Chili’s & Carl’s Jr. Mashup (Taste Test)

Can we turn Carl's Junior into Chili's? Let's talk about that. Good Mythical Summer. Every chain restaurant likes to make us think that they're. different from the rest, with their flashy advertising, their quirky catchphrases, and most importantly, their distinctive menu items. But are the dishes at these chain restaurants really all that different? Or are they just offering us different arrangements of ingredients that.

are virtually indistinguishable, once again making us fools in their billion dollar version of that game with. three. cups and one ball, where you're trying to guess where the ball is and you know it's there, but then it could also be there, and meanwhile, somebody's already taken your wallet and run with it. And you're like, that one? Where's my wallet? That's exactly what I was gonna say. There's the ball. What? So today we turn to Chili's, known for their fajitas,

queso, and more. But who says Carl's Junior couldn't, with a little imagination, make those same dishes using only the ingredients already in their kitchens? It's time for. Eat Cute Chili's Meets Carl's Junior. Okay, boys, you're about to taste a Chili's menu item and a Carl's Junior dupe. You'll score each dish out of ten and then score the dupability. of the dish out of ten as well, to decide if the Chili's menu item is.

indisputable or so dupable. Okay. First up, we've got the classic Chili's fajitas, which come with your choice of protein. Today we're going with steak, with grilled bell peppers and onions, topped with cilantro, sour cream, pico, shredded cheese, and flour tortillas included on the side with guacamole upon request. Oh, with request only? Why are you eating it with a fork? I wanna. Don't you feel like we should just make a fajita? You're doing that to make the fajita? Okay. I didn't. Well, I wasn't, but then it fell in there, and you were asking me about it.

But, I feel like if you. If you're like, oh, the meat's actually not as good. Well, you know, that's probably gonna be the case. But if you make a fajita in exactly the same way. Yeah, I'm gonna. And you didn't know, like, if somebody. I don't know what the application for this is. It's like if you live too far from the Chili's, but you live really close to a Carl's Junior. That's if you want to make it yourself. It's also, should Carl Junior be doing this. and saying, they're Chili's? Can they dupe people? Like, change their sign?

Did you. Did you salsa? Okay. Boy, that's really good. Everybody has their own system. I'm gonna say that's Chili's. No sizzle, though. We didn't get the sizzle, Nicole. No sizzle. Only plates here. Come on. The sizzle's fake anyway, right? We can't have sizzle in here because of the fire department. That's right. They'll come a running. So, you just bought stuff from Carl's Junior and then just reconfigured it? What, what is this stuff normally in,

this asada? So that charbroiled steak is from their breakfast menu. It's in their breakfast burrito. And then I took. onion rings, and I de-shed the onion rings, chopped them up, and paired them with the green chile, which is in the Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich. Added some jalapeño rings, took some mayonnaise, because they don't have sour cream. Added some salsa from the packet and guacamole from their. double guacamole bacon burger. It sounds very complex, actually. Yeah. Yeah. Think about the additional cost there.

You see those little cheese bits? So I took slices of cheese from the burgers, and I removed it painstakingly. And then I tried to cut it in a feather cut style to the best of my abilities. But I just kinda used a knife and hacked at it. I was gonna say, I noticed the feather cut. Thanks. The mayonnaise. is not working. Don't do the mayonnaise. I'll be the. I did everything. I'm doing. I'm doing a dupe, man. But the mayonnaise, let me try. Let me try, just forking it.

Steak's not bad. Yeah, I thought it was really delicious, like, it has a nice, cuminy, chili bite. Tastes pretty good. I'm pretty surprised with that. That's going a long way. This is unsightly, what you've had to do and all the handling. Don't look at it. A lot of handling. Don't let me look at it. My hands were all up in it. Okay, so a Chili's fajita. It is what you expect from a fajita. It's not the best that you can get, but it's probably the best that you can get in, like, a fast casual. Is that what we'd call that? Yeah. On a scale of one to ten.

I don't know. Yeah, I'm not gonna. I would give it a seven? Yeah. Okay, let's go. Let's go with an eight. I'll go with an eight. I had one bite of this, and I don't want another one. Did you like the tortilla? The tortilla is not bad, but it's not like these. I mean, I don't want just one big one that I gotta split with my buddy. Yeah. To be fair, I did spoon out all of the stuff inside of their breakfast burrito, and I ate it for myself as a little treat. Good, good. You deserve it. You clean that tortilla well. Thank you for noticing my detail oriented work.

But I'm gonna give it a four. Yeah, you earn it with that mayonnaise. It just didn't. It didn't come together. Okay, so dupability. score. You gave eight, you gave a four. Dupability. It's not happening. I mean, I think you have to get. a. Well, it can be bad, but still be dupable. One hundred percent, but it's bad and also not dupable. Right. So if you give this a score and it needs to be within a couple of points.

in the score, honestly. Yeah, it would seem that way. I'm gonna give the dupability, I could be, I'm trying to think of a condition I could be in, in which you could convince me that that was a Chili's. fajita, and I think it would be shortly after a bad wreck. Yeah. Could be an out of body experience. Like right after an accident. Yeah. So I'm gonna give it a one. I think if you're watching your own body.

being operated on. after the accident, and they bring in this fajita and they start feeding it to you. because the surgery is going really long and you're hungry, I think looking at it, and if it's wrapped up, that would be dupable, but otherwise, no. Okay. So, yeah, I agree with you totally. Chili's fajitas. are. indisputable. Next up, we have Chili's skillet queso, which is their original queso with beef, served with chips.

Beef. And something over here that we'll get to in a second. Served with chips. Their chips are so thin. How do they do it? I love it. Even the queso without the skillet. Is it good? Their queso is almost like chili. It is, isn't it? I would think I was just eating a form of chili. Yeah. It's got beans in it. And there's no chili at Chili's, is there? Is this the chili?

Oh, crap. I know I'm putting tour stories in every part of Good Mythical Summer, but. remember. that one time where we got really excited about potentially. going to a chain restaurant, only to discover. it wasn't the actual restaurant, it was just a vacation sales. Oh, yeah. We thought we were gonna go to a Margaritaville. Oh, really? You weren't there. I wasn't there. That was when you had to go back. We were. in hotlanta at the aquarium,

and. we thought we were gonna get a little margarita before we. watched the sea lions do their show. Okay. And. all we got was a presentation about a timeshare. Wow. Not the same. That is not dupable. Not quite as enjoyable. Nope. Nicole. Yes? It seems that you have taken. a Carl's Junior. bun. Hey, don't point it out. Don't point it out. What did I do to it? You made it into. a Chili's tortilla chip.

Ten points for you, Gryffindor. It's so thick. Yeah, I tried to roll it out with a rolling pin, but those. suckers are really springy. I don't know what they're putting in the bread, but it just jumped like memory foam. It was crazy. It went right back. So, you rolled it out and then you fried it? I fried it. Added a little bit of salt. And then the queso is made out of beef from the burgers, chopped fine. We added some Big Carl Sauce, some Diablo Sauce, and pepper jack and American cheese.

from the burgers, and a touch of salsa in there as well. It's pretty good. That queso. Yeah. I also took some artistic liberty with the colors, because I saw on the Chili's side, the queso was dark, dark, dark, and the chips were light, light, light. And I was like, you know what? We're gonna do the inverse. So we're gonna do light, light on the queso, and dark, dark on the chips. I think you did a good, good job. Thank you. Okay. I got something I need to share. So, I'm glad that this isn't quite working out in terms of a dupe,

because. I had a bit of an existential crisis. in, like, high school, where. I started realizing I was playing video games, and. I was like, I played one video game, and then I played another video game, and I was like, both of these. games. are just pixels on a screen. rearranged in a different format. But that's all it is, is it's just, all games are, it's just pixels doing something,

and then this other game is just other pixels. doing something else. And then it made me think, is that what is happening in life? Every experience in life is just an arrangement of particles. And ultimately, this led me to. the conclusion that life was meaningless. I stopped playing video games. and haven't picked it up since then. Is Rhett gonna stop eating? But. no. For a moment, what I was gonna tell you.

is, if Carl's Junior. could make Chili's. nachos. and. queso dip. That is what that is. Perfectly recreate the experience for me. Then I would say that life is meaningless, and I would probably just stop. What if Carl's Junior could make. a better experience. with it? Because I'm feeling like this queso is better than that queso. It's not that it's better. It's that it's different, and I appreciate it. Well, it's cheesy.

It's not chili. And you know where I'm gonna start? I'm gonna start playing video games again, because now I realize that the games actually create a different experience. Just because it's all pixels doesn't mean it's meaningless. What have I done with the past thirty years of my life? I could have been playing more video games. Where would I be now if I had just played. more video games? You could be a gamer. I got a lot to think about. I'm gonna give this an eight. And I'm gonna give that an eight. Well, I'm gonna give this.

a. The chips are saving it. I'm gonna give it a five. I know we're supposed to agree, but. I just can't. Oh, we're supposed to? I don't like this queso. Yeah. Okay, well, we're gonna. Queso is chili, not queso. I don't disagree with that. So I just brought that down. I'm gonna give these amazing. thick, thick, thick, dark, dark, dark chips. an awesome, awesome eight. And this queso right here is also an eight. This is. Hold on, now you're doing two scores?

Well, that's an eight total. Dupability, again, I would have to have recently been. attacked by a wild animal or possibly punched one time by a professional fighter. to think that I was eating the same thing. So I'm gonna give it a one. But you do like the Carl's Junior. better than Chili's? I think I like them equally. Whenever I want chips and queso, I'm now going to Carl's Junior, and with Nicole. Just like. Super Mario Bros.

Three. and. Zelda: Adventures of Link, they're two different games, both great. I can enjoy both of them. It's not just pixels, Rhett. It's not just pixels. Chili's skillet queso. Indisputable. While we're on the subject of dupes, what's the best fast food styles that you can have duplicated at home? Well, Sporked has your answers. Taco bell sauce dupes, best frozen fries, chicken nuggets,

and even a review of the full lineup of Subway sauces. Go to Sporked and bring home what you like. Bring home what you like. That could be a title. But not least, we have Chili's Santa Fe salad, which comes with your choice of protein. Today we're going with chicken. I don't feel like I had a choice. Because you keep saying your choice. It comes with our choice of protein, is what I meant to say. Pico, avocado, cilantro, tortilla chips, housemade ranch, and a drizzle of spicy Santa Fe sauce.

Yes. Now, Nicole, this is your final chance to dupe us. Okay. That's a lot of pressure to put on me. I'm pretty sure that one's the Chili's one, though. Yeah, that's smart of you to guess. They're all on Rhett's side. Yep. Let's just start with this. We got, like, a nice, generous. swath of. avocado. I don't think I've ever eaten this. Me neither. I've never had a Chili's salad. It's pretty good. Yeah. The chicken is.

a bit spicy. I wonder how this chicken is. How much trouble did you have. pulling this together, Nicole? Out of all of them, it was probably the easiest one, I'm not gonna lie. Okay. But, so, for the salad base, I pretty much got, like, six burgers, protein style. And then I ate all the burgers. And then the lettuce I cut up, even though it was a little bit, like, wilty. It didn't matter, though. And then I took the chicken from the Charbroiled Chicken Sandwich,

and then I made my own pico with tomatoes from the burgers. and onions from the burgers. And then I added some of that, like, salsa from the breakfast burritos. And then for the avocados, I used guac from the Double Guacamole Bacon Burger, the tortilla strips, I used. the breakfast burritos, and I just cut them into super thin strips, fried them up. The ranch is their ranch, and their Santa Fe sauce is their Santa Fe sauce, because they had that. Isn't that handy dandy? They also sell salads. At Carl's Junior? Yeah. Don't they? I. don't think so. I've never gotten a salad from Carl's Junior,

either. They don't sell salads at Carl's Junior? They definitely have. They may still do it. But have you noticed the trend. of all the fast food places pulling back on the salads? Yep. That's happened in the past. decade, really. Like, previous decade. Salad, salad, salad. Everybody's got to have a salad. You got to wrap it up. You need to wrap it up, different. All kinds of different salads. And now they're pulling back. They're pulling out, if you will,

of the salad game. And, just a little trend I noticed. Makes me question my existence. All these. They did salads, and then they took away, and I was like, is life meaningless? Their healthy option is like a wrap, not a salad. So, they really did give up. Wow. So. we're trying to bring it back. I mean, this is a decent salad. You know. Five. Seven. All right, then we're going with six. Yeah. This is not.

that much. Worse. Worse. You know? Even though. it was wrapped in burger juice, you still like it? I had. I know. I like burger salad. The fact that all of. that salad is just, was heaped up on burgers. You've really done a good job of duping me. You're really good at cleaning tortillas and. lettuce that had other things on it. I love learning new talents with you guys. Well, there's, like, so few jobs in the world in which that talent would be really appreciated.

Yeah. And your job is actually. maybe the number one. You found your perfect place, Nicole. Thanks. I mean, these things here, they've even got these things. They've got those things. I just shoved this up my nose. You really wanted to smell that burger. Yeah. I tried to go up my nose, and I went in my mouth, so now I've just eaten something from my nose off lettuce. I mean, I think it's a four. It goes from a five to a four for me, so. But you were a seven over here.

I was at a five, so I'm gonna also give this. I'm gonna give this a four. Which brings us to what for this? Whatever. So, we're not really competing. I thought you gave, you gave Chili's a five and Carl's Junior a four, right? Yeah. And now you're deciding what the dupability score is? Well, we gave Chili's a six, I believe. Oh, I thought you compromised down to a five. We probably did. I think that what really matters here is that. if this wasn't here,

I would never have known there was a burger underneath all that lettuce. I would have. I could be. duped. I think I could be duped. But you would have to be, like, maybe in the hospital. after. a. I don't think I have to be in the hospital. No, no. I think maybe, like. I think I just needed a good. An infection that got out of control, got out of control. You almost went septic, and then they had to pump you full of some really, really heavy antibiotics. No, no, no. And they brought this in and said, hey, I got you Chili's, and you'd be like, okay, and you'd eat it.

In that circumstance, I think you could be duped. I'm just saying I'm in a foreign country with my family. Okay, all right. And it's a long day of. Locked up abroad? No. You're in prison. No. You got knocked out. You got shanked. I haven't been. I'm not injured at all. I'm just tired. I'm really tired. I'm at the end of my rope. I have no patience. Okay. And then I get served this from, like. And you're happy? And I'm like, I got this from Chili's. I'd be like, okay. So, I made you prison food?

Yes. Not, for me, you just made. foreign travel food. Okay, so it sounds like you're saying that it's dupable. Yes. What is the score? On a scale of one to ten of dupability, I'm saying this is a strong. eight. It's a strong eight. Chili's Santa Fe salad. So. dupable. Yes. They did. You did it, Nicole. But I couldn't do it without you boys. But only if you're in another country at the end of the day, very tired or locked up abroad.

Thanks for subscribing and clicking that shank bell. You know what time it is. We're the Fry family from Clear Brook, Virginia. On our way home from vacation in Kure Beach, North Carolina, and stopped in at Buies Creek. And it's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality. That's where you got saved, man. Hometown right there. Click the top link to watch us try to read each other's. minds in Good Mythical More. And to find out where the Wheel of Mythicality's gonna land. Head to sporked.com to find your new favorite grocery item, including dupes of all your favorite fast foods.