KFC
The pickle flavor is having a real moment right now. The “Summer of the Pickle” kicked off with Sonic’s Pickle Juice Slushes and now KFC goes hard on the pickle flavor with the their pickle-fried chicken.
When you think of fried chicken sandwiches with pickles you think of Chick-fil-A. But the Colonel just entered the pickley Southern fried chicken sandwich conversation with KFC’s new Pickle-Fried Chicken Sandwich, bone-in Extra Crispy Chicken, Extra Crispy Tenders, and Chicken Littles. Despite Chick-fil-A being one of my five food groups, I gave the Pickle-Fried Chicken Sandwich a whirl and was pleasantly surprised.
Pickles can be too disruptive on certain burgers, but pickles do really well on a fried chicken sandwich. KFC’s Pickle-Fried Chicken Sandwich has a tender and moist chicken breast filet with the Colonel’s signature 11-spices and is splashed with pickle sauce and served on a bun with mayonaise. Not only did the sanwich have the pickle juice but it also had four pickle slices on the sandwich.
The pickle sauce has some dill action going on to give it some fragrant herbal notes. The pickle juice brought the vinegar flavor, but it is not too tart and the creaminess of the mayo countered the acidity. The pickle brine flavor isn’t overwhelming, more like a pickle kiss. I swear I am not pregnant. It has a nice tang, that is a bit citrusy with hints of onion and garlic. The bun was soft and was a nice pillowy counter to the batter’s crunch. The batter on the deep-fried chicken is crisp but not too thick where it overtakes the chicken. If you order the tenders you will get fried chicken nuggs with pickles as well as a reservoir of pickle juice to dunk your biscuit.
I really enjoyed the pickle-fried sandwich. I thought it was better than the other promotional flavor of Nashville (which slightly missed the mark of Nashville chicken and probably had too much smoked paprika), but it ranks just as tasty as Georgia Gold and Smoky Mountain flavored chicken at KFC. Was it as delicious as Chick-fil-A? Hard to say. They’re different. KFC has a crispier batter and packs more pickle punch than Chick-fil-A.
The new flavor will have “very limited-time” run and will be at participating restaurants until they run out of pickle juice. Today is National Fried Chicken Day, what better time to enjoy some pickle chicken.