KFC's Double Down: a double disappointment

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Let me start of by saying that I’m addicted to fast food. That’s right, ADDICTED to fast food. It’s only by having some insane willpower that I’m not 700 pounds and on the verge of death. And I’m always wanting to try the latest and greatest offerings from just about anywhere.

So when I heard KFC was coming out with a sandwich that replaced buns with chicken, I immediately declared that I needed to experience this culinary masterpiece. I mean, how could you go wrong? Two chicken fillets, two kinds of cheese, bacon, and a zesty sauce. I was quite excited to try what seemed like an obvious winner (for my taste buds at least). Or so I thought …

If you have seen the commercials, or any of the marketing material, here’s the picture it painted: A sandwich about 6 inches long, with chicken fillets that seemed covered in a solid crunchy coating and firm to hold, a layer of fillings, and a nicely folded wrapper for easy eating. It truly looks like you could hold the sandwich in two hands and would be akin to taking two frozen chicken patties at home and throwing some cheese and bacon inside them — a fairly solid “bun”. Oh if only one aspect of that were true.

As you can see from the photo, the actual product doesn’t resemble a sandwich at all. It’s exactly what you would imagine if some just told you “It’s bacon and cheese inside of two pieces of chicken.” And it eats like that too. First off, what happened to the size? When they first handed me the box I almost told them they forgot the side, because I had to believe the entire box was just the sandwich. But No! Somehow the Double Down was at best half the size I was expecting. That explains the low calorie numbers they keep promoting. Next, there was no nicely wrapped sandwich. Aside from the small bite in the photo, that’s exactly how it came. Sure there’s a thin piece of paper in there, but it’s not equipped to handle holding this sandwich. And the sandwich was small enough that there wouldn’t have been much point to wrapping part of it.

The coating on the chicken was not very crispy at all (and no, this wasn’t the grilled variety), so it did feel like holding two pieces of lightly breaded chicken in your hand. And because of that, the whole thing truly did feel like they just slapped some ingredients between two pieces of plain old chicken. And sure, this is where you say “Well yeah, that’s what it is!” I don’t argue that, I’m just saying that the promotion made it seem as if it was going to be sturdier, more sandwich-like.

All-in-all, I’d say the whole thing was just disappointing. The flavor was just ok, and even though the size was smaller than expected, by the end I could feel the sodium sludge through my body and I just felt like I didn’t want to eat for a few days afterward. And that’s saying something since I would normally say I could live off of fast food. If you’re thinking of trying one for the experience, then hopefully your experience will be better than mine, but otherwise I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else. For the same cost, you could easily get a full meal at any other fast food joint.

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