After eagerly waiting through the holidays for December 27th to roll around, I made my reservation at my local Chick-fil-A to sample the newest of their spicy offerings, the chicken biscuit.

Those of you that followed my blogging before I joined the AJC team already know this, but for those that don’t, you should understand something: I’m a complete slave to fast food breakfast. You know when you’ve been with someone for so long that they can finish your sentences? Well, I can name more than one drive-thru operator in Atlanta that will cut me off mid-order and finish it for me.

I’m not a proud man, just being honest.

I also love spicy food, so the new spicy chicken biscuit immediately piqued my interest. But I had many questions about how successful this would be, not the least of which being “Will people want to eat spicy food first thing in the morning?”

As I unwrapped the spicy chicken biscuit, I searched for any visual clues that would set this apart from the original. For all appearances, it looks almost the same, save for a few noticeable flakes of black pepper. Unlike the spicy chicken sandwich, which has an orange tint to it that screams “spicy”, the chicken biscuit looked just like the ones that I grew up eating. Even as I took my first bite, that telltale ring of cayenne that I expected was nowhere to be seen.

The first thing that I noticed is that the breading lacked the same level of spices that they use for the sandwich. After my first few bites, I noticed no semblance of heat. It tasted just like the original.

But, as is usually the case when dealing with a cayenne heavy spice rub, it caught up with me. It is a slow heat that catches you in the back of the throat just when you think that this one may be a dud. The flavors were familiar, but by the time I’d finished, I found myself returning to the counter to get a refill on my water.

Dialing back the spice was a wise move on Chick-fil-A’s part, as only the hardcore chili heads want their tops blown off before starting their day. I think that the level of heat is just right. There is enough spice to satisfy the capsaicin lovers, but not so much that it will ruin the average person’s morning.

One complaint that I hear often about their chicken biscuits is about the biscuit itself, and I agree that it is the weakest link in the dish. It was always more about the chicken for me, so it never really bothered me, but if you can’t stand the biscuit on the original, don’t expect anything different here.

Overall, I really enjoyed it – not surprising, since I like the original – and will probably add the spicy chicken biscuit into my rotation of “chasing an early grave” breakfast items.

I know that some of you have claimed your free spicy biscuit already…what did you think?

P.S. In other awesome fast-food breakfast news, the Atlanta Business Chronicle is reporting that Bojangles’ will open at least 25 more stores in the metro Atlanta area over the next few years.

 - By Jon Watson, Food & More Blog

- Jon Watson writes about Popular Eats for the AJC Dining Team. He also publishes his own blog, Live To Feast