Farewell Pecan Chicken Sandwich, Part Deux

I’m not quite as sad as I was before.

Last week I told you how sad I was that Arby’s had discontinued the sale of their Pecan Chicken Sandwich. Frankly, that tasty sandwich on Wheatberry Bread was the only reason I went to Arby’s.

But I’m over it. For one, I have found a couple of recipes online that I believe fairly approximate the great taste of the Pecan Chicken Sandwich. I’m eager to try them as soon as I finish the thrashing crew-sized batch of pasta I made a few nights ago.

But the REAL reason I’m over it is this: in researching the sandwich I discovered that it had about double the calories I had suspected. 769 to be exact.

To put this into perspective: I pop a Lean Cuisine into the microwave, and it’s generally about 300 calories. A little meat, a little vegetables, a little sauce (very little, if you ask me). Three to five minutes later, it’s a meal. More than that and it’s an overcooked, indistinguishable brick. Cooked properly, it’s a tiny meal, to be sure, but a meal with some variety in flavor.

Given the fact that the Arby’s Pecan Chicken Salad Sandwich didn’t occupy a whole lot more physical space than a Lean Cuisine (to my untrained eye), I figured it was 300-400 calories max. It's nearly twice that. Like popping TWO Lean Cuisines into the microwave, instead of one.

Which is why reality bites. 769 calories? Did Arby’s use lard instead of mayonnaise to create the Pecan Chicken Sandwich? Why doesn’t anyone use light mayonnaise, anyway? Why don’t we Americans just throw out all regular mayonnaise? I'd like to hear Jared from Subway "weigh in" on this subject!

To think that those times I stopped at Arby’s and had a Pecan Chicken Sandwich and assumed I was being smart and healthy when I was really being hornswoggled into thinking I was doing something good, calorie-wise.

Maybe no one hornswoggled me. Maybe I just didn’t get the facts. I don’t want to blame Arby’s because I know how to be an informed consumer. Still, it seemed like such an innocuous sandwich that I bought it without questioning its caloric content.

So here’s what you can learn from my experience: Fast food is convenient. It is rarely low or moderate in calories.

That’s it. Only one lesson today. Goodnight.