Anyone with even the slightest interest in the fried chicken food market will surely have heard the news about the "Double Down", the fabled double chicken sandwich which was rumoured and being tested by KFC as far back as last August. If you aren't aware (and if you're reading this you really should be) the Double Down is a chicken sandwich/burger of monstrous construction...I'll leave it to the official KFC US website description and promotional pic to explain the details:
The new KFC Double Down sandwich is real and it's coming April 12th! This one-of-a-kind sandwich features two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel's Sauce. This product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!
Well, the good news is they are actually making it and you can go into any KFC and buy one...delicious! The bad news...it's only coming out in America *sob*. We here at KFB have investigated and called in to the mothership, at UK KFC headquarters in Woking. Our contact there told us in no uncertain terms:
"...we have no plans to bring the Double Down to Britain at present."
A great shame, but we can hope that if it's a huge success in the states, we might at least see it tested in the UK eventually. Here at KFB however, we can't resist the allure of a new KFC product - especially one that has sparked so much interest and caused such controversy. If only there was a way we could try a Double Down in the UK....oh but wait, there is a way! We have the ingredients, let's recreate it!
So today I set foot into KFC in Bethnal Green, London to pick up the ingredients. There are admittedly a few limitations here: firstly, Bethnal Green KFC is a halal branch and as a result, doesn't sell any product with bacon. I would have to leave this out for the recreation. Secondly, I would have to settle for the single cheese slice that comes in the Fillet Tower burger, rather than the Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese slices in the real DD. Finally, we are missing the crucial Colonel's Sauce. One BIG plus though...I could throw in the hash brown from the Fillet Tower burger to sweeten the deal.
So, taking the Original Recipe fillet breast of chicken from a Fillet Burger and Tower Burger, plus the cheeses slice and hash brown from the Tower Burger, I was able to recreate what is essentially a modified Double Down.
The big question: How did it taste? Biting into the Double Down (recreation) was like a dream come true. With any normal burger the bun serves as a mere containing vessel for the contents, the real meat (as it were) of the meal. Of course, we love the kasier bun used in the Fillet, Tower and Zinger burgers but when all is said and done, the peak of flavour and taste comes when you hit the filling. With the DD, the taste sensation is immediate and the Original Recipe flavours are the first thing you experience. This is complimented finally in a climactic sensory overload by the delicious filling (in my case, hash brown and cheese). I can only imagine what the real thing would taste like with the Colonel's special sauce.
Ignoring health and dietary implications (as we always do here at KFB), the DD as sampled by my recreation is everything we have come to expect from the Colonel, but doubled up. The Double Down is set for huge success, and I for one welcome the day when it arrives on our shores. Next up, a recreation of the Double Down with the same filling as the real thing...and while we're at it...how about a Zinger version??
We've had the standard Wrapstar, we've even had the Tex Mex Wrapstar and in a similar but more delicious vein we now have.......... for 6 weeks only......... the Fajita Wrapstar.
