Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Chicken Burger [Korean Food]

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McDonald’s Korea runs a “Taste of Korea” line that builds burgers around regional ingredients, and its most talked-about entry is back. Today’s pick is the August 2026 relaunch of the Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Chicken Burger and Beef Burger. The Chungju waxy corn cheese croquette burger that launched in July ran into complaints, a strategic recall and then discontinuation, so this one was rushed in as a replacement. It had a strong following the first time around, and it went viral again fast after the relaunch. This time a chicken burger joins the returning beef burger. I’d already reviewed the beef version before, so I ordered the chicken one. Let’s take a look.

Table of Contents

📋 At a Glance

Product: Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Chicken Burger (beef version sold alongside)
Brand: McDonald’s
Price: 8,100 won à la carte and 9,600 won for a combo in store (9,000 won and 11,000 won on delivery, same for both burgers)
Release: August 2026, a relaunch of the Taste of Korea lineup
Main build: lettuce, tomato, white sauce, Jinju chili cream cheese, chicken breast fillet
Beef version: white sauce, lettuce, tomato, cream cheese sauce, bacon, two beef patties
Verdict: ★4.0 — sharp chili with cream cheese on top leaves a clean finish, and it’s fair value for a new release.

Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Burger Price and Lineup

This burger belongs to the Jinju Chili Cream Cheese lineup that first launched in 2024. Back then only two items appeared, the beef burger and a McMuffin. This round adds a chicken burger and a McNuggets set built around the same sauce. Given how quickly the July release was pulled, the brand clearly wanted a fuller lineup this time. Let’s start with the prices.

Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Beef Burger in store: 8,100 won à la carte, 9,600 won combo
Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Chicken Burger in store: 8,100 won à la carte, 9,600 won combo
Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Beef Burger on delivery: 9,000 won à la carte, 11,000 won combo
Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Chicken Burger on delivery: 9,000 won à la carte, 11,000 won combo

Personally, the soft cream cheese paired with that spicy chili aroma made this one of the more memorable entries in the Taste of Korea series. This time there are no major changes, so anyone who remembers the original flavor should feel right at home. That said, word is the already generous sauce was made even more generous.

Jinju chili cream cheese burger price information

As I mentioned, there was no chicken option back then, so this review centers on the Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Chicken Burger. I also ordered the beef burger for comparison. Somehow I ended up getting both as combos.

Burger tasting review taste and composition

A Look Inside the Chicken Burger

Let’s start with how the chicken burger is put together. Peel back the wrapper and you find it held in a paper burger ring, which keeps things reasonably stable. Thanks to that, it hadn’t collapsed much despite the famously precarious build of a chicken burger.

Regional partnership project McDonald's collaboration

The chicken fillet here looks like it comes from the McCrispy family. Digging around, the cut is chicken breast. Visually it doesn’t differ much from the other McCrispy items I’ve had before.

That Cream Cheese Steals the Show

The standout here is once again the cream cheese. They packed in so much that it spills out the sides without any real pressing. Moreover, even though the sauce is quite thick, it had run all over the inside of the wrapper the way a much looser sauce would.

Korean regional partnership project burger

Now let’s cut it in half for a closer look. From the top you get lettuce, tomato and white sauce, a salad dressing, with thick Jinju chili cream cheese underneath and the chicken fillet below that. The amount of sauce is obvious even from the cross-section. Still, since a person scoops the cream in by hand, it tends to pool on one side. Give it a light press before eating so the cream spreads a bit further inward.

Tender chicken burger taste characteristics

Side by Side With the Beef Burger

I cut the beef burger in half too before digging in properly. The beef version itself doesn’t look meaningfully different from last time. White sauce, lettuce, tomato, cream cheese sauce, bacon and two beef patties, exactly the same build. The thickness is close to the chicken burger as well.

McDonald's store burger sales information

Taste Test: How Does It Actually Eat?

Time to try it. Both burgers use the same cream cheese sauce, but the overall flavor of the chicken and beef versions felt likely to diverge quite a bit. I went straight for the section loaded with cream cheese.

Chili cream cheese burger pairing characteristics

Sharp Pickled Chili Under Soft Cream Cheese

The first thing that hits is that distinctive sauce, a deep chili aroma filling the mouth with soft cream cheese layered over it. The pickled chili in the sauce does bring a sharp burn. However, rather than lingering or sitting heavy the way capsaicin or buldak sauce does, the finish stays clean. Meanwhile the cream cheese blends in and rounds the whole thing off.

On top of that, the nutty note and the tang that cream cheese carries cut through the richness of the chicken fillet. At the same time the juices and the salty seasoning line up nicely with it. Neither side overwhelms the other, and the vegetables keep it from feeling heavy.

Chili cream cheese burger taste and composition

Chicken and Beef Really Do Taste Different

The sauce is identical, yet the burgers as a whole clearly land in different places. So if you’ve been curious what this sauce does on a chicken fillet, it’s well worth ordering. Nothing tastes disconnected, the value is reasonable for a new release, and I enjoyed it.

Final Verdict on the Jinju Chili Cream Cheese Burgers

The relaunched beef burger tastes almost exactly like the one I had before, and I enjoyed that too. For anyone who tried it back in 2024 and had been waiting for the return, or who missed it and wondered what the fuss was about, this is an easy recommendation. If you’re visiting Korea, it’s also a good example of how McDonald’s builds menu items around a specific regional ingredient here.

The background on the 2024 Taste of Korea lineup returning with a chicken burger added is covered in (Korean source) Food Today’s report on the McDonald’s Jinju chili cream cheese burger relaunch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I find this outside Korea?

No, it belongs to McDonald’s Korea’s Taste of Korea lineup, which is built around Korean regional ingredients. It returned in August 2026 after first launching in 2024.

Q. How spicy is the Jinju chili sauce?

Sharp but manageable, in my experience. The pickled chili burns cleanly instead of lingering the way capsaicin or buldak sauce does, and the cream cheese softens it further.

Q. Chicken or beef, which one should I order?

Both cost 8,100 won à la carte, so it comes down to texture. The chicken burger pairs a breast fillet with the tang of cream cheese cutting the richness, while the beef version stacks bacon and two patties for something heavier. Go beef if you’re chasing the 2024 flavor, chicken if you want the new combination.

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