Where there's smoke, there's Jollibee Chicken Barbecue

MANILA, Philippines – What Pinoy kid doesn’t love chicken? And what Pinoy doesn’t love barbecue? Now, put them together and there’s bound to be a lot of fire. And where there’s smoke, there’s Jollibee Chicken Barbecue!

We did not chicken out when Jollibee invited us to a food challenge to critique its new (introduced August of last year) chicken barbecue one Wednesday lunch at the Linden Suites in Ortigas. But before getting down to the juicy nitty-gritty of the event, we had chefs Henry Magalona and Ernest Martin perking up our morning by pouring their hearts out on how to create the perfect brew using homegrown coffee varieties. After that stimulating brew-by-brew account came celebrity chef Aileen Anastacio of True Confections, whose sinful concoctions never fail to sweeten up anybody’s day.

And now, it’s time for the inside story on the Jollibee Chicken Barbecue. Loving mom and well-loved Unang Hirit TV host Lyn Ching, this lunch’s perfect hostess, can’t keep her hands off the chicken barbecue. Chef Tristan Encarnacion, also of Unang Hirit and the first Filipino chef to have a cookware line, has more than a mouthful of praises for this new Pinoy favorite.

We agree with Lyn and Tristan with a hearty burp! The chicken is tender and juicy. Inside out, you can savor the homey goodness of the special sauce where the chicken was marinated — a sweetish, smoky barbecue flavor that’s distinctly Pinoy lingering on your delighted taste buds.

“This product took the longest development time, we did a lot of groundwork on it, what’s the most acceptable barbecue profile,” reveals Edna Barin, vice president for R&D of Jollibee. “We subjected it to a lot of consumer tests. Generally, Filipinos like the sweetish type, the ketchup type. So we tried to develop something closer to that profile, cutting across different ages, geographies, lifestyles. This barbecue is more mainstream. It’s very child-friendly. We see a lot of kids trying our barbecue. It’s not too smoky or too hickory. It’s a bit sweet and a bit salty.”

The secret, of course, lies in the freshness of the chicken and the secret marinade so secret you can’t pry it out of Edna. Suffice it to say that it uses fresh and dried ingredients and some secret herbs.

“We always make sure that the products we serve are safe, fresh, and delicious inside out,” Edna declares.

If you love the Jollibee Chicken Joy, here’s another way to enjoy an all-time favorite. Jollibee Chicken Barbecue is grilled to perfection in a special oven exclusively designed for Jollibee. It comes with a choice of two dipping sauces — the special barbecue sauce with a distinct sweet barbecue flavor and the toyo-blend sauce, a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar with fresh calamansi. Now, that’s doubly saucy! A lot of us can’t eat anything without reaching for the toyo. For the sauce-loving Pinoys, both sauces go well with the Jollibee Chicken Barbecue. Of course, your Jollibee Chicken Barbecue is served with steamed rice — no two ways about it.

Now, if you want something else to go with your chicken aside from rice, there are the Jollibee Chicken Barbecue Combos for more deliciously imaginative ways to eat your chicken. Try these value meal deals: a one-piece Jollibee Chicken Barbecue with Spaghetti Value Meal (P102) or a one-piece Jollibee Chicken Barbecue with Palabok Value Meal (P115).

Like your time-cherished Chicken Joy, Jollibee Chicken Barbecue also comes in six- and 12-piece buckets for the barkada or the whole family to share. For the ultimate chicken treat, you can combine the two chicken dishes and order the 12-piece Chicken Joy and Chicken Barbecue Combo bucket (six pieces Chicken Joy and six pieces Chicken Barbecue).

Offering great value for money, a one-piece Jollibee Chicken Barbecue Solo costs only P66, a one-piece value meal is only P84 while a two-piece Jollibee Chicken Barbecue Solo costs P111 and a two-piece value meal is only P129. For more juicy offers, a 12-piece Chicken Joy-Jollibee Chicken Barbecue Combo bucket goes for only P640.

Another yummy piece of news is that now, you can have your Jollibee Chicken Barbecue meal or any of its variants delivered to your home or office via 8-7000 Jollibee express delivery (for Metro Manila stores).

So, how do we rate the Jollibee Chicken Barbecue? Having tasted many other barbecue rubs, we swear it’s one of the best. Of course, for those who have been enjoying this chicken barbecue, we don’t have to rub it in.