Fast-casual chain Sweetgreen welcomed a new protein to its menu on November 10: the Rotisserie-Seasoned Chicken. The brand-new Rotisserie-Seasoned Chicken, made with boneless chicken thighs, is marinated for 24 hours in a savory miso-maple marinade before being roasted to an ideal tender and juicy texture.
The new protein stars in two new warm plates ideal for colder weather as winter approaches: Jammy Sunday Chicken and Wild Chicken Bello. The new plates have a protein-forward appeal, with the Rotisserie-Seasoned Chicken being served in generous, fork-and-knife cuts that provide 50% more chicken than Sweetgreen’s standard portion. The chicken also appears in the form of a new wrap: Umami Chicken Rice Wrap.
Sweetgreen isn’t just leveling up its savory game; the chain is going sweet with the debut of its first ever cookie, the Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie.
I had the opportunity to try a few of Sweetgreen’s new menu items, so here’s my honest review.
Jammy Sunday Chicken Warm Plate
The Jammy Sunday Chicken Warm Plate, which starts at a price of $15.45, comes with antibiotic-free rotisserie-seasoned chicken, spicy broccoli, warm roasted sweet potatoes, sweet onion jammy, umami rice, green goddess dressing, and a lemon wedge. I also added seasoned chickpeas for an extra 85 cents.
My favorite standalone element was definitely the sweet potatoes; they were perfectly soft and had a luxurious mouthfeel.
The green goddess dressing also elevated the bowl’s textural appeal with creaminess and tang that suited the otherwise sauce-less meal — I definitely recommend drenching the warm plate in the dressing after getting in a few plain bites when you try the Jammy Sunday Chicken plate for yourself.
I also surprisingly found the umami rice really enjoyable. Rice is easy to get wrong, but the rice in this plate was fluffy and actually delicious.
Individually, most of the other elements of the warm plate didn’t stand out to me, but eaten together, they made for a pretty nice bite.
The spicy broccoli, while I wish it was a little warmer rather than being served lukewarm, was cut into fairly small pieces that added a very faint hint of spice at the end of each bite, serving as the main source of crunchiness on the plate. Flavorwise, the chickpeas weren’t outstanding, but their texture was a good contrast against the broccoli.
The rotisserie-seasoned chicken’s flavor wasn’t especially standout, but the 24-hour marinade definitely played a hand in helping the chicken become more tender and juicy rather than running unpalatably dry, as many fast-casual chain chicken cuts tend to do.
I also wish that the portion size was a little more generous, specifically with the sweet potatoes — my bowl only came with four pieces of sweet potato, so I was definitely rationing them to have them in every bite.
Overall, the Jammy Sunday Chicken Warm Plate wasn’t anything outstanding, flavor-wise, but the actual textures of the bowl were well-constructed. Plus, you can’t go wrong with 40 grams of protein per plate.
Umami Chicken Rice Wrap
The Umami Chicken Rice Wrap, which starts at $14.45, features the Rotisserie-Seasoned Chicken, umami rice, shredded purple cabbage, shredded white cheddar, crumbled bacon, and sweet onion jammy, all wrapped up in an olive oil tortilla, packing an incredible 55 grams of protein. The wrap also comes with a pesto vinaigrette on the side.
This was my favorite entree out of the two that I tried — my favorite bites were the ones with the crumbled bacon and the sweet onion jammy. Together, they were sweet, savory, and texturally yummy, providing an exciting flavor combo.
The chicken was nice and moist, but it was a little hard to get a clean bite because of how big the chunks of chicken were. Again, the rice was nice and fluffy. The shredded cabbage added a good amount of crunch and provided freshness to relieve the heaviness from the other items.
The pesto vinaigrette didn’t mix very well and stayed separated, so I had to use a fork to put the vinaigrette on each bite rather than being able to dip the wrap into the sauce. Worth it, though — the herbaceousness of the vinaigrette was punchy and added another layer of freshness. It worked really well with the wrap as a whole.
I do wish the wrap had been wrapped a little more evenly so each element was in every bite, and for the price, the wrap could definitely stand to be a little bigger. But overall, the Umami Chicken Rice Wrap was delicious.
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie
Sweetgreen didn’t just stop at the main course with this new menu update. The fast-casual chain debuted their first cookie, the Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie, which is baked fresh daily.
The cookie’s ingredients include sourdough starter, unbleached wheat flour, rich dark chocolate chips, real butter, egg yolks, organic agave syrup, and coconut sugar — a commitment to Sweetgreen’s promise of an ingredient-first approach in the form of a baked good, free of artificial flavors, colors, and dyes.
I love sourdough, so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed this cookie. The texture was fudgy and soft, similar to the middle of a brownie, with a slight chew to the outer corners.
The aftertaste was slightly acidic from the sourdough starter, but not in a bad way — the subtle sourdough flavor cuts through the sweetness of the cookie. My cookie was loaded with chocolate chips, but because of the sourdough base, the cookie ended up being just the right amount of sweet for me.
For $2.65, this cookie is cheaper than a chocolate chip cookie from Crumbl or Insomnia, and the flavor is much more complex and enjoyable. I definitely recommend giving Sweetgreen’s debut dessert a try.