Hungry Jack's Spicy Grilled Chicken

The Spicy Grilled Chicken is $9.45 and 1,388 kJ, which makes it the lightest full size burger on the Hungry Jack's menu. A flame grilled Australian chicken breast fillet with fresh lettuce, hand cut tomato and Signature Spicy Sauce on a toasted bun.

It shares a price with the Grilled Chicken and undercuts it on energy, at 1,388 kJ against 1,465 kJ, because the spicy sauce is lighter than Ranch dressing. Fat is 14.5g, the lowest of any burger here. Sodium is slightly higher at 723mg, which is the sauce.

Heat against a lean grilled fillet works differently from heat against a fried one. There is no crumb to absorb the sauce and no fat to mute it, so the chilli lands directly and stays sharp. This is the hottest tasting item on the menu for that reason, even though the sauce is identical to the one on the fried version.

The flame grill still does its work. A breast fillet marked hard over an open flame picks up char in a way a griddle cannot manage, and against a sharp sauce that smoke is what stops the burger tasting one dimensional. Hand cut tomato adds water and a little sweetness, which is welcome here.

Who it suits: the person who wants the lightest thing on the board and finds light food boring. At 22.4g protein for 1,388 kJ it has the best protein to energy ratio of any burger on the menu, which makes it the obvious pick if that is the number you care about.

Pair it with Small Thick Cut Chips at $2.00 and the whole meal still lands under most single premium burgers.