Sunday, April 19, 2009

KFC or KGC? The Choice is Now Yours: Kentucky Grilled Chicken Quick Look

I stopped by an Orlando area Kentucky Fried Chicken location this week to try their new Grilled Chicken. It’s about time they offered grilled chicken. I’ve never been a big fan of KFC; I’ve always thought that the chicken was too greasy and too bland. The 11 herbs and spices in the original recipe has never done much for me, and I know it’s bad for you to eat fried anything. Well, the grilled chicken at KFC wasn’t bad.

I ordered a grilled, three-piece, dark-meat meal ($5.59) with potato wedges and barbecue beans for my sides. The meal was served with a biscuit. The chicken pieces seemed very small (two thighs, one leg). For a second, I thought maybe I had received grilled chicken nuggets by mistake. The breaded and fried pieces seem so much larger. Goes to show you how little meat, and how much breading, you’re normally served.

The grilled chicken was very crisp and crunchy when I bit into it. The skin was left intact, and there were deeply-seared grill marks etched into each piece. Inside, the chicken was nice and juicy. I expected the grilled chicken to be dry inside, but it was surprisingly moist. The chicken was, however, bland as usual.

The potato wedges were crunchy and moist inside as well. The barbecue beans were runny and kind of tasted a little “barbecuey.” The biscuit was extremely dry, and had a pronounced artificial butter taste.

I won’t be rushing back to KFC anytime soon to grab more grilled chicken, but if you’re a regular customer, ordering grilled instead of fried can save you substantial amounts of calories and fat. Bravo to KFC for making an effort to allow fast food consumers the opportunity to make better decisions.

I noticed on the KFC website nutrition information page that simply removing the breading and skin from original recipe fried chicken would actually be a better choice for consumers. For example, you would save 350 calories and a whopping 29 grams of fat over the extra crispy version, just by removing the breading and skin from a single breast piece. You would even save 40 calories and 2 grams of fat over the new grilled version. I say ditch the skin and breading next time and enjoy your fried chicken.

KGC: 3 About Times out of 5

Nutritional breakdown for a single breast piece:

New Grilled:
180 calories
4 grams of fat
440 mgs of sodium

Original Recipe:
370 calories
21 grams of fat
1050 mgs of sodium

Extra Crispy:
490 calories
31 grams of fat
1080 mgs of sodium

No skin, no breading:
140 calories
2 grams of fat
510 mgs of sodium



http://www.kfc.com/


KFC on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

Carl Jordan said...

I'm not a chef or nutritionist, so I don't get how the grilled can still have more fat and calories than the fried minus skin and breading. Gotta watch that sodium though. Kudos to you for the review and good information to keep us healthy. I would be afraid to do the same for a few of the places I have reviewed. : )

Eating Orlando said...

KFC would have to answer that question for you; the nutrition information is from their website.

Javier Hernandez said...

I tried it to and you were generous on your comments. Orlando's own Pollo Tropical's REAL flame grilled chicken blows this convection oven creation of KFC's away. Way more flavor at Pollo, KFC should leave the grilling to them in O town.