KFC is usually finger-lickin' good, but what about those times when it leaves your fingers,
and stomach, feeling disgusting?
This fast food chain once served edible nail polish, and that went about as well as you
could imagine.
Dubbed the unhealthiest sandwich ever by FiveThirtyEight, KFC's Double Down consists of two slices of
cheese, two rashers of bacon, and the Colonel's sauce, all tucked in between two pieces of
breaded chicken.
Surprisingly enough, this so-called sandwich only contains 540 calories, which is the equivalent
of a Big Mac.
But that's not where the problem lies.
This gluttonous concoction is packed with 145 milligrams of cholesterol, more than twice
the amount in a Big Mac.
It also comes with 32 grams of fat as well as 1,380 milligrams of sodium.
The Double Down, which was briefly relaunched in Canada in 2021 a decade after it was discontinued,
attracted a lot of attention, and not all of it positive.
John Linn of the Palm Beach New Times wrote in 2010,
"Apparently, people are both incensed and enticed."
Cleveland.com, meanwhile, dubbed it:
"The trendy whipping boy for shameful American excess."
"Bacon and cheese wrapped in fried chicken, or living?"
Available for four weeks in 2019, KFC's Cheetos Sandwich was a bright, orange burger that
paired a fried chicken filet with a layer of Cheetos. Mayo, pickles, and a hot sauce
called Cheeto sauce completed the unsavory picture.
The chain celebrated the launch of the Cheetos Sandwich with the introduction of a new mascot:
a hybrid of Chester Cheetah and Colonel Sanders dubbed Colonel Chester Cheetah.
"That's one finger-lickin' good product partnership."
Excessively messy and difficult to eat, this radioactive-looking sandwich didn't win over
many fans.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Eat This, Not That!
writer Adam Bible, for one, referred to it as all but inedible in his review.
As he put it,
"The chicken filet was just too thick, and the Cheetos were too big and lumpy, making
for an odd chewing experience.
Perhaps worst of all, the star of the show — the Cheetos — were also slightly stale."
The Washington Post's taste tester agreed, with the declaration,
"Against all better judgment, I ate this nuclear slime sandwich.
So far, I haven't died.
Yay!"
Believe it or not, there was a time when KFC tried its hand at one of the most famous Mexican
specialties.
The market for this particular experiment was all the way Down Under in Australia.
Debuting in 2014, the Nacho Box consisted of tortilla chips, popcorn chicken, salsa,
and cheese.
Alas, it reportedly didn't take long before the chain started receiving complaints that
the cheese was moldy.
In a post on Facebook, the company announced,
"We withdrew the cheese from our stores and replaced it with new batches.
KFC also took steps to increase in-store checking processes to prevent this from happening again."
Another big issue was that the Nacho Box didn't look anything like it did in the advertisements.
Images posted on social media presented a picture of crushed tortillas, half-filled
boxes, and unidentifiable creamy blobs.
Simply put, the sloppy presentation left many KFC customers underwhelmed.
As Lifehacker opined,
"It looks more like week-old garbage mixed with surgery leftovers."
Meanwhile, Morsels.com advised,
"If you feel the urge to try it, make sure you bring some cutlery."
Unleashed in the Philippines, India, Japan, and Singapore, KFC's Chizza paired two classic
fast food items into something that shouldn't have ever seen the light of day.
Fried chicken is delicious.
Pizza is delicious.
But put 'em together?
Not so much.
Nevertheless, chizza consisted of a fried chicken base instead of pizza dough and was
topped with ingredients such as tomato sauce, cheese, something called "chicken ham," peppers,
and a signature KFC cheese sauce.
Fast-food enthusiasts were quick to condemn this stomach-churning aberration, with CNET
referring to it as a "journey into regret."
That review also elaborated,
"As the promo picture may indicate, the Chizza isn't the most pleasant sight.
You probably won't be prepared for the smell that wafts your way, a combination of old
oil and faint spice [...] Each bite of the Chizza showed me regret does indeed have a
taste."
KFC's Cheese Top Burger is exactly what it sounds like: a fried chicken burger with garlic-parmesan
sauce and a layer of American cheese on top of the bun.
Luckily for many of us, it was only released in the Philippines and only for a limited
time in 2012.
"Very strange fast food coming out of the Philippines."
By far, the greatest complaint about this sandwich was that it was messy to eat.
As Get Real Philippines put it,
"I'm quite certain anyone dirtying their hands with hot, melting cheese while eating their
burgers won't find it a pleasant and comfortable experience."
The company was quick to defend its creation, with the marketing manager of KFC Philippines
denying that the burger was difficult to eat.
As he insisted,
"That's the biggest misconception about the burger, that it's sticky and greasy.
You can eat it like a regular burger."
Despite that optimism, we know now a decade later that the Cheese Top Burger has definitely
disappeared from the menu.
"Gee, I wonder why."
KFC's "finger-lickin' good" slogan got an all-new meaning with the 2016 launch of edible
nail polish in Hong Kong.
It was available in two hues: red for hot and spicy, and beige with black specks for
original recipe.
The chicken-flavored nail polish was supposed to leave you licking your fingers long after
your visit to KFC.
To make the experience even more appealing, it was presented in high-end packaging.
So what went wrong here, besides the questionable concept?
Since the nail polish was made from natural, edible materials and contained no preservatives,
it was only good for five days if refrigerated.
According to the packaging, it could also only be used once, presumably because the
bottle had been opened.
And the colors were nothing to celebrate either, with the red appearing overly transparent
and the beige clumping after application.
And finally, it didn't exactly pass the taste test, with the BBC declaring,
"The spicy flavor tasted almost exactly like the paste used in KFC's hot & spicy chicken.
It definitely lingered on the tongue, but we couldn't detect any fried chicken flavor."
"I like the chicken, I don't need the, ugh."
"It just doesn't make sense to me."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite restaurants are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.