Ranking the Spicy Chicken in Disney World From “That’s Nothing” to ?

If we’re being brutally honest, there are times when you CANNOT TRUST Disney World.

Spicy sauce

One of those times is when a Disney World menu tells you that the food is “spicy.” We’ve been eating at Disney restaurants for long enough to know that “spicy” can mean something VERY different depending on which place you’re dining at. A spicy chicken sandwich in Magic Kingdom might have absolutely no spice to it at all. But head over to City Works in Disney Springs and take a chance on that hot chicken wrap and you just might be guzzling milk for days. The range is absolutely wild, so we’re here to help you sort out which spicy chicken is really SPICY and which is just…not. Here’s our official DFB ranking of spicy chicken in Disney World from “That’s NOTHING” to ???.

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Now, on to the spicy (or not-so-spicy) chicken ranking!

That’s NOTHING

First up on our list of not-so-spicy chicken is the Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich from Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café (this used to be called the Rocket Hot Chicken Sandwich). This is made with a crispy chicken breast, pickled slaw, and spicy aïoli on a brioche bun. It’s served with french fries for $12.59.

Rocket Hot Chicken Sandwich

Don’t let this sandwich’s name fool you: It’s anything but spicy. We were expecting a good kick from this meal, but it wasn’t hot or spicy at all. Seriously, do NOT worry if you or someone in your group is spice-averse — you can definitely handle this sandwich.

Plenty of chicken!

That being said, when we tried it out we found that the chicken was cooked really well, the slaw was delicious, and the flavors were great. It’s certainly not spicy, but it’s still tasty!

Read our review of the Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich here.

Another very non-spicy chicken option is the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich from D-Luxe Burger in Disney Springs. This sandwich is made with a fried chicken breast topped with buffalo-ranch sauce, blue cheese crumbles, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. You can get it for $12.99.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

Like the Cosmic Ray’s sandwich, this one was super tasty, just not spicy at all. When we tried it, the chicken was fried to perfection, the flavors all came together really well and balanced each other out, and the portion was generous. However, we could’ve used a bit more buffalo sauce in order to provide more spice. As it was, the blue cheese and ranch sauce just overpowered any spice that could’ve come through.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

This sandwich is a great option for people who like the flavor of buffalo sauce and blue cheese (that blue cheese was STRONG) but don’t necessarily want all the heat that can sometimes accompany those flavors.

Click here to read our full review of this sandwich.

The last member of our “That’s NOTHING” category as far as spicy chicken goes is the Buffalo Chicken Chips from Trilo-Bites in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. These are house-made Chips served with Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese Dressing topped with Tomato and Celery Relish. You can get them for $9.59.

Buffalo Chicken Chips

We’ve really enjoyed these chips in the past (the portion size is generous enough to make them more of a meal than a snack), but they don’t bring the heat when it comes to spice. Instead, they have a pretty classic buffalo flavor, and the blue cheese dressing mellows out that kick.

Eehhh It’s a Little Spicy

Most of the things that Disney labels “spicy” probably fall into this category. We can see how they might be considered spicy, but really you’re in no danger even if you don’t like spicy things normally.

Starting out this category are two dishes from one of our FAVORITE restaurants in Disney World: Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’. Here, you can get the Thigh High Chicken Biscuits (drizzled with hot honey) and the Fried Chicken Sandwich (dressed with hot sauce, aioli, lettuce, tomato, and pickles).

Thigh High Chicken Biscuits at Homecomin’

Both of those items mention hot or spicy ingredients, and you can taste a little bit of a kick in each. However, unless you request more of the hot sauce or hot honey, you probably won’t have any problem with the spice.

Homecomin’/Shine Bar Fried Chicken Sandwich

The regular fried chicken at Homecomin’ doesn’t mention any kind of hot sauce or spice, and we can confirm that, although it’s very flavorful, it’s not spicy at all.

Learn all about Homecomin’ (and why we love it) here!

Next is the Sweet and Spicy Chicken Waffle Sandwich from Sleepy Hollow Refreshments in Magic Kingdom. This is honey-sriracha-glazed chicken served on a waffle, topped with broccoli slaw for $11.59.

Chicken Waffle Sandwich

Generally, our team agreed that this sandwich was incredibly delicious but not actually spicy at all. Although the glaze is made with sriracha, there’s not too much of a kick to it. However, a few team members pointed out that “mileage may vary” when it comes to this snack! They’ve had it many times in the park, and once in a while, they’ll randomly get a much spicier version.

Chicken Waffle Sandwich

Although we usually say this one is not too spicy, you may be taking a risk by ordering it, so if you’re spice-averse, it’s a good idea to have a backup option just in case. (That Fresh Fruit Waffle Sandwich with Nutella on it is always a safe bet, in our opinion.)

Read our recent review of this tasty sandwich here.

Over in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you can find some surprisingly unique and tasty lunch options at Fairfax Faire. One of those options is the Buffalo Chicken Bowl, which comes with chicken breast nuggets tossed in buffalo sauce and topped with coleslaw served on mashed potatoes in a waffle bowl for $13.99. (There are a few different bowl options here, and we enjoyed all of them!)

Buffalo Chicken Bowl

Like some of the other buffalo sauce-based dishes on this list, we thought that the flavors were good but the spice was minimal. Especially if you eat the chicken together with the potatoes and slaw, you likely won’t be bothered at all by the slight heat from that sauce.

Read our full review of ALL the bowls at Fairfax Faire here!

Leaving the parks, let’s head to the Grand Floridian Café to check out the Buttermilk-fried Chicken and Waffle. This is a hand-breaded chicken breast and malted waffle with a sriracha-honey drizzle. Sound familiar? It looks suspiciously similar to that Sweet and Spicy Chicken Waffle Sandwich in Magic Kingdom (just without the slaw)! This one, however, is made with a Mickey waffle, so probably that makes it just a bit more magical. ? It’s also more expensive, though, at $26.

Buttermilk-fried Chicken and Waffle

This dish has long been a DFB favorite, but not for the heat. It may not be spicy, but the flavors are GREAT, and who doesn’t love chicken that’s perfectly breaded in CORNFLAKES?

Buttermilk-fried Chicken and Waffle

We usually recommend you get some extra sriracha-honey drizzle on the side so that you can plus-up this meal with a bit more spice. But if you like your food nice and mild, then you’ll want to skip the extra sauce and order just as-is!

Check out our full review of the Grand Floridian Café brunch here!

Last on our list of “Eehhh it’s a little spicy” is the Durban-style Roasted Chicken from Boma at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. This chicken is part of the dinner buffet, and we love it!

Durban-style chicken!

It’s usually moist and very flavorful, but if you think you’re about to get a lot of heat, then you might be disappointed. The spices are not heavy-handed. However, you can add some Boma mustard to it to kick it up a notch!

Read our full review of the Boma dinner buffet here.

OK, the Heat Is Getting There

Alright, things are getting a little more serious now. If you’re looking for a bit of heat in Disney World, you can find it over at Chicken Guy in Disney Springs.

Southwestern Chicken Sandwich

The cool thing about the menu here is that you can customize the spice! At this spot, you can get chicken tenders and then choose from over 20 (!!) different sauces. There’s an entire section of the menu devoted to hot and spicy sauces, including options like Nashville Hot Honey (which really is decently hot), Peri Peri, Habanero Hot Sauce, Spicy Mayo, and Sweet Sriracha BBQ.

Get a bunch and share!

If you go for those spicy sauces and really cover your chicken in them, you can build up quite a bit of heat!

Chicken Tenders

But don’t forget that you can choose from tons of OTHER sauces as well, which are less spicy. So this spot is a great option if your group has both spice lovers and people who prefer the mild life.

Read our recent review of Chicken Guy! here.

Next up is the Zanzibari Vegetable Curry with Chicken from Sanaa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge for $28. When we tried this curry, we had it without chicken, but you can choose to add protein (either chicken nor shrimp) to it.

Zanzibari Vegetable Curry at Sanaa

The curry is loaded with lots of veggies, and it’s very well seasoned. You can expect a pretty good kick in the curry as well, although it’s not overwhelming by any means. We thought this had a great amount of spice to it — enough to be interesting but not so much that we had to gulp down water in between bites.

Check out a recent review of Sanaa here.

This Is Officially SPICY (But Our Mouths Aren’t Quite Burning)

OK, things are getting serious now. Over in EPCOT, you can find the Nine Dragons restaurant at the China pavilion in World Showcase. We don’t usually recommend this spot as one of our favorites — it’s pretty basic Chinese food, like what you can find at a local Chinese restaurant, and there are SO MANY other good places to eat in EPCOT. However, it might be the perfect place if you’re looking for some legit spicy food.

Nine Dragons Restaurant

There are actually a few different spicy chicken options at Nine Dragons! We’ve tried the Spicy Mala Chicken and Sichuan Dumplings, both of which had a really good kick to them. The Sichuan Chicken Dumplings for $13 were very tasty, and the spicy chili oil sauce is really what brought the heat (and the flavor). We were impressed that Disney actually put that much heat in a dish!

Yum!!!

The Spicy Mala Happy Family for $28 is made with a few different kinds of protein, including chicken. Since the characters for the term “málà” literally translate to “numbing spice,” we had high expectations for this dish. Although our tongues weren’t numb from the spice, we definitely thought it was pretty hot.

Spicy Mala Entree

Again, it was the sauce that packed the punch for this dish. The spice wasn’t TOO hot, but if you’re not a fan of heat then you’ll definitely want to avoid this one. Another spicy option at Nine Dragons is the Spicy Honey Crispy Chicken. Who would’ve thought that such an underrated restaurant could pack so much heat?

Read our recent review of Nine Dragons here!

???

And now we get to the real thing: the actually HOT spicy chicken. There’s not a lot of it in Disney World — the restaurants tend to avoid really hot spice in order to cater to what most people will enjoy. But you CAN find real heat in Disney World, and it’s at City Works in Disney Springs.

City Works in Disney Springs

This spot is home to the Nashville Hot Chicken Wrap, which is served with fries for $19. The wrap is made with buttermilk breaded crispy chicken breast, hot cayenne pepper mop, romaine, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, and ranch dressing, all served in a flour tortilla. That hot cayenne pepper mop is HOT. Not Disney-hot, REAL HOT.

Nashville Hot Chicken Wrap

In fact, when we ordered our wrap, the chef even came out to warn us that the wrap was legitimately spicy. But can you really call it a Nashville Hot Chicken Wrap without the heat?

Our reporter, who’s a fan of heat, really enjoyed this meal. But if you’re not a fan of seriously spicy food, you’ll want to skip it and choose one of the other many options on City Works’ menu.

Click here to read our review of City Works.

Armed with the knowledge of where to find the spice (and how to avoid it), now you’re ready to tackle your next Disney World vacation! Don’t forget to take our DFB Guide to Dining in Walt Disney World along with you for more tips on where to eat at the parks and hotels. And have you checked out the latest Disney-themed t-shirts in our store? Click here – you’ll want to pick some up before your next Disney trip!

Stay tuned to the DFB blog for more food reviews and updates on all the latest Disney news.

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What’s your favorite spicy chicken in Disney World? Let us know in the comments.