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Drive-Thru Gourmet: Premium McWraps are serious meals

By Ken Hoffman - | Apr 18, 2013

This week I reached out for a new Chicken and Bacon Premium McWrap at McAmerica’s No. 1 burger slinger, McDonald’s, with 14,000 restaurants everywhere, including Walmarts and hospitals … irony, that.

There are three new Premium McWraps — Sweet Chili Chicken and Chicken and Ranch complete the trio. We went with Chicken and Bacon because we like the part that says “Bacon.” All three come with either a grilled or a crispy chicken breast. We went with crispy because we like the part that says “deep-fried.”

Here’s the blueprint: strips of breaded and deep-fried chicken breast, hickory-smoked bacon, two half-slices of tomato, spring greens, shredded lettuce, cheddar-jack cheese and creamy garlic sauce, all wrapped snug as a bug in a warm flour tortilla.

Total calories: 600. Fat grams: 30. Protein: 30 g. Carbs: 54 g. Dietary fiber: 3 g. Sodium: 1,420 mg. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $3.99.

While 600 calories and 30 fat grams aren’t too diet-crushing, I normally say “hold the mayo” and bring the nutritionals into the safe zone. And “creamy” usually means “mayo.” But not here. The creamy garlic sauce is made with yogurt, and it’s only 20 calories and 2 fat grams. No holding back necessary.

Of course, you can opt for the skinless grilled chicken fillet and bring this baby in at 440 calories and 16 fat grams. That’s a serious reduction, but you’ll lose flavor, too. We’re flavor freaks.

Don’t confuse these new, substantial, weighty McWraps with McDonald’s long-running Snack Wraps, which are less than half the size of McWraps. Snack Wraps are a nosh; McWraps are lunch.

Each McWrap is prepared to order, starting with a warm, 10-inch flour tortilla. There’s a grabful of fresh vegetables in the McWraps, including cucumbers in the Sweet Chili Chicken and Chicken and Ranch McWraps. It’s the first time McDonald’s has used cukes in a main-menu sandwich.

I found my Chicken and Bacon McWrap a little skimpy on the chicken and bacon, however. You’d think the headline acts would get more time onstage than the warm-up bands. There was a lot of lettuce padding. And dicing the tomato would have distributed that flavor more evenly. Two half-slices equals two bites.

McWraps were introduced in Eastern Europe and slowly swept their way across the continent before landing on our shores. It was the same way with my grandparents.

McWraps are served in a newfangled cardboard package that’s a bigger version of the McDonald’s apple pie sleeve. You pull a tab in the middle to open it, remove the top half and hang on to the bottom as you eat on the move. Very clever.

Starting at $4.32/week.

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