KFC

Chicken BBQ Bacon @ Xmas Time

Five years ago, on this very same day, we launched #MALTAburgers with the main intent of covering all the new burger options that were popping up all across Malta. The very first burger we listed at the end of 2012 was the Texas Grander from KFC. We’ve come full circle and are back at KFC, to see what Malta’s most popular chicken express-food house is up to these days.

The image on the front window at KFC Gzira shows a humongous box with a bbq burger, a piece of chicken and all the sides your stomach can dream of! We’re in!

The BBQ Box Meal is made up of a chicken fillet, 2 pieces of bacon and a golden hash brown. The usual lettuce, cheese, mayo, and bbq sauce are there too. The chicken fillet is the original recipe one, it’s moist and tasty and has a crunchy, appetizing texture. Moist is a key factor here… Give us dry chicken, and we will run away faster than Road Runner! KFC prepare these daily, and we check out the Gzira one on a monthly basis, and their track record is usually always on the upper-quality scale in the express-food scene. Colonel Sanders’ secret recipe of herbs never fails to impress. They also have a Zinger version (called the Supercharger) for those who like spicy chicken. The hash-brown adds a mushy layer to the stack, whilst the bacon brings in the smokey flavor. This is one of the very few KFC burgers with bacon inside. We wish the bacon could be a tad more crispy, as that would have catapulted this chicken burger into a higher level of awesomeness.

The mix of textures works really well and this burger seems to have everything going the right way. The BBQ flavor is quite strong and present, though the burger is neither spicy nor sweet, so it has a good balance for those hungry ones, who just want to grab a chicken and bacon burger and devour it in one go! Aesthetically, the burger looks the part. Indeed the box meal also has a chicken piece, drink, fries and a side (onion rings, salad or corn). We think this box meal is definitely a chicken-craver quencher… If you’re famished and in the Gzira area, you know what to do!

We wish that KFC would keep the ball rolling in this direction, and hit back again with bigger chicken burgers and grander boxes filled with even more awesome sides.

In the meantime, we’re out of the office, keeping up traditions, and burger hunting on Xmas eve…

You Dirty Louisiana!

When it comes to a quick burger meal of chicken, only two places tick all the boxes. In our books, the chicken has to be moist on the inside and crisp on the outside, the price has to be affordable, and the service has to be quick and efficient. Give us dry chicken, and we will hate you for eternity! The team at KFC in Gzira have been consistent throughout the years, and that leaves us no choice but to love their chicken burgers!

So when we heard of their new burger, The Dirty Louisiana, we literally ran all the way from the office to Gzira (15 minutes!) to listen to what’s all this fuss with this Dirty talking from this Louisiana girl. It turns out that the Dirty bit in the name is due to its overload of 3 different types of sauces. So the burger is very saucy. And according to language slang, saucy = moderately dirty!

The burger is a mixture of the original recipe fillet, smothered in 3 sauces and joined by two layers of cheese, three pickles, and a hash brown. This configuration is working out successfully for KFC, as we have noticed variants of it in their past burgers. When you think of KFC, you want chicken with those 11 specially blended herbs and spices that create the perfect layer of crisp, and that’s what we have at the heart of The Dirty Louisiana; a piece of chicken with a good crunch on the exterior which gives way to a soft interior.

The saucy overload comes from 18g of mayo black pepper sauce, 15g of bbq sauce and 15g of supercharger sauce. This last one was created for those seeking a fiery hot and spicy flavour, and is based on chilli. It’s not “dragon breath” level of fiery, but it’s spicy enough to give a flavourful punch. There’s no doubt that there’s more than enough sauce oozing down the sides. It’s a flavour sensation, as the eight different combinations of these three sauces make every bite taste distinct and peculiar… the brown barbecue sauce tastes rich, the cheese and chilli based supercharger sauce tastes hardcore and the black pepper mayonnaise provides a cooling sensation.

The burger is topped with three slices of pickles, which are slightly sweet and cut through all the other components to hit your palate. This addition was a well thought out move by KFC as the overall burger is quite spicy. The heat stays with you all the way through The Dirty Louisiana, until the very last bite. The mix of textures is spot-on; this burger really seems to have everything going the right way.

The Dirty Louisiana comes in a big box, and it’s one of the largest burgers KFC have come up with to date. It seems that KFC want to give big eaters what they want… big, dirty burgers, not just in the name, but also in size! Aesthetically, the burger looks the part, and it’s built to look big. What you actually get is not too far off from the promotional images of the perfect burger. Whoever put this one together in the back kitchen, should be proud and get an achievement badge.

The burger itself packs 735 calories and 35g of protein. As if that’s not enough protein, the box deal meal comes with a signature KFC chicken piece. Who are we to say no to more chicken!

A word about the KFC fries. We love them almost as much as the chicken! They are crusty and have an all-crunch edge. They are always dry and appetizing and never marred by the steaming of a closed bag. If there ever was a French fry contest, KFC would get an award from us.

The Dirty Louisiana should be proud of itself, to have qualified as one of the bigger and tastier burgers that KFC have made to date. We wish that KFC would keep the ball rolling in this direction, and hit back again with an even grander burger in the weeks to come. In the meantime, we’re off to Gzira to have another one!

The 3 Floors: KFC Tower Stacker

Houston, we have a problem! We’re just done with a beast workout at the gym, and we urgently need to replenish our levels of protein & carbs. We’re in the Msida area. What do we do?

Solution: drive to KFC, and stock up on chicken!

#MALTAburgers is in front of KFC in no time at all, and the first image that impresses is the window-sized poster advertising the humongous Tower Stacker Burger! We’re game.

The place was recently redecorated in a modern metropolitan style with an appealing red-black-gray colour scheme. Just perfect for a laid-back lunch in the summertime afternoon. The Tower Stacker is offered in two varieties, with Original Recipe fillets or Zinger taste. We start thinking and considering options, but ultimately opt for the only viable solution: get both!

The Tower Burger is made up of 3 main floors: 2 pieces of chicken fillets and a golden hash brown. The usual lettuce, cheese, mayo, and ketchup are there too. This is the main blueprint for the Maltese version of the Tower Stacker as it seems that every country sports a slightly different configuration. The chicken fillets are moist and tasty and have an appetizing texture. KFC prepare these daily, so they have to be good. The Original Recipe fillets are covered with Colonel Sanders’ secret recipe of herbs, while the Zinger ones are even crisper with a stronger herb mix that adds heat and some more! If you like spicy chicken, then definitely ask for the Zinger Tower Stacker. The hash-brown adds a mushy layer to the stack. We noticed that the chicken patties are much wider than the promotional photos, which is a superb thing (remember we are hungry).

And here comes a challenge. How do you eat the Tower Stacker? This will depend entirely on every individual’s personality.

There will be the hungry dude that will apply all his level of brute force, squeeze the burger like an industrial iron press, roll it in half, and bite off!

We did not do that and started to bite pieces at random angles, from all around until we reached the core.

We know there will be those who will use knife & fork and cut it into tiny bits and eat it like a Princess during Fashion Week… but who are we to judge?!

After all plates were cleared, we think that the Tower Stacker is definitely a hunger quencher as it’s the largest burger in the current KFC family lineup. If you’re famished and in the Gzira area, you know what to do!