This entry for our international series arose from a layover in Qatar. Flying to Southeast Asia, our airline had a stop in each way in Doha and offered the option to extend the layover into a second day, with a free fancy hotel room thrown in for enticement. We took the option to see Doha for half a day. After checking in, we quickly found ourselves in an upscale shopping mall filled with western chains. Though I had choices between KFC, Tim Horton’s, Subway, Burger King, and a number of other fast food and fast casual chains, I knew that I’d be choosing McDonald’s to finally try the fabled McArabia wrap. (Also, to ward off any questions of my sanity, I did eat a dinner that night at a local place consisting of local cuisine. I did not use my only meal in Qatar on McDonald’s).

The Chicken McArabia is “[t]wo Halal grilled chicken patties with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and flavorful garlic sauce held together by Arabic bread.” A large meal cost 21 Qatari riyals. I was quite excited to try the Chicken McArabia because it’s so far from a typical American offering. Other than the veggies, nothing in the sandwich is featured on the regular menu here. At one point McDonald’s did a Grilled Chicken Flatbread, but that had a different chicken and bread.

Similar to the recently reviewed Polish chicken wrap, the Chicken McArabia is served in a box to help it keep its shape. When I opened the tabs, it also smelled like fresh vegetables as soon as I pulled the tab and opened the package.

My first bite was primarily flatbread. While I’m sure they’re not baking the flatbreads in the kitchen of a mall food court McDonald’s, no matter which country I’m in, the flatbread tasted surprisingly fresh. It was light and airy and seemed like something you could receive at a good sandwich shop. Considering the size of the flatbread, it helped make the sandwich because something stale or dense would have overwhelmed everything inside and made eating the Chicken McArabia a chore.

The topping distribution was a little uneven within the sandwich, but because I enjoyed the bread, any bites with those and the garlic sauce were still good to eat. Speaking of the sauce, it came across to me like a Ceasar dressing, or some sort of garlic aioli. I had no idea what was actually in the sandwich when I ordered it, so that’s great execution. That flavor goes well with chicken wraps and they didn’t add too much to make the Chicken McArabia too wet or sloppy. One weird note is that it seemed like the dressing got sweeter as I continued to eat the sandwich. I’m not sure if that meant my initial taste was off, or my hunger level affected my taste buds before I got some food in my stomach or it was jet lag

The chicken in the Chicken McArabia came as two patties. However, they weren’t patties like we generally imagine in a sandwich as pieces of fried or grilled breast meat. Instead they were patties a la sausage, unbreaded and griddled. It had the same consistency of a sausage patty as well. While it was a strange sensation to have that type of meat in the sandwich, it was pretty good. The chicken was well seasoned with salt and pepper and not too much of an aggressive chicken taste.

I noticed lettuce, tomatoes and (ugh) onions inside the Chicken McArabia. While the vegetables smelled great, it would have been nicer if they’d been a little fresher and crisper, just so there was more of a textural contrast with the soft chicken and flatbread. The tomatoes in particular were not very good. My notes described them as “sorry”. Maybe there should be some leeway for the vegetables when considering the particular part of the world for this location. I have no clue how the McDonald’s supply chain works, but if these tomatoes and lettuce are representative of the typical sandwich, then I’d rather not have them at all. I also would have preferred no onion, but that’s a battle I’m never going to win.

I’m not sure if McDonald’s be willing to bring the Chicken McArabia to the U.S. because between the flatbread and the chicken patties, they’d be introducing two new ingredients to their kitchens with no other immediate utility. In addition, generally fast food flatbreads in the U.S. usually suffer because the bread just doesn’t hold up (my guess is they aren’t ordered enough so the stock gets stale). However, if McDonald’s was willing to make that chicken patty available as an add on to breakfast sandwiches, it’d add another dimension to their full menu. I should also note that I worked at a McDonald’s when the Grilled Chicken Flatbread was discontinued. While it was never the most popular item on the menu, people asked about it for months after McDonald’s stopped selling it, so there is a market for a similar product and it could be something which draws in non-traditional fast food eaters.

Taken as a while, while some of the individual components (specifically the vegetables) could have been better, the Chicken McArabia is a winning concept. It was like a real salad wrapped in fresh bread. The official wife of the blog even enjoyed this one, and she usually won’t even taste what I’m eating when she’s present for reviews. If I found myself in another country and this was on the menu and there wasn’t another new/different product which I wanted to try, I would definitely order this again. Especially when traveling, this is a nice, non-heavy option that won’t make you sluggish for whatever other activities you have planned that day or as a fill me up when you’re in the airport on a layover.