KFC’s Nashville Hot Chicken
KFC’s Nashville Hot Chicken
(8 Pieces)
KFC’s Nashville Hot Chicken
(3 Tenders)
The Problem Is Consistency
After one bite, we think “Hm, it’s not really that bad. ” It’s spicy (slightly beyond mild spice), crunchy, and SALTY! Actually, no, it’s ridiculously SALTY. After about 3 bites in… it reaches “Oh my god this is so salty I can’t take it any more” salty. The one and only breast in the box reveals tender white meat after the first bite. By far, out of 8 pieces that one and only chicken breast was the best piece we ate. The thighs and legs were breaded to extreme excess. And, given nature of the dish (ladling hot, spicy oil over breaded chicken), this excessively breaded piece of chicken yeilds an inedible piece of chicken when it is sopping wet with salty, spicy oil. Out of 8 pieces, one piece of chicken was edible…. barely. For the other pieces, we removed about 85-90% of the greasy, salty breading.
We’ve had great hot chicken in Nashville and otherwise (here, here, and here). All three versions were great to fabulous in their own unique ways. This isn’t great… or even good hot chicken. The first bite or two are pretty decent to ok. Then, it’s all downhill.
On the bright side, it makes for a quick meal. After 3 or 4 bites, you’re done eating for the day. And, you won’t want to look at food for at least 12 and up to 24 hours.
The taste? If you can ignore the excessive use of salt (which is quite difficult), the spices aren’t really that bad. But, it doesn’t taste like Nashville style “hot chicken”… AT ALL. The taste is more reminiscent of spicy barbecued potato chip dust. No, that’s not entirely accurate. It tastes like a very VERY salty version of barbecued potato chip dust that was combined with about 1000% too much oil of unknown origin. Attention KFC: If you’re ladling spicy oil over food to be consumed by human beings, that oil should be of superior quality.
Greasy Tenders, Barely Spiced
More notes regarding those levels of inconsistency:
The chicken tenders were actually worse… if you can believe it. This seems to be due to the fact that more oil was ladled over the chicken with less of the spice in the mix. So, the person ladling the oil directly effects the edibility of the chicken.
More oil + Less spice = Inedible fried chicken
Hey KFC!?! Given the greasy nature of all of your chicken, why not just sprinkle the hot spice mix on your already greasy chicken. Ladling additional oil is entirely unnecessary. Oh yeah and KFC, cut back on the salt! More rarely equals better. Thanks for your attention! 
