KFB Mini Review: Smith's KFC Zinger crisps

There I was, aimlessly traversing the aisles of my local Coles supermarket on a quest for OJ, oblivious to all around me. But what was this?! Out of the corner of my well-trained eye, I caught what looked to be a glimpse of the Colonel's famous visage. Could it be? Was that really his smiling red and white face on...a packet of crisps!? Though we've seen KFC-crisp crossovers in the past in certain parts of Asia, this is the first time such a collaboration has been attempted in Australia. And what a collaboration it is.

The crisps themselves are super crunchy and believe it or not do actually have a taste that's reminiscent of a Zinger fillet. Are they a replacement? Heck no. But if you have an acute Colonel craving and just can't bear the thought of venturing out to your nearest KFC outlet, keeping a pack or two of these handy should help to allay those deep-seated yearnings.

Oh and one other important thing to note - as far as we can tell there's no actual chicken in these crisps. Meaning that for quite possibly the first time, vegetarians can experience the delicious, otherwise forbidden taste that approximates Original Recipe coating.

KFB interviews a former KFC employee

A few weeks ago while indulging in post-work beers near KFB headquarters it came to light that one of our drinking accomplices had previously worked at none other than KFC. Naturally we had to pick the brains of this young man to learn more. We've protected the ex-employee's face in the only way we know how: with chicken.

Hello! Thanks so much for sharing your tales direct from the Colonel's kitchen. 

How long did you work for KFC? Which city were you based in? What was your highest position?

I worked at a relatively central and busy KFC location in Perth, Western Australia. I was trained as a kitchen hand originally, but I learned front counter and burger prep as well. I worked there for about a year and a half. For a while they were trying to entice me to become a manager but that process was taking too long so I left for greener pastures.


Sounds like a foolish decision to us! OK, what’s your favourite menu item and why? 

I really enjoy any menu item that isn’t frozen chicken. Even though popcorn chicken is delicious, nothing beats the OG chicken pieces- Hot n Spicy or Original Recipe.


I really don’t like eating the potato from KFC because that stuff is instant potato, which has a rubbish mouth feel.

The mashed potato has divided us here at KFB too. Is there anything you can tell us about KFC that most of our readers won’t know?

The gravy is made, in part, with a by-product of the Original Recipe frying process. I forget what in-house term for the ‘stock’ is, but it comes from the bottom of the frier (crackling - Ed). Most people are terrified at the prospect of eating old bits of fried breading that have been sitting at the bottom of the high pressure fryers, but it’s no different from eating traditional stock.


Also, KFC in Australia have a kind of audit/olympics yearly event where store staff compete with other store staff to get standardised food orders out of the door in a certain time and at a certain quality.


Did you ever ‘Frankenstein’ together different ingredients to make bespoke products? If so, what was your favourite creation?

Menu hacks are non cannon and no true fast food fan pays them any mind.


A respectable point of view though not one we totally abide by ourselves. Do you have any funny stories about your time working in restaurants or particularly weird customer incidents?

Not really. I worked at a pretty busy store, so you got all kinds- from smelly homeless guys, to traveling americans who got pissed off that we didn’t carry 'biscuits'. I remember when I applied that I said I enjoyed cooking because I thought it would get me over the line (I was fresh out of high school so the only thing I knew how to cook was cheese on toast). As it turns out, the fast food industry is pretty regimented in practice, so cooking was definitely not a skill I needed for this position.


You wouldn’t believe the demand for stolen Original Recipe spices.


Actually I think we would! Did you enjoy your time working for the Colonel and do you still eat his chicken?

I had a great time and I definitely still eat the chicken.


That's what we like to hear. And finally, how often do you still wear your KFC caps and t-shirts?

It’s impossible to get the smell of chicken and flour out of a uniform, so they went straight in the bin. Sorry.

The smell of chicken sounds amazing, the smell of flour...not so much. Thank you for your time and we hope that you one day find your way back into the Colonel's warm embrace / kitchen.

No worries. 

KFB in Australia - Boneless Hot & Spicy Box review

To bone or not to bone? That is the question posed by every man, woman and child upon first casting their eyes over the Colonel's menu boards. It's a highly controversial subject even here at KFB headquarters. For some, chicken on the bone represents the OG - the truest expression of that special flavour. After all, it led to the 'Finger-lickin' good' slogan back in the day. For other, bones simply get in the way and take up unneccessary extra space and weight. To my mind, there's a time and a place for either option and last Friday, that time and place led me to go boneless and try KFC's new Boneless Hot & Spicy box here in Melbourne.

It's at this point that I should point out that I was severely hungover at the time of sampling the box of delight. As we've previously covered on KFB though, there's nothing finer than KFC when it comes to curing all but the most extreme of hangovers. It was game on.

Now I know what you're thinking - what right does a bread roll have to be in the mix when it's not part of a burger? We'll get back to that later. For now let's focus on the chicken: 3 sizeable chunks that were reasonably well-coated in ETC (extra tasty cripsy) rather than Original Recipe.

It was time to delve in. We've said it before and we'll say it again: thigh meat just isn't as well-suited to being used in a boneless dish such as this or a burger. While it was relatively fat and certainly sinew-free and even though it was clearly well-marinaded, it just didn't have that firm, bouncy texture we love from a good hunk of breast. Something to note: according to KFC's site, the boneless pieces could be either thigh or breast - my colleagues and I however were all served the former.

So let's get back to the bun. I was reliably informed by an Aussie chum of mine that the bun was to be filled with all the other boxed ingredients, thereby turning it into some kind of elaborate sandwich. This of course had to be tried.

The result? It was delicious. Though the bun itself was overly sweet, it complemented the saltiness of the fries and chicken well. The mash and gravy, though still not anywhere near as good as a pot of UK 3-step gravy, added some interesting extra flavour.

So what was missing you might ask? More chicken of course! The UK's Boneless Banquet For One not only features mini breast fillets coated in Original Recipe but also adds a small tub of Popcorn Chicken to the mix. Close then, KFC Australia, but not quite what we'd hoped for.

Oh, the hangover? Yup, pretty much cured post-chicken. The Colonel strikes again.

Taste: 7
Value: 6.5 ($10.95 for the meal or about £5.50)
Innovation: 3

Overall: 6/10

The Double Down Dog launches in the Philippines

Today the internet has quite rightly dropped to its knees in order to worship a revolutionary new KFC product: the Double Down Dog. We thought the Double Down was something unique, something incredible. Then along came the Hash Brown Double, proving that you can indeed improve on perfection. And of course we can't forget Korea's Zinger Double Down King which adds a beef burger into the mix.

Well now the Colonel's only gone and added a sausage into the mix. Devastatingly, this delectable creation is apparently limited to a mere 50 per store and only available over the next couple of days. KFC Philippines is no stranger to innovative new products that haven't seen the light of day elsewhere but we can only hope that the PR it's generated will convince Harland to bring it to the rest of the world. 

So many questions remain about the Double Down Dog - what is the sauce on top? Just how do they bend the chicken to fit so neatly around the pork? Will they release a special edition with added bacon? Until we're able to sample one, the closest we can come is this photo of what might possibly be the world's most delicious snack spotted in the wild:

This is the totally absurd KFC Double Down Dog, spotted in the wild. From @TheDaddest: pic.twitter.com/pMaOWAlWv0
— Kim Bhasin (@KimBhasin) January 26, 2015

KFC in Australia - Zinger Pie review

Upon first moving to a new country lots of small details strike you as unusual - these are mostly insignificant to the locals to the extent that they'll express surprise if you point them out. In the case of Australia, it was things like the clicking traffic lights, washing machines that play tunes when they finish a cycle and the obsession with banana bread and pies. Now don't get me wrong, us Brits bloody love a good pie. But you'd normally only find them in fish and chip shops, the odd pub and 'British' restaurants. Over in Oz, you'll
encounter them in every convenience store, you'll see rows and rows in the freezer aisles dedicated to them or even whole chains of shops (PieFace being the best known) dedicated to this humble snack. The thing is, most of them are pretty poor thanks to sludgy, measly fillings and soggy pastry.

Step up the Zinger Pie: the first of its kind we'd encountered on our global travels and making its second appearance in Australia after a limited edition run this time last year. First impressions were good - the pie was a deep golden brown colour and nice and flaky on top.



The initial bite was more rewarding than we'd anticipated thanks to a surprisingly decent amount of chicken and gravy which was packed full of flavour. In fact there was so much filling that our hands soon became covered in it (not that we're complaining) - finger licking good indeed.

The chicken itself reminded us of the pre-marinaded breast pieces you'd find in supermarkets except of course for the fact that this was a marinade like no other - a Zinger marinade. And very tasty it was too.

At $3.95 (about £2.10) the pie itself represented great value for money. To ensure a full review however we felt it necessary to 'box it up' and add an OR chicken piece, fries, a drink and mash/gravy bringing the total up to something more like $11. Unfortunately we found the mash very bland and the gravy a big disappointment but we're here today to talk pies, not potato. Speaking of potato though, there's also a Kentucky Pie on offer which includes aforementioned mash and gravy within the pie itself. As lifelong Zinger devotees though it just didn't appeal.

Taste: 6.5
Value: 8
Innovation: 9

Overall: 7.5