Everyone knows nothing's perfect, and that's as true for KFC's menu as it is for anything
else.
The iconic chicken chain is home to a number of items you're better off avoiding, for any
number of different reasons.
Here are the ones to keep well away from.
First up is the chicken pot pie.
Originally a regional option, it's now a mainstay on the national KFC menu.
The pot pie contains small bites of chicken, diced potatoes, peas, carrots, and a savory
sauce.
Sounds pretty good, right?
Well, think again, because the chicken pot pie is staggeringly unhealthy.
It contains 790 calories, 45 grams of fat, and a genuinely mind-boggling 1970 milligrams
of sodium.
For what it's worth, the American Heart Association recommends you consume no more than 2,300
milligrams per day, with less than 1500 milligrams being the ideal amount.
But where the chicken pot pie really excels is with its saturated fat content; according
to KFC, it contains a whole 25 grams of the stuff.
Put in perspective, that's the same amount of saturated fat as 17 KFC original recipe
drumsticks, 25 Kentucky Fried Wings with honey barbecue sauce, five large orders of popcorn
nuggets, or almost four entire Famous Bowls.
In one pie.
Speaking of the Famous Bowl, it's another KFC staple.
Introduced in 2006, this menu item contains a bed of mashed potatoes, bites of chicken,
corn, gravy, and a cheese topping.
Unfortunately, the Famous Bowl is also one of KFC's least healthy menu items.
You've got 710 calories in there, for one, as well as 82 grams of carbs, 31 grams of
fat and, incredibly, 2450 milligrams of sodium.
"Definitely too much salt."
That's well over the hard limit for an adult's daily intake of sodium, so you'd better hope
you're not ordering any extra chicken with this one.
Even more impressive is that the nutritional stats for the Famous Bowl back in 2006 are
a little lower than they are today, so this one appears to actually be getting less healthy
as time goes on.
KFC has introduced a number of different barbecue-based items to its menu over the years, and there's
a good chance you've tried one of their past attempts at bringing a little barbecue smoke
to their stores.
Next time, however, you might want to skip it.
In 2015, a Reddit thread asked fast food workers exactly what customers should avoid at their
restaurants.
One user responded:
"Worked at KFC for [around] 4 years.
The BBQ sandwich is actually made from chicken too old and stale to give to the homeless
shelters, so they soak it in BBQ sauce until it can be pulled and then they keep it on
the heater for a month."
It's hard to know exactly which barbecue sandwich the user was referring to.
That said, it's hardly encouraging to know that barbecue sauce is used to soak old chicken
back to life, and it's not hard to imagine some stores might still do something like
this today.
KFC's mashed potatoes and gravy is probably the chain's most iconic side, although they
themselves insist they won't fight you if you want to call it a meal.
That's probably fair enough too, considering it contains 19 grams of carbs and 530 milligrams
of sodium, but hey, that's up to you.
The gravy itself even has something of a cult following, with some British families making
it a tradition to pop out to buy some on Christmas Eve rather than making it at home.
Unfortunately, it seems like the gravy is one of the things you really want to steer
clear from next time you're at KFC.
In 2018, a Quora user asked what item they should avoid at KFC.
And one commentator had a hell of a story to tell.
They wrote:
"Each morning, after a full 12 hours of constant frying and cooking, the cook will arrive at
7am and begin draining the now black oil.
The contents at the bottom of the fryer [are] just a black solution seeping with oil and
dripping in fat."
Sound bad?
Well, it gets worse.
The users continued:
"This pot is taken and emptied onto a tray, wrapped in Glad Wrap and stored in a freezer
for up to a month.
The employees refer to this as the 'sh-- stick'.
Because that's EXACTLY what it looks like.
A frozen stick of crap.
Until it is melted and served to unsuspecting victims."
And that's where KFC gravy allegedly comes from.
"Okay, I'm going to throw up.
I'm throwing up, you're making me throw up, Ryan."
Authenticity is a funny old thing.
Obviously, no one wants to eat a limp imitation of a dish when they could be having the real
thing.
But how reasonably authentic can you really expect fast food to be?
Can a chain like KFC ever match a home-grown recipe?
Well, no.
According to a writer for Uproxx, KFC's 2016 special Nashville Hot Chicken did at least
look like genuine Nashville Hot Chicken.
In his review, he wrote:
"The chicken breast is much smaller than the enormous portions you'd find at Prince's Chicken
Shack in East Nashville but, other than that, it's a spot-on replica."
But things quickly went downhill.
He wrote:
"I could feel my heart breaking.
KFC's bastard child looks like Hot Chicken, it smells like Hot Chicken, and up until my
first bite, I had hoped that it would actually taste like Hot Chicken.
But we live in a world of lies."
Obviously, that experience will be familiar to anyone who's stepped into a fast food joint
looking for a decent recreation of something they love.
If you're really hankering for some KFC, here's a tip: stick to the things you know they can
do.
One thing that can be said for KFC is that they've got one heck of a range of sauces
and condiments.
Far from content to simply offer the standard combination of ketchup, mustard and mayo,
KFC's menu features a whole range of dips, including Sweet N Tangy Dipping Sauce, Summertime
BBQ Dipping Sauce, Creamy Buffalo Dipping Sauce, and more.
Now, although you might assume that all condiments tend to have similar nutritional values, you'd
actually be wrong.
The truth is that, when it comes to clogging up your arteries, some sauces are more equal
than others.
According to KFC's nutritional guide, the chain offers one Unholy Trinity of condiments
that you ought to stay away from: Buttermilk Ranch Dipping Sauce, Finger Lickin' Good Dipping
Sauce, and Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce.
One serving of each of these contains at least 100 calories, with the Finger Lickin' Good
Sauce containing an impressive 130 calories.
They all contain at least 10 grams of fat too, and at least a gram of saturated fat
each.
They're also heavy in sodium, with the Buttermilk Ranch Dipping Sauce hitting as many as 240
milligrams of the stuff.
And if you've got a real sodium aversion, stay away from the Creamy Buffalo Dipping
Sauce, it might not be as fatty or calorific as the others, but it contains a staggering
510 milligrams of sodium to make up for it.
Maybe that ketchup doesn't seem so bad after all.
McDonald's fries have gotten a fairly bad rap over the last few years, and for good
reason, too: they've got a long history of nasty ingredients, lawsuits, and chemical
nightmares that should be enough to turn anyone off.
But here's a fun fact, for you: if you look at the nutrition info, they're actually not
as bad for you than KFC's potato wedges.
Let's do a quick comparison.
A small portion of McDonald's fries contains 220 calories, while a portion of wedges contains
270 calories.
There are 10 grams of total fat in the fries and 13 grams of fat in the wedges.
You'll find 29 grams of carbs in the fries; 34 in the wedges.
And here's the real shocker: a portion of McDonald's fries contains 180 milligrams of
sodium, but the KFC wedges contain a grand total of 700 milligrams of sodium.
So there you have it: McDonald's is the healthier option.
It's not often you hear that, is it?
Of course, KFC also offers a wide range of desserts, with the least healthy of all being
the Reese's Peanut Butter Pie.
In fairness, though, there's not a lot in it.
At 300 calories, 17 grams of fat, nine grams of saturated fat, 33 grams of carbs and 22
grams of sugar, it just about beats out the majority of its competitors.
It's only beaten out in one area, which is the carbs, and in that case, it's the Oreo
Cookies and Creme Pie that squeaks through with 35 grams, but that one doesn't do as
much damage as far as the other stats are concerned.
Obviously, though, none of the restaurant's desserts are much good for you.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie bottoms out the calorie count with a paltry 120, which really
isn't all that bad, but even that contains six grams of fat and three grams of saturated
fat.
Generally, the rule of thumb here seems to be that, dessert-wise, you're okay going for
pretty much any of them, but ideally you shouldn't have anything at all.
Okay, so this obviously isn't a problem exclusive to KFC, not by a long shot, but it's still
worth remembering next time you eat out.
The fact is, sugary drinks are almost comically bad for your health.
According to Healthline, there are as many as 13 reasons why sodas can mess you up on
the inside.
First of all, they don't make you feel full, so you're more likely to consume more calories
on top of them.
Like, say, fried chicken.
Studies have shown that people who drink sugary beverages consistently gain more weight than
those who don't.
Sugary drinks can also overload your liver, leading to excess fructose being turned into
fat, which is obviously a no-no, especially if you're planning on not getting liver disease
anytime soon.
Sugary sodas can also cause insulin resistance, a cause of metabolic syndrome and a stepping
stone toward type 2 diabetes.
And that's not to mention the increase in risk of heart disease, links to cancer, hugely
detrimental effects on your teeth, and the fact that they're outright addictive, too.
Oh, and then there are the links to dementia, increased chances of contracting gout, total
lack of essential nutrients, and the high chances of you gaining an increase in visceral
fat, which accumulates in the belly.
And hey, you know what doesn't do any of those things?
A nice ol' glass of water.
Finally, however, you've got to deal with one last unfortunate truth.
The fact is, if you really want to walk away from KFC clean of body and clean of soul,
you're best not eating any of their chicken at all.
Obviously, nobody is under the impression that the chickens who become KFC's main dish
lead particularly happy lives, but even so, the true extent of their suffering is shocking.
In 2019, a World Animal Protection report found a number of mainstream fast food chains,
including KFC, McDonald's, and Domino's, are treating chickens with an almost unfathomable
cruelty.
The report read:
"The results show an almost universal disregard among the brands within their policies, business
targets and objectives for improving the treatment of chickens throughout their global supply
chains."
Each year, around 40 billion chickens are raised in factory farms, suffering from conditions
such as lameness, skin lesions, and heart failure.
According to the report, two-thirds of these chickens are intentionally developed so quickly
that their legs cannot bear their weight, and are raised in dark warehouses so as to
suppress their instincts.
Earlier in 2019, the WAP approached KFC demanding better conditions for its chickens, but were
given little information by the company on how they were performing when it comes to
chicken welfare.
As it stands, there is no real indication that KFC is improving when it comes to the
way they breed and farm their chickens.
So if this is something that you care a lot about, you may want to skip KFC altogether.
Unless you're feeling vegan, that is.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Mashed videos about fast food are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.