CREAMY ORIGINAL CRISPY NAAN MEAL - KFC [@NLi10]

 We went to KFC again last week and BEHOLD a new menu item has appeared!  It's the same as normal but it's a naan instead of a bun.

For a very Asian area this is an interesting twist - will people be more likely to choose a familiar naan or just to go to an actual Asian shop and buy the real thing for half the price.

Because of the magic of the KFC app we won a burger and popcorn chicken and then swapped them.  I had the meal for the full experience, but I didn't need it with the bonus.  The fillet was later left out for the fox.

I decided to give the drinks another go - and had the strawberry cheesecake base which is red stuff (good), white stuff (not noticeable) and some crumb - which I thought went on the top - right at the bottom.  This meant that the last bit of the drink was almost undrinkable sludge.

At least it was only 50% ice instead of 75% ice this week.  Honestly - these drinks are a sham.  They take the meal up to £16 or so too which is insane.

Here is the naan.  Smart people will immediately notice that it is two naan - which is mad.  Why not just wrap it in one like everywhere else?  Maybe the heater is bun sized so mini-naan it is.

Inside has a not too spicy sauce, the usual boneless chicken, and lots of exciting veggies.  I immediately binned the cheese.  And honestly - if real masala chicken naan from Chaiiwalla scares you (or you just want to tempt a beginner to the dark side) then honestly it's fine.

I'll likely try the tandoori version in two weeks but with the loaded fries and the tea as the drink.  

Later on we went to Rosa's Cafe in Wolverhampton and I got a Karrak Coffee with actual blended Ice (like I'm convinced KFC is supposed to do) which was so much better and a pound cheaper than the KFC mess.  You can just about see the dosa wrap in the background which I had a bit of (fantastic) but I was still full from all the stodge at lunch.

KFC Summer - New Upgrades to Meals, Dirty Chips & Kwench Krush [@NLi10]

 We had a late lunch this week - and a movie at 4pm so dinner would be late - so I went larger than large and had a full box meal.  What have I let myself in for!

It doesn't look so bad here.

But - I upgraded the fries to 'dirty loaded' and the drink to 'Krush' which is essentially a bubble tea pop thing

The important detail here is that it's 1566 Kcal, which is generally considered a large lunch.

And nearly £15 which is officially too much for fast food lunch.

I'm a fan of the 'Supercharger' dip which I usually get donated by my friend too, but here I had my own - and the chips had three colours of sauce - but also oddly popcorn chicken too.

I added in my own popcorn chicken from the meal to use all the sauce and dipped in the one solo fillet you get too.  I even had a little tub of beans to eat with them. This part of the meal was a hit - even the sadness of popcorn chicken couldn't ruin these wonderfully saucy fries.  This was the highlight - get this £2 upgrade and ignore all previous instructions.  They are £4 solo, the charger dip is 60p and small beans is a mad £2.

The cherry refresh Krush has a lovely flavour with the lemonade base, and the popping bits were decent quality - and then - it was gone!

You can't tell that well here, but the cup was 60% ice.  And not crushed ice like a slush puppy, but hard solid useless ice.  Your large drink is actually a small cup.  And with a saucy salty meal - that's not enough.  Luckily I had some water with me but for £1.50 extra on top of a normal drink this is a mugging in fruit form.  Stick to the Lipton tea options and hold the ice.  Actually - I wonder if you can hold the ice on a solo order of this and actually get a drink?  Just checked on the app - sadly no.  

Oddly these are only 10p more than the large drinks in the solo app, so the upgrade prices of 1.50 must be vs the regular size one.  It's still a £1 upgrade on the large which is evil.

After finishing all the sides I eventually made it to the sad burger, who hadn't had any innovations so was merely fine.  Honestly - I didn't need it but ate it anyway as it was there.

Overall then - I think you could build your own meal quite successfully without it costing £15.  You'd want some kind of wrap or fillet & dip, and the Dirty Fries and a drink that isn't a solid.  Even that version of the Twister Wrap box meal comes out at £12 though!  Without the beans and bonus fillet it's £10 and a more reasonable 1000 Kcal...  

KFC Hot Honey Drip Meal (burger & wings) [@NLi10]

 I get excited whenever I see a new thing appear at KFC, as the last few have turned out great.  As part of a series of three Honey themed reviews this fits in nicely too.

So - the large box meal was £12 which is insane for a lunch, but I skipped dinner later so that balanced out.

Then they brought over the wrong meal and looked confused that I minded and actually wanted my burger.

Then the burger wasn't exactly the warmest...

Looks pretty good though, just a sweet chilli version of the red-stranger things burger that I enjoyed.

Unfortunately though - this is not it.  The sauce is odd, it's not really adding to anything other than making it harder to eat.  The buns are heading to McDonalds quality so they disintegrate on contact.  The chicken was fine, but I really didn't feel like I got my money's worth - the wings were skimpy, and  coated in the sauce of disappointment.

As my colleague isn't a fan of the spicy mayo I usually get given that to use as a dip, and that's decent (if sub-nandos) but it was more of a sugar glaze than a hot sauce.

I double checked the windows to make sure we hadn't gone to McDonalds by mistake - but no - this is a rare fail from KFC.

Chips decent as usual, and the Lipton tea continues to be a pleasure - but on a cold, cold day I really wanted a nice spicy chicken burger, and for the price I paid I'm sure I could have got one from Nandos.  Ah well.

KFC Christmas Dinner Tower Burger [@NLi10]

It's allegedly the most wonderful time of the year - the tabs have been knocked in on the KFC tower burger meaning another special version! 

Also I got a free wrap on the spin thing, but it was an odd small thing with plastic cheese and very little salad so I can see why people wouldn't claim those.

Chips still good though.

And here we have the main event, a lovingly over-cooked chicken and stuffing Christmas Dinner Tower burger!  One of the rare occasions I should have gone for the KFC gravy, but overall they tasted like they were supposed to - and the giant Lipton tea made up for the dryness.

Surprisingly I'd have this again, but I think there might be other festive things with the stuffing added to try instead.

KFC Stranger Things Burger of Redness [@NLi10]

 All the fast food places are on themed promotions in the UK at the moment.  McDonlds has their terrible international menu, but KFC have the TV show that thinks it's a movie - Stranger Things.

I've never seen the show as we didn't have Netflix when it came out, and now - well there is just so much content out there - We'll get around to it.  I played red-box D&D in the actual 80s so I mean I've basically lived through it.

Here we have the nice KFC chips, and the tea as the drink because the sugar rules are different here.

But - what's in the box?

It's a burger - but red - and at KFC where the burgers are the least exciting menu option.  It's not even upside down, which would have been a fun thing to do.

What's the burger?

Sticky red chicken! The sauce has a really odd consistency like it's all cornflour or something.  The chicken was the normal decent chicken, and the spicy sauce added to it nicely.  It's a faff to eat though and I'd rather have just dipped the chicken into the sauce.  The slaw was fine too.

The red burger is more off-putting than a feature, but it does look fun.

Overall this is a fine meal - but a little pricey at £11 for a large- but I'd consider having this again unlike the McDonalds Canadian burger.  The wrap of the day with the nice chips and the ice-tea is still probably preferable and cheaper too.

KFC Kentucky Mayo Twister - with crisps for some reason. [@NLi10]

 When i have lunch with certain work friends we always have to go to fast food style things over at the retail park (for various reasons) so i got to have actual KFC for a change.

I prefer the boneless stuff so used the magic touch screen to select the wraps - and one of them was a magical deal that was the same price as just the othet flavour wraps - but it came with a drink - and a bag of crisps.

This sometimes happens in a posh pub, but ive not seen it for fast food. I assumed that this was the reason for its cheapness but apparently like `subway there is a deal of the day. 

The twister itself is ‘slaw’ and tangy mayo (not salad cream thankfully) and is like a german chicken schnitzel but in a wrap.

I had the tea as my soft drink because they are allowed to leave the calories in that (uk is mad).

The crisps were a zingy salt and vinegar variation, and actually really good. The bonus of this was that i could take them with me too and eat on the way back saving time. Fast food at lunch time can be a bit stodgy too so this was that little bit lighter,

Overall a surprising win and for £5.50 not too harsh on the wallet.

Proper KFC Popcorn Chicken Popcorn (Tesco) By @Cinabar

First there was popcorn chicken, but now we have chicken popcorn. I’m not sure how I feel about it, to be honest. I don’t mind salty popcorn as a savoury alternative, but my preference is for the sweeter versions. Toffee popcorn is the very best. This bag is made by the company Proper, and it is in conjunction with Kentucky Fried Chicken, so this is not just any chicken popcorn. Even the name is a little hard going; Proper KFC Popcorn Chicken Popcorn. 

Normally I have popcorn while watching a movie at home, but this felt like it was more the kind of snack that should be shared with a sandwich. I can’t tell; I’ve never had chicken-flavoured popcorn before.

So we poured some out for sharing and gave it a taste test. The first bite I had was a piece with a lot of seasoning, and I really liked the flavour. I could pick up on the chicken, but also the specific KFC seasoning. There were herbs, and it had a good taste. A little weird on a piece of popcorn, but ultimately very nice. Unfortunately, not every piece had that much seasoning; in fact, some had almost none and were a bit bland. This made the whole bag feel a bit disappointing at times. Although the well-seasoned pieces were tasty, I was still having problems with the idea of chicken-flavoured popcorn, so now that the novelty has worn off and the bag is finished, I wouldn’t rush out for another bag of Proper KFC Popcorn Chicken Popcorn.

Dead Man’s Fingers KFC Spiced Rum (Amazon) by @Spectreuk

I do like a KFC sometimes. I usually have a bucket of chicken to myself and some extra hot wings, because they taste "finger lickin' good". Alright, sorry, I couldn't help it.

I originally wanted to save this Dead Man's Fingers KFC Spiced Rum for a Halloween blog, but other reviews have been pretty bad on it, and Cinabar told me this rum has now become a limited edition.

Flavoured with the eleven herbs and spices used when cooking KFC chicken, this Dead Man's Fingers KFC Spiced Rum was produced by Bristol & Bath Distillery. The bottle recommended to try this rum with cola, but I haven't liked cola much for many years. When I have spiced rum or honey liquor, I usually have it with 7UP. After trying many different lemonades, to me, 7UP is the best one to have with liquor because of its slightly stronger lemon flavour.

I've heard reviews have mentioned the odd flavour of Dead Man's Fingers KFC Spiced Rum. On trying it, initially I thought I could detect the creaminess of vanilla, which I love as an ingredient in spiced rum. There was then a herby flavour, rather than any spices, which I was disappointed by, and then the vanilla creaminess came back into the aftertaste.

Dead Man's Fingers KFC Spiced Rum may have gone better with cola and a bucket of KFC, as suggested on the bottle. Although I've been told it goes well with ginger beer, which I'll have to try. I usually have spiced rum in the winter time, so I tried it with Cinabar's delicious homemade mince pies, which went okay, but the herbs in the middle of flavour was too much of a distraction. Same with a cheese and cold meats meal, which I usually enjoy with liquor or a big glass of port. I can see why people haven't liked this rum. It just needed more spice than herbs in my opinion.

Walkers Max - Kentucky Fried Chicken Crisps (Tesco) By @Cinabar

When I wrote about Walkers Max KFC Zinger crisps I was sort of aware that these Walkers Max Kentucky Fried Chicken crisp were also available but assumed they would be quite samey, minus the chilli of course. Curiosity got the better of me when I saw them in our local branch of Tesco and I added them to my basket.

We decided to share them with lunch and I poured some out. The aroma is quite strong in pepper, not something that I immediately associate with Kentucky Fried Chicken but not a bad smell either. There is quite a bit of seasoning on each crisp as the ridges are quite deep. I gave one a try and it did taste of KFC but it was missing something, namely the chicken. These crisps seem to be flavoured with the KFC seasoning and have missed the chicken element, also there is a mysterious extra helping of black pepper. The problem was as they were close to be something I recognised but not quite there my tastebuds spent the whole time thinking they weren’t quite right which distracted me from enjoying them for what they were. The flavour of these Walkers Max Kentucky Fried Chicken crisps was pleasant, the crunch from those ridges was lovely, I’d have just liked the chicken taste adding in and a little less of the pepper if I had the choice.

Walkers Max - KFC Zinger - Double Crunch (Asda) By @Cinabar

There has been a series of of crisp flavours in the UK which are restaurant or takeaway flavours and this is the latest in that series, Walkers Max KFC Zinger crisps. All different brands have been giving it a go but Walkers have released quite a few. Chicken is invariably my favourite flavour of crisps and KFC my favourite fast food so I couldn’t wait to try these new crisps out.

Firstly I would like to start by saying how impressive these crisps look, they are crinkle cut but these ones are super crinkle and that meant that the seasoning should be good and strong as it gathers. I gave the Walkers Max KFC Zinger crisps a try and found them interesting. The cut makes them good too eat, rather crunchy and satisfying. I recognised the seasoning, these tasted good like the seasoning on a Zinger burger or on their hot wings but the bit that disappointed me was they were very light on the chicken flavour. I love the chicken flavour and so the balance was wrong for me, all chilli and not meaty enough.

Also the heat got hotter which was quite a tingle but it overpowered everything. These are a nice novelty idea but they didn’t recreate the full KFC Zinger experience for my taste buds. Decent if you just want some crisps packing a good chilli burn and a good crunch though.

I finally got a KFC Vegan Burger! (@NLi10)

It's a cold January night.  No one is daft enough to walk past all of the lovely warm restaurants to go to the seated area of the drive-thru KFC except for me and the Deliveroo drivers.

So what could be in the bag that makes it worth the trip?

It's Veganuary - that's what!

KFC vegan burgers have finally been sent out to my tiny corner of the UK and even advertised on the flashy electronic menus and outside on the phoneboxes too! They even listed all the things that are vegan and all the things that are not vegan.

The only vegan sides are beans and corn - the fries are NOT vegan (or veggie - they are cooked in the same oil as the popcorn chicken)

And here it is - the zero chicken burger!

And it's fine! The mayo is surprisingly good as that's vegan too.  The lettuce is nice, but that's the only salad you are getting - what did you want? A nutritious meal? Ha!

And the Quorn (because it's ALWAYS Quorn) is fine too - it's a bit too soft, but it's not terrible.  

The herbs and spices don't taste right because they've not accounted for the fact that the fat around the chicken is what makes those work so well, but I'm sure that they will figure that one out eventually.  I think this is why Halal KFC never quite tastes right either!

 I was worried it'd be over-cooked and too dry but it's not.  It's just a perfectly valid vegan option if you fancy being a little healthier when you next visit KFC.  The Twisters & Burrito meals are much nicer though - I don't think I've had a non-special variety Burger in KFC for a very long time!

The diet drinks are all rubbish too - I forgot this - always choose the iced tea or hot tea!!

So - is it going to cause the Greggs effect and have people rushing to try them? Probably not.  I mean it's decent food - and it's at least as good as a cheap chicken burger (so better than McD and BK basics) but in the home of the greatest chicken this side of Nando's I can't see many people choosing this.

If they'd chosen to go with something that wasn't 20 years late (Quorn!) and got something with a little more texture, and tripled the amount of salads inside then I'd have got behind it more.  See you all next year for the Vegan Twister.

Festive Burger Boxmeal (KFC) By @Cinabar

I couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to try out his year’s version of the KFC Festive Burger. They haven’t budged on the chicken element, well it is in their name, but they have taken steps to recreate the Christmas dinner in the humble chicken burger format.

I ordered this burger as part of the KFC Festive Burger Boxmeal and had myself a side of bake beans, apparently sprouts were not on offer. The burger was in a pleasingly decorated box complete with a sleigh and a chicken in a scarf. Inside the box looked a dangerously loaded burger.

It is sitting on a stuffing flavoured mayonnaise and had a huge dollop of precariously balanced cranberry sauce. I looked down at my white top and crossed my fingers on its behalf. At least there were handy wipes for my skin! I suppose one question is why is there the inclusion of cheese as it isn’t a Christmas dinner food, but as I love cheese I was ok with this.
The mayonnaise is the ingredient that shone with this burger, it had a lovely sage herby flavour and gave it the feel of a roast dinner. The cranberry added a nice sweetness and the chicken worked well too, even with its crispy coating and cheese slice. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite. My t-shirt survived the dangerous sauces too, so that was a Christmas miracle.
Definitely worth getting your hands on this while you still can, lovely Christmas flavours and a nice wholesome chicken burger with a twist. It will be a year before it appears on the menu again. :-(

Kansas BBQ and Nashville Hot Southern Bites (KFC) By @Cinabar

It has been a while since our last visit to KFC, and as it is a Bank Holiday weekend we thought we would treat ourselves to lunch out. Naturally I scoured the menu on the wall for the magic “new” word, and I was greeted with the discovery of Southern Bites. They come in two flavours; Kansas BBQ and Nashville Hot Southern Bites and we ordered a pot of both as an extra to our meals. KFC meals are not really small enough to require an additional element, but in the name of blogging and taste testing we felt obliged.

Inside each tub are four chicken bites covered in sauce. You will definitely need the wet hand wipes after eating these! We started by trying the Nashville Hot Southern Bites, with their orange red sauce. My first thought was that maybe I had got the tubs the wrong way round and that these were the barbecue flavoured ones. They did have a kick of heat, but they were more medium that hot, but the spices in the sauce were divine. They did taste a little sweet, with chilli and very well seasoned in a way I thought was barbecue style. I liked them, I think some would prefer them hotter.

Next up we tried the Kansas BBQ Southern Bites, which had a dark brown sauce on the chicken. Okay these are definitely barbecue, they are well spiced, but the rich smoky flavour is unmistakable. They don’t have much heat to them, but the sweet barbecue flavour was a pleasure to eat, and went very well with the chicken.
I loved both of these new varieties of Southern Bites from KFC, and found myself enjoying the hot ones more than expected. I think this means they are probably not hot enough really, but they worked well for me. The barbecue were spot on, and both flavours make a nice addition to a treat meal from KFC.

Milkybar Krushem Milkshake (KFC) By@SpectreUK

Running roughshod over the memories of the last month of healthy(ish) food I succumbed to a KFC. They really do taste "Finger lickin' good". A Mighty Bucket for One, extra Hot Wings, lots of chips, 7UP (sugar free of course) and several sauces later, and then Cinabar noticed this Milkybar Krushem was new on the menu. I told Cinabar that I hadn't had a milkshake in 25 years. That was probably because I didn't like the last one. I think it was a banana milkshake in another fast foot restaurant. She reminded me how much I like white chocolate, especially Milkybar and I conceded.

When she bought over the Milkybar Krushem I noticed the wide straw in the plastic cup. It was wider than the last milkshake I had, and I remembered how hard that was to suck up. The creamy white liquid in this transparent cup smelt like white chocolate, in fact it smelt pretty good. On taste I noticed the bits of white chocolate in it, these were slightly melted chocolate chips. This white chocolate was a bit noticeable and needed a little chewing. The Milkybar Krushem tasted like a mix of milk, vanilla ice cream and white chocolate. There was definitely a vanilla base with mixed in Milkybar chips. The milkshake took a bit of sucking. It was creamy and sweet, and well worth the human hoover power. This milkshake is perfect for people who would like Milkybar white chocolate in a cup. It was difficult not to like. The white chocolate chips reminded of somebody murdering a white chocolate bar and trying to hide the evidence. It was a great dessert after my KFC meal. Trust me if you're going to have your first milkshake in 25 years this should be it.

KFC - Double Down (UK Halal version) @NLi10

FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out.  It's a really big thing at the moment in the marketing world, especially for fast food where they are desperate to create a habit of return visits through time limited events (why do you think there is a different Happy Meal toy each week?).

KFC have had a series of fun recipes recently that are essentially twists on the basic formula.  The Double Down is essentially the ultimate version of this - they replace the horrible nutrition free bread with lovely chicken!  And it's only for a limited time! How limited they didn't say, so I better go fast before I miss out on this special treat.

It comes in a special gold bag so all the people at the neighbouring tables know to watch you to see how you manage to eat it.  But if the bread is chicken - then what is the chicken?

Well in the UK Halal version (apparently 100 of the KFCs here are Halal only) they replace it with nothing at all!  In the original it was lovely bacon, which makes sense.  Here you appear to pay the same and just get no bacon.  Maybe you get an extra slice of the insulting yellow plastic that they call Monterey jack cheese.

Either way, holding it like a wrap and gradually eating down the length of it is a fun experience - that is over very quickly.  I'm sure it contains very similar amounts of calories, but it's the bread and chips that trick the brain into feeling full and so I could have easily eaten a second.  I didn't though and was full enough for the evening on just this and a large Pepsi that I won on the charity scratch cards on the last visit (more chaining of visits!).

My complaint really goes back to the FOMO argument at the start - why didn't they just replace the bacon with a  similar halal ingredient?  I replace bacon in veggie things with sun-dried tomatoes (carbona like this is amazing), or even just a turkey rasher here where it just has to be halal and not vegan.  Heck - anything with a salty contrasting flavour would have done enough to create a second opportunity for people to try the Double Down without having to worry.  I've never been that keen on my local KFC (maybe there is a variation in the 11 herbs and spices to make that halal, maybe it's just a drive-thru and not quite up to scratch) and this kind of encourages me to save my cravings for when I'm in Birmingham town centre?

I've no real objection to Halal only (or Vegan only) restaurants and frequent them regularly, my only issue was finding out a couple of hours after eating that the reason it didn't taste that special was because the main ingredient was missing.  Never-mind KFC, just gives you an excuse to roll out the apology Double Down with a turkey rasher in for Xmas exclusively in the Halal branches.

KFC Southern Legends UK Tour - Texas Ranch (@NLi10)

Occasionally it's worth being subscribed to the KFC newsletters as you get informed about special burgers and returning classics. Here we have (had?) a series of three burgers that are on tour - presumably until they run out of the special sauces.

I popped in with work colleagues at lunch (the decadence) for one of the last days of the Texas Ranch burger - and I had the big boy meal!

This is pretty much a regular meal but with some chicken bones thrown in for good measure. I'm not sure that I needed the extra chicken but original recipie KFC is a tingly treat so I ate that first.

The headline burger looks stacked.

I mean look at those layers! You have a hash, a flat chicken, some veg and at least three sauces and cheeses, lashings of flavour sensations. None of them are up to the standards of the Dirty Louisiana burger though, it's all a bit muted and ordinary. I guess the BBQ beans and original recipie chickens strong slavoura do overshadow the main event here. 

Good enough to eat if it's on the menu, but not social enough to get a special trip organised.

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The Dirty Louisiana Burger (KFC) By @Cinabar

I first heard about this new KFC burger from an advert on facebook that made me laugh. It was a tongue in cheek pieces about “clean eating” (ice cube relish anyone?), and it is worth a google if you like that sort of thing.
I wasn’t sure if the new KFC Dirty Louisiana Burger would be available in the UK, adverts online can sometimes be specific to the USA, but our local branch of KFC had a big sign up advertising the new burger, so we decided to go in and give it the taste test. Now to say I had been sold on an advert becomes more significant when you hear that at the point of ordering I had no idea what I was actually ordering. Yes I knew it was a big burger, and if boiled spiralized chicken was considered “clean” then this was at the other end of the scale.

The burger came in a nicely themed box and was wrapped in paper inside that too. I opened up the box and found a burger with a large piece of chicken, two pieces of cheese, a hash brown, salad, gherkins, and most importantly lots of sauce, and different sauces at that. It soon dawned on me that the dirty part may well refer to the state of your hands after eating it! All of these goodies were packed into a toasted bun.

I found this to be a bit of a flavour sensation. As there was several different sauces it meant that every bite tasted different. There was rich barbecue sauce, a cheese based sauce and a cooler black pepper mayonnaise. The mix of textures was spot on too, with the gherkin slices holding their crispy texture, the salad and the soft hash brown. As I was eating I noted that my mouth was heating up a little and realised that somewhere mixed in was also some chilli heat, this burger really does have everything. As predicted my hands were dripping in spilled sauce and those little clean up wipes they give just didn’t seem big enough! This might be a bit of a novelty burger, but it certainly works, who would have thought having all the sauces could produce such a fantastic mix of flavours.
 The only problem is that The Dirty Louisiana Burger is only available for 4 weeks, so get in quick if you want to give it a try.