The Jollibee Chicken Barbecue Review

Jollibee has recently launched its latest product in the market to add to its long list of innovative products in the fast food restaurant line – the Jollibee Chicken Barbecue .

Entering the Chicken BBQ Retail Arena

Certainly one of the Philippines’ more popular style of cooking chicken especially in Bacolod, barbecued chicken hits it big in the Filipino’s hearts. And being a national symbol of Filipino fast food, Jollibee made sure that it is able to tap this.

With this new product, Jollibee competes head-on with other popular chicken bbq offerings from local favorites Mang Inasal, Aristocrat‘s Chicken Barbecue, and Bacolod Chicken Inasal, among others.

High Standards

My late mom was a great cook, and Chicken Barbecue was one of her specialties. From my previous blog:

…I still remember as a child where she marinates chicken with a variety of spices, massages the meat and stores them in the refrigerator. Mind you, she does not do this overnight but weeks ahead. Yes, weeks. She then puts the formula in the freezer until a day before it is to be cooked…

So far, my tastebuds haven’t found a commercial chicken barbecue that has come to par.

The Verdict

I was actually surprised upon seeing this new major offering from Jollibee. It has focused on “ChickenJoy” (fried chicken) for a long time now while it has innovated its burgers with different variations that have come and forth. The Chickenjoy was already ChickenJoy ever since my childhood.

So I welcomed with much anticipation as to how their new Chicken Barbecue would fare.

At this point, I intentionally was not touching the sauce to independently taste the chicken by itself.

At first bite, the chicken barbeque was flavorful and juicy; with sauce-barbecued skin. A special marinade with top secret ingredients was said to be used for the special barbecue taste.

However, the inner meat found it lacking. If it were my mom, she would say that the marinade did not seep in as well. Perhaps the soaking time should be lengthened, if possible. In this area the chicken barbecue needs more improvement.The tenderness of the meat was average, and so was the java rice.

Redemption with the Sauce

And now, with the sauce, my Jollibee Chicken Barbecue was redeemed! The shortcoming of the inner white meat was complemented by the special barbecue sauce.

It has some hint of spices and sweetness at the same time; I liked it. Although some might prefer it not on the sweet side, I say that this is Jollibee’s market, just as their spaghetti is known for it’s sweetness. I was not surprised that the chicken bbq sauce is inclined to be the same; perhaps for consistency. 🙂

Admitedly, Jollibee took its time developing the product and we expect to see more improvements as they begin to get actual market feedback now. As Jollibee VP for Marketing Gold Tantoco says:

“it’s our first major product launch in years after ChickenJoy, we made sure … that we come up with something truly special and appealing to Filipinos.”

The Jollibee Chicken Barbeque is affordably available in 1-pc. solo meal at P69 and as a value meal at P89. The 2-pc. solo meal is at P119 and the value meal at P139. The Jollibee Chicken Barbecue is primarily available in Metro Manila and soon in other parts of the country.