TLO BBQ Rods Box Meal

The TLO is dead, Long live the TLO

As the Spicy texan boxmaster is consigned to the annals of history (and KFBs Archive for your viewing pleasure) so the BBQ Rods Box Meal arrives to take its place and serves as a great reminder of the sizzling summer ahead.

If you like BBQ, you're gonna love this. This TLO consists of

1 x BBQ rod: 4 skewered mouthfull sized pieces of crispy chicken slathered in BBQ sauce.

1 x Fries

1 x BBQ beans

1 x Drink

1 x BBQ beast burger: Your choice of Zing or OR breast fillet on a toasted sesame kaiser bun with lush lettuce and generous helping of deluxe BBQ sauce.

The only thing missing? a BBB dip I think.

I grabbed this on Tuesday before work and the wait was torturous, nearly 10 minutes, but I was rewarded with a small popcorn chicken for my trouble.

BBQ is always the dip I go for and I really quite enjoyed the Buffalo wrap TLO feat. BBQ sauce so I was pleased to see this offering appear. I have to admit to being more of a gravy man than a bean man so I opted for this as my side, and was well rewarded with a tasty steaming hot rich dark brown three step.

But enough of this gravy talk.

The Rod, as ever was tender although it seemed strange as the Zing was absent. These are truly mammoth chunks of Chicken however which present a real satisfying challenge for a man. The rod it seemed had been dunked in a vat of BBQ and was literally dripping. However those boffins at KFC HQ had planned it perfectly. The ratio of BBQ covered surface area to chicken was spot on, providing a great BBQ taste and satisfying Chickeny notes without being too sweet and cloying.

The main event

It looked great, the bread was just how I liked it, soft and a bit squashed, BBQ sauce oozed from the edges. The chicken when I took my first bite was firm against my bite but moist on the pallet.

With this TLO there were no surprises, does exactly what it says on the box.

6..5/10

TLO Confusion

So, the question we've doubtless all been asking ourselves over the last couple of weeks:

"What's with the TLO? some branches have Boxmasters and others Hotrods"

KFB isn't complaining per-se, but we'd love to see both products on sale at all branches instead of seeing Hotrods at some and Boxmasters at others. Well, KFB has the answer direct from the chickens mouth:

“We’re unable to offer certain limited edition menu items in some stores due to our halal trial, and we’re sorry for any disappointment this may cause. We’ve made sure that all our halal restaurants are close to non-participating stores, where offers like the Boxmaster are available, and you can call our careline or check our website to find out which stores are participating in the trial.”

On the subject of Boxmasters, it seems KFB was overly harsh in its review. We have subsequently been seduced by expertly prepared Boxmasters that were hot, fresh and saucy enough to overcome the potential dryness. In fact, this reporter has been ordering Boxmasters over ZTs on a number of occasions.

KFC EGYPT.....1001 nights of Chicken

In our continuing quest to visit KFC's at the four corners of the world, I left this sceptered isle on a crusade to Arabia and visited KFC Egypt.

I had oft heard tell of crumbling ruins in the desert surrounded by wonders of the modern world, I had never really believed these tales to be true. The following video proves that they are.




I however, opted to try a city centre Cairo branch and so headed down town to Midan Tahrir. Here some of the cities busiest thoroughfares intersect at a large gyratory circus. The demand for Chicken was so overwhelming that this one intersection boasted not one, but two KFCs, which, if standing in the right place could be viewed simultaneously.

KFC was at once easy to spot. Its bright coloured bold frontage stood out proudly amongst other city frontages that seemed moribund when viewed against the vibrancy and pulsing energy that emanated from the KFC.

The clean modern exterior gave way to an equally impressive two tier seating area. I was assailed with that familiar and welcome smell and my stomach began to purr in anticipation of the epicurean delights that awaited it, what exotic treats would a menu crafted to cater for people inhabiting an entirely different continent from my own hold?

It gives me great pleasure to answer once again that the menu, although innovative still did not match up to the UK KFC menu. Yes my UK brethren and sistren, you are eating the worlds finest KFC.
Whilst the Egyptians had embrace Zing and employed it as an option in a number of their dishes they are yet to discover the hash brown. What they did offer was a mixture of the familiar wrap, the recently introduced 'Roller' the ex UK TLO Pannini and them some other products such as the KFC Filler and The Zinger Supreme.
What could it be other than the Zinger supreme? Two meals cost 47LE, equivalent to about 6GBP. The bun was rectangular and the chicken had been sliced at a 45 degree angle to allow the bun to better accommodate it. I was greeted with a delicious Zinger fillet and then something I was not expecting, something I have not seen since those halcyon days spent visiting KFCs across the length and breadth of Europe whilst in Prague. In a predominantly Muslim country the last thing I expected to find on my burger was smoked ham. But there it was bold as brass adding an excellent extra dimension to the burger.
It was refreshing to see such a pragmatic approach. Our own UK halal KFC's will not serve any bacon products in store. Here however the food was prepared and served to me by Muslims without an eyelid being batted, and it warmed my heart.
Unfortunately the burger itself was not a shining example of finely crafted fayre and the chicken was in this instance a little too dry with not enough sauce of any description to compensate. The salad however had not wilted in the heat and seemed lush and crispy whilst the bun was soft and tasty.
Egypt boast a couple of other things worthy of a mention, their excellent KFC delivery service (we can dream) and more interestingly the worlds first KFC run by the hearing impared. I was not lucky enough to visit this branch but thought it worth of a brief time in the limelight.
Overall the Egyptians need to be applauded for adopting KFC and have certainly had a good stab at it. KFB's best wishes are with them for all their endeavours in the future.

KFC Offers Edible Reward for Missing Colonel Sanders

As disrespectful as this act was, it's really ruffled some feathers and served up some finger lickin' chicken related puns. (I'm sorry)....

VIDEO LINK

Kentucky Fried Chicken is offering $500 worth of grilled chicken in exchange for information leading to the safe return of a missing ColonelSanders bust.

The 24-inch bronze bust vanished from a Berea, Ky., KFC just before closing time on Jan. 31.

"There were three men in the restaurant, and the employee went to the kitchen," spokesman Rick Maynard recounted. "When she returned, the three men and the Colonel had flown the coop."

The bust has graced the restaurant's dining room since the 1970s, making the outlet one of the few to house expensive KFC-related art. According to Maynard, the bust – depicting a jolly Sanders in his "trademark glasses and string tie" – is worth $1,500.

"Folks who frequent the restaurant kind of miss it," Maynard says. "I think it's been replaced with a potted plant."

Maynard says KFC would like to return the Colonel to his rightful place, watching over an outpost of his fried chicken empire, which got its start just an hour down the road in Corbin, Ky. "The police ran out of leads," he explains, "so we wanted to offer a unique reward."

Maynard estimates $500 would buy about 25 buckets of KFC grilled chicken. "What we're looking for is to catch these chickens," he says of the mysterious men allegedly behind the Colonel caper.

SPICY TEXAN BOXMASTER TLO

We here at KFB have had a good day. I knew it was that time of the month again when KFC would release their next Time Limited Offer (TLO) and after the last poultry effort which we didn't even dine (upon) to mention we have not been let down.

I decided to swing by Stoke-On-Trent's Festival Heights branch before work and check out the new offer. I was greeted with a KFB all time favourite........Hot Rods! But wait a Chick'n Pluck'n minute, wasn't that the TLO just before Christmas I hear you collectively ask? well, yes it was, and I was torn by feelings of ambivalence. Was this being back good, purely selfishly because I love it, or bad, because KFC wasn't exploring and pushing the art of Chicken cuisine up to its creative boundaries and beyond.

Not Since Martin Shuker was on the team that fused breast with brown (hash that is) has there been a true foundation shaking moment in the fried Chicken world, and so, every six weeks we live in hope.

I wolfed down my Hot Rods which it later transpired are simply making a guest appearance at Festival heights and texted the team. Their replies collectively held an incredulous tone, 'surely not again' they intoned. I checked on-line and found to my pure an unadulterated joy that in deed the Hot Rod was not this periods TLO but that the Boxmaster was back in a new Spicy Texan gusie.

That was my dinner plans decided and what better way to check out a new TLO than at North Staffordshire's newest branch: Newcastle under Lyme that I haven't visited since the day it opened back in November.

So, what we have here is the Spicy Texan Boxmaster which comprises of:

Tortilla wrap

Zinger Chicken Breast Fillet

A Hash Brown

Bacon

Cheese

Texan Chilli Sauce

Ranch Dressing

Lettuce

Tagged on the promotional literature as an XL eat I gingerly ordered a meal.

It arrived along with my first disappointment, there was no bespoke packaging it had merely been crudely packaged in a chip bag, somewhat akin to blu tacking the Mona Lisa to wall without a frame.

The weight however was there, this must be one of KFC's densest products and its construction using a wrap is very helpful in keeping such a large list of ingredients held together, even if the diner must suffer a little wrap syndrome.

The Chicken was well cooked and the hash brown as always provided that comforting crunch and fulfilled its role admirably as tasty bulk, the cheese as always acted as a binding agent and the lettuce was verdant as ever.

The bacon however never truly asserted itself. When it was glimpsed by the taste buds it provided a brief and intense hit but just didn't quite reach its potential. Bacon however is hardly synonymous with Texas, but a nice idea nonetheless. The ranch dressing provided a good subtle flavour throughout the eat but I was expecting so much more from the texan chilli sauce. I wanted a sauce that scored highly on the Scoville scale but this chilli sauce was lacklustre and in need of some extra oomph.

By the end I found this a little dry and would have like to have seen some diced tomato added into the mix.

For Innovation 8

In reality this example was a 6/10