hello everyone this is running on empty food review well hello ladies gentlemen and everyone
watching this is running on empty food review i'm your host the report of the week and as you
can hear in the background we actually do have a live bird translator for all of the other bird
creatures who are watching this review right now i know i do a lot of the subtitles and finally
for all the bird viewers i do want to have them taken care of too so uh it's really an honor i am
going a little more formal today than usual going with a three-piece suit
a detachable imperial collar as they say and there's a reason for it it's 100 degrees today
i think there might be some storms moving in maybe maybe not the weather's a little unsettled
but i'm going to be braving the heat braving the elements because today i'm going to be revisiting
the "naked" chicken chalupa from taco bell and with an item with a name like that that granted
i'm not very fond of uh you know i kind of have to compensate for that and uh of course i'm not
gonna be here you know i i just i i just have to go a little all out for this one so that's
that's why uh we're kind of stepping it up a notch the "naked" chicken chalupa from taco bell though
it's a fairly recent addition to the menu now by recent i mean 2017 they released it then and then
they you know they take it away from you and they you know that's what they do and then they bring
it back again and they brought it back once and i think 2018 and now in 2021 it has returned now
with a lot of these fast food chains of course the quality is subject to uh there's variability to it
and sometimes when an item makes a reappearance there are different little tweaks to the recipe
or to the ingredients and all that sort of stuff so i really want to try that out today and see
if anything change i'm going to pause the camera real quick because i just noticed there might be
a little too much light coming in from over there so give me one quick second and um be right back
okay i think that should be a tiny bit better it just looked like some of this
from one of the lights might have been interfering with the lens or something anyway if it wasn't i
apologize i just want to try to get the uh you know the best for you guys okay so the "naked"
chicken chalupa what exactly is it is this family friendly is there any actual nudity
involved uh what is this exactly so here's what the "naked" chicken chalupa is it was
originally released again by taco bell in 2017 with a few little appearances here and there
it is like a chalupa but instead of any sort of tortilla or anything else the taco shell is
actually made of white meat chicken marinated in mexican spices then it's breaded and fried
crispy chicken so that's the shell the shell is the chicken and then inside the shell you have
lettuce tomato cheddar cheese and a avocado ranch sauce it's available at a price of 3.49 and when
i tried it back in 2017 i was and i said it's like so so um i gave it a 7.49 out of 10 but back then
i was using this weird rating scale where 7.5 was actually equivalent to a 5 out of 10 that
was like the midpoint so really the scale that i rate things with now where just 5 is average
this item would have gotten about a 4.7 out of 10 back in 2017. so this is where it stands
why do they call it the "naked" chicken chalupa i honestly have no idea why i have a feeling they're
all sitting around the table in the boardroom and they just thought let's let's get a uh an
eye-catching name so just throw in "naked" there and let it speak for itself because i don't
understand why at all um you would think perhaps maybe in terms of "naked" they would be implying
that there's no sort of uh breading and it's not seasoned or anything that it's just a grilled
piece of chicken but it is fried and it's breaded and it's got various seasonings and all that sort
of stuff so i have no idea why they call it the "naked" chicken chalupa they just do like i said
i'm not a big fan of the name and uh that's just my my take but forgetting about the name look they
could call it whatever they want to call it and that's not going to change the quality of the
product so the name of this item has no bearing on the review whatsoever i'm just here to find
out if it tastes good or not that's that comes in the little "naked" chicken chalupa wrapping
uh it is radiation proof so that's good so when the apocalypse does happen you can you can rest
easy knowing that the "naked" chicken chalupas will still be here all right so they will prevail
and now opening this up all right here it is this is the "naked" chicken chalupa or some say
the "naked" chicken chalupa in the "naked" chicken chalupa holder although you could
actually see because of that um that is actually a semi-clothed "naked" chicken chalupa holder
that's kind of dripped down for a little a little bit of decorative flair
and again you can see very clearly the sauce in there and you can see some of the tomatoes
and the cheese and again you can see though that this is fried that it's breaded not necessarily
"naked" in terms of any lack of seasoning now what i'll do is i'll get that thumbnail shot
something like that i'll even hold it up like this a little closer focus it on that
and you know i'll figure something out i always do but uh there it is the "naked" chicken chalupa
from taco bell you know what it looks like i know what it looks like we all know what it looks like
that's what it looks like without the holder
and we're going to try it out the "naked" chicken chalupa from taco bell revisited going in
we'll take a couple more bites hope everyone out there is uh
doing all right having a nice wednesday
take two more bites
i forgot the um forgot the napkins but hey this is how they eat the "naked" chicken chalupas
i made that up so i'm just gonna i'm just gonna go with it we're gonna roll with it
what i what i'll use i have a baja blast right here you can see due to the warm weather there's
a little bit of condensation on it so i'll kind of get my hands like that improvise hand washing
get that taken care of little air dry one thing that you might notice with the baja blast i always
like it i like that you can see it now going with a starbucks straw reason why my opinion anyway
the straws can be reused i mean you know a lot of people think they're single use but you easily
could you can just pop them in the dishwasher take care of them you can keep them going for a
while and i just like doing that i you know that's what i'm about so just wanted to uh to share that
but yeah always reuse the straws anyway into the review i will say this compared to what i had in
2017 look when i tried out the "naked" chicken chalupa back in 2017 i ate it and my my face
turned red with rage i was furious my hand it got into a tight fist and i i talked and
ranted and raved about how i detested the quality of the chicken i really didn't like it
i said it's a novelty something to try once and never get again there's an improvement there's
a definite improvement all right biggest improvement here is in the quality of the
chicken when i tried it back in 2017 the chicken to me seemed like it was flavorless it was spongy
and i just really really cheap quality something that might make you sick afterward that's not to
say the chicken quality has improved um you know by such a massive margin but it definitely has
the chicken seems to be a little less you know spongy it seems to be much fuller to me
um must much more robust in terms of its flavor as well as i bite in i can
actually taste some of the spiciness of the the seasoning on it along with that meaty flavor
and um definitely improvement in terms of the quality and the flavor of the chicken
and with that being the main selling point that's important and you get a little bit of a crunch in
every single bite because the chicken itself right is fried and um and breaded there so that's great
uh a big improvement in terms of the quality of the chicken the lettuce the cheese and the tomato
we're kind of just there it's like all right it's just like you would expect in a basic taco
it's not the selling point this is something that's there it gives it a little moisture a
little flavor but it's not you know it's not a make or break type of ingredient uh the touch
that i do like though is the avocado ranch sauce another thing that i notice here is that again it
gives it a little bit of moisture it offsets the fattiness and some of the greasiness of the fried
chicken just right and you have that little bit of a little bit of like tang in the ranch right there
that gives it the perfect kick the perfect touch and it's really a good accompaniment and i don't
have a problem with the quantity of the sauce either it's like they put the right amount on
you know you don't need tons a little goes a long way but it definitely offsets uh some of
the other characteristics of the chicken which may otherwise be overwhelming and overbearing
i'm very satisfied with it they definitely improved it again sometimes you just need to make
a few little tweaks and adjustments to uh kind of get something that maybe was a little astray back
on the right track uh on one final note really this is just for fun i'm gonna try a little bit of
fire sauce i don't think it really needs anything but if you want to get any let's see how it tastes
fire sauce as anticipated builds off of the existing spice already in it
makes it a little spicier so if you want to you know kick up the flames a little bit get some fire
sauce with it but certainly it's not needed this isn't one of those things your sauce is a must
because the existing sauce on it is perfectly fine so uh no worries and no problems there
all right price is 349. i think it's a fair uh a fair price i have to factor in you know how things
are and uh that it is a novelty but certainly it tastes good so prices i would say fair
uh so out of ten what would i rate it this time around the "naked" chicken chalupa
certainly an improvement uh so i would say it would get about a seven out of ten
uh again an improvement from what i said back in 2017 was below average certainly has stepped it up
a bit so uh a 7 out of 10 i would give it because uh definitely tasty it's a snack and that's all
i have to say about it that's all that i have for you ladies and gentlemen i'm your host the report
of the week revisiting the "naked" chicken shampoo from taco bell until next time take care everyone