno business. Cheers. Spice levels. It's hot. I mean,
[17:43] juiced up in my throat, and that's what's kind of burning right now. I was going to say four, I think we call it a four five. 4.5 on spicy. It's up there. I wouldn't have expected Carl's Jr. to
[17:56] stuff spicy because they want everyone to come and buy it. They don't want to turn people away. about how dry this patty is? It's so dry, it's almost white. I think if you took the patty out,
[18:10] this burger would be quite literally virtually identical and probably better. It tastes good because I'm tasting jalapeno, bacon, and bread. So, this might as well be jalapeno bacon sandwich, which would be good. A solid grilled cheese. Yeah, actually, this would be a great grilled cheese.
[18:22] Take the patty out and throw it away, which is not a good sign for a burger. Shall we rate it? 1 2 3 4 and 5.2. That was a slightly a hair above mid just because overall the patty was dry, but everything else kind of gave it a little bit of life. I enjoyed the spice. I enjoyed
[18:35] principal guy. What I ate wasn't bad, but it just it wasn't the burger that made it good. I ordered a burger and the worst part of it was the burger. Moving on. Carl Jr. takes our number
[18:47] five spot for best overall, but it doesn't make a mark on the spicy leaderboard. Let's see if our next spot will. We're back at Churches, the place that did shockingly well on our chicken video. But the question is, are they consistent enough to do shockingly well again? And also,
[19:00] how spicy is their spiciest chicken? It doesn't look spicy at all, but I mean, just cuz it doesn't look spicy doesn't mean it isn't. I don't judge books anymore. I don't read. Cheers. It's got a little bit of heat to it, but it's more of like a black pepper spicy, not a cayenne or like a sharp
[19:12] spice. It's like a slow creeping warmth. It's like a 2.5 on the spicy for me. It's a three for me. You know what's funny about this chicken? It's seasoned really nicely, but I don't get much other than like chicken salt and MSG, which is not necessarily bad, but I'm not getting a bunch of
[19:25] like spices that would really leverage the flavor here. But it tastes pretty good. That said, it was crispy, but it's not the crispy I'm looking for. It was more of like a really oily sort of tempura- like crisp. I got a really satisfying crunch. Check that corner. That's shattering crispy,
[19:38] which I I enjoy. 3 2 1 A 6.8 and an 8.3. You went You went a little high. I had a really good piece. My chicken was juicy. The meat was seasoned. I think it was above acceptable. It was great, but not amazing. It's good. It's not great. It's not going to win our competition. Moving
[19:52] on. There's a vibe at this Freddy's. I feel it. What's the spiciest item on your menu? Well, I don't really have any spicy items. We're really I appreciate it. Freddy's, for some reason, every time I roll up to it, I'm like, this doesn't need to exist. I'm not cutting it for that reason.
[20:05] been traveling all day going to fast food places back to back. I'm not doing this one. Freddy's are off the list. You failed us today. So, we are back at Shake Shack. I'm a fan of this place. And
[20:19] apparently their only spicy item is spicy fries. And I will say though, these fries look spicy. They're caked. Ooh, cayenne. Cheers. Cheers. It's got some heat, but it's not like killing me. I do feel a little tingle, a twitch on the tongue. It's mostly warm spice though and it's not killing me.
[20:35] After not eating one for a while and talking, it stays. I hate saying this now cuz I say it a lot, but it's like a hot Cheeto spice now. It lingers and I want more, but not as bad. It is one of the spicier ones we have. The more I've sat with it, I'm getting that salivating response. I'll give
[20:48] it a 5.8. I was going to give it an even six on the spice. I'll bump up to a six. We're heating up over here, guys, with the French fries. We forgot the words again. I'm going to give it a five. The fries were incredibly mid. They were not crispy. They were not salted that well. Sorry.
[21:02] Mid spice is a six. I wish I had more crunch, more seasoning. That's a 4.9. I feel like fries you really have to nail at a fast food joint because it's like the one thing people are relying on that love them. But this one wasn't hitting. Moving on. Despite not being that great in slotting
[21:18] into our number six spot on the best overall item, Shake Shack makes the top three on spiciest items. But what we're searching for is a good balance of both, and I have a feeling we're going to find it soon. Moving on. Next up, Taco Bell, where their only spicy item listed is a spicy potato taco.
[21:33] And to make things fair, we max it out with some Diablo sauce. Let's taste. Honestly, I'm going to be real with you guys. Let's move this along and get to something interesting. These sucked. A 3.5 and a.5 on spicy and a two and a half and two on overall score. Not even worth talking about,
[21:48] but hey, we tried it. So, let's make some room for the big dogs. Jolly Jolly. It's actually been a minute since I've had the spicy chicken joy, so I don't remember how spicy it is, but I do know it's going to being delicious. And I'm going in with no bias. I'm just going in with an expectation,
[22:02] which means that they could underdel. Look, look, they got flames on the spicy chicken joint. Really making a point on making this spicy. If there's no flame, I'm not game. Always a good day when Jollibee's involved. Wow. Okay. Well, that's a good sign. Cheers. I mean, that's crazy. Listen.
[22:20] Wow. It's honestly a little spicier than I remember. The chicken itself isn't as spicy as I remember, but the skin is spicier. My mom would not be able to tolerate this. I'm going to put this at a 5.5 on the spicy scale. I agree. I was going to say even five, but it's starting
[22:33] to linger more than like the McDonald's one did. So, 5.5. That said, the flavor, I mean, the umami, the salt level is perfect. It's cooked perfectly. It's juicy, but it's not just juicy. It's also cooked long enough that the meat like falls off the bone and it's super tender. Let's rate
[22:54] Yeah, I know what he's doing. He's giving it a nine something. I'm willing to bet. 3 2 1. You lied. It was It was soing good. I mean, it's a nine, dude. How does Jollibee keep doing this? It's just every time I go, it's so perfect. If you haven't gone, go. For sake, go. I'm not even
[23:10] trying to be biased. I'm not even trying to be biased. It's like I want to go in and I want to scrutinize and I put it in my mouth and I'm just like, "Oh." So, Jollibee looks like they could win this, but there could be someone to dethrone the one and only Jollibee. And there's only one way to
[23:23] find out. Moving on. Onto our second to last item. Jack in the box. Could we have an underdog on our hands? What's the spiciest item on your menu? Said a sour patch. What? I'm sorry. Do you mind just pulling the second window? I can't even hear you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. No worries. I said
[23:36] worse. I'm so cool. What's the spiciest item on your menu? We got a spicy chicken sandwich. It's pretty spicy. Like it's almost southern spice. Like the Louisiana cayenne, dry cayenne. That's a four on spice for me. It's like a stinging heat at maybe a four. It's not dry, which I'm happy about.
[23:50] The crunch is real nice on mine. Salt level's good. Flavor is okay. It's like kind of chickeny, it's just always nasty. I know they're cooking back there with oil. It's been recycled like 45
[24:02] times, and it's really ruining it for me. I got mine right out of the gate, dude. I know exactly what this is. 3 2 1 A 6 and 5.2. Close again, dude. We're really lining up here. It's the bare minimum above mid because it's an average chicken sandwich with a little bit of spice. Moving on.
[24:16] Just another drop in the bucket on this journey. Now on to our final contender. Popeye's. What's the spiciest item on your menu? Their signature Halloween that has the ghost pepper challenge as well. The signature hotter than ghost pepper. Yes. This is a serious contender. We're at Popeye's.
[24:33] have been times where I've been blown away by how beautifully breaded and crispy their fried chicken is. They do have a leg up here. Is Jollibee really going to take the crown? That's my question one is the best is what will be entered in the competition. But I will let you know the spicy
[24:50] scale on both. Of course, this looks delicious. I'm going to give it get some sauce on there. Dude, this looks spicy. That's delicious. That is so good. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. And it's pretty spicy. Oh yeah. Honestly, this is one of the hotter ones I've had in a while. It's that
[25:04] oil too. It lingers. They said this is hotter than the ghost pepper. This is very cayenne forward. I'm going to give this a six on the spicy scale. It's just teetering on the edge where if it went to a seven, it might be a little hotter than I want. I think it could handle a.5 up of heat.
[25:17] But I'm pretty happy with this. Again, we're going back to that balance. I'm not a huge sweet heat, but there's a perfect amount of sweet to balance that heat. That's a six 6.8 on the spice for me. have the ghost pepper, so we will find out if that's hotter or not. This looks great. Oh, it
[25:33] smells spicy. It does smell spicy. I'm not going to lie. That is flavorful, but not as spicy as the signature hot. Honestly, this isn't spicy at all. It's spicy. Like a five. It's like a four five for me. This is a really good sandwich, I will say. But the wings were better and they were spicier,
[25:46] so we're rating the wings. I agree. This could go a lot of directions. This was a bone in crispy, juicy, spicy, addicting wing. It all comes down to this, our final competitor. Many fast food items have come and gone in our search for the best, but none have gotten closer than this.
[26:00] Will Jollibee hold its lead and claim victory for best spicy fast food item, or will Popeye's come in and burn it all down? All right, his ears are plugged. Listen, I gave it an 8.9 for one reason, one reason only. Everything was perfect except it was pretty tremendously undersalted. And I
[26:15] like it was it was was literally missing salt pretty significantly to the point where if it was salted properly, it might have been perfect. I might have given it a 9.5, maybe even a 96. Like, it was a perfect win, I tell you. Perfect. This can still win if he gives it a high enough rating.
[26:31] I gave it a specific score, a flat score, but then with salt into consideration, I docked it.1. That was exactly the same thing that I did. That was the same thing I did. You know what
[26:48] that means? The winner is Jolly B. Boy, I'm shocked. Honestly, Popeye's really kicked it up a notch with this one. I'm I might even come back here. It was a close close call between Popeye's Jollibee. Jollibee took the crown. But we have one other winner for the spiciest
[27:02] fast food item by far goes to the one and only Dave's Hot Chicken. It's in the damn name. If kind of ended up being that. But best spicy item has been found. Love you. Subscribe. Bye. [Music]
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