The KFC Double Down: A Tale of Two Greasy Cities

So a few months ago, one of my co-workers was telling me about the new KFC Double Down. He told me that it was going to be two fried chicken patties with cheese and bacon in-between. It sounded a bit too good and terrible to be true. However, in the past few weeks, there has been a fervor over KFC's which was released on April 12th. You were right Johnny, you were right, it does exist. It turns out there's also a Grilled Double Down. We live in great times.

My friend tried it on the opening day and told me that it was good, but it was a bit salty. That's probably because a Double Down contains 1380 grams of sodium. Interestingly, the Grilled Double Down contains 1430 grams of sodium. I decided that I had to try both variations. Combined, they would make only 1000 calories because the Original Double Down is 540 calories and the Grilled Double Down is 460 calories. So I got into my car this morning and decided to take a two minute trip to KFC, and this is what I brought home:

Grilled Double Down left, Original Double Down right

As I mentioned before, I wanted to try both variations. I also wanted to see what I was putting into my body, so I took a few more candid pictures:

Grilled Double Down (left) and Original Double Down (right) sans wrappers. Notice the cheese and sauce trying to escape the chicken

A look inside after cutting both sandwiches in half

Taking the sandwiches completely apart. Notice all the cheese and sauce. A terrifying mess

After taking a few pictures, I decided it was time to dig in. I started with the Original Double Down. When I first bit into it, I didn't notice the cheese or bacon, but instead I noted how juicy the chicken was. The first and second bite were pretty good, but as it went on, the cheese and sauce started stepping up their game. The bacon was sort of non-existent as there's only a strip or two in the sandwich. Anyway, toward the middle and end of the sandwich it got pretty salty. When the elements were separated they tasted fine, but when combined they made a very salty sandwich. The cheese and sauce even tasted a bit sweet at some points, I'm guessing the cheese is some variation of Swiss. However, the sandwich as a whole was salty. Overall, this was a well executed boneless breast fillet from KFC that could have done without the fillings.

Next, I tried the Grilled Double Down. The smell of the grilled chicken really comes through when you eat this sandwich. However, that grilled smell cannot help the fact that the chicken was dry. This was a let down because the first few bites of the Original Double Down, as noted before, were very flavorful and juicy. Its Grilled Chicken cousin was drier and had less flavor. I suppose the less flavor part is a good thing, because I kept noticing the flavor contrast between the chicken and the fillings. Toward the end though, I just wanted a glass of water because the saltiness of the first Double Down coupled with the dryness of the Grilled Double Down really made me thirsty.

The new sandwiches at KFC are really just their boneless fillets with some stuff jammed in-between. Their main selling point is shock value and their brave opposition toward the powerful Bread Lobby. Would I try it again? Probably not because I don't often go to KFC. I also probably wouldn't try these two again, because their regular chicken items taste much better. If you want to see what all the commotion is about, go ahead and try it, but if you don't then don't feel bad because you're not missing out on much.

Also it took a while to de-grease the plate and my hands afterward. This is a very messy sandwich.