We have been jointly transfixed via each the surplus (1,380 milligrams of sodium?!) and the radical lawlessness of all of it. What, we requested ourselves, used to be a sandwich with out the bread?
The yr 2010 now turns out a extra blameless time. Let’s assume again, we could? “Avatar” was nominated for an Oscar for perfect image, thin denims had formally taken over, and Beyoncé used to be nonetheless Sasha Fierce. So, such a lot has came about within the 13 years since. And not simply at the world level. (Ebola, coronavirus and the Trump management, any individual?) Things were given beautiful bizarre at the meals scene, too, with the R&D labs for the country’s fast-food chains apparently overtaken via Frankensteinian madmen.
Pizza Hut grew uninterested in stuffing its pie crusts with cheese, and so it shoved scorching canine into them. Arby’s erected the “Meat Mountain” out of as many as 9 other types of animal protein. Four-pattied Big Macs reached skyward. Doughnuts have been pressed into provider as buns. There have been Triplelupas.
Such stunt meals have given option to hacks. On TikTok, folks now customise their orders to their explicit liking, getting their hen sandwiches crowned with mac and cheese, mixing sauces — and attempting the persistence of fast-food employees looking to stay up.
Now KFC is bringing again the Double Down, which, if it wasn’t the sandwich that began all of it, a minimum of used to be the person who heralded what used to be inevitably to come back. Nick Chavez, the chain’s leader advertising officer for the United States, defined the explanation, announcing that KFC is “embracing the chaos” of “one of the most buzzworthy fast food menu items ever.”
But on this panorama the place we’re weary of these kinds of turduckened portmanteaus, the Double Down simply doesn’t pack the similar culinary intestine punch that it as soon as did.
The go back of the Double Down is the revival no person requested for, mentioned Adam Chandler, the creator of “Drive-Thru Dreams,” which recounts the historical past of America’s love affair with rapid meals. “It’s like seeing your ex at a wedding,” he mentioned.
It isn’t like persons are clamoring for it, beginning Change.org petitions and Facebook teams calling for its go back, the way in which they did with true fan favorites comparable to Taco Bell’s Mexican pizza, Chandler notes. Even on the time of its unencumber, the menu merchandise were given tepid evaluations, and the excitement round it gave the impression most commonly pushed via diners who loved its transgressive thrill greater than its style. “There’s nothing really enjoyable about eating this other than the fact that you accomplished it,” Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema declared on the time. “It’s sort of a poor man’s Everest.” The New York Times eating place critic Sam Sifton known as it “a disgusting meal, a must-to-avoid.”
The Double Down reappeared for a bit in 2014, despite the fact that it has existed all over the world in different diversifications. In some areas, it’s made with turkey bacon to skirt nutritional restrictions on red meat. A Canadian model used to be shaped out of 2 hen patties embracing a Belgian waffle — and the entire thing used to be doused with “a Canadian maple aioli sauce.” In the Philippines, KFC introduced a Double Down Dog, whose filling contained a scorching canine.
The chain’s determination to carry them again to the U.S. marketplace this yr most probably has extra to do with the base line than with the cultural second, mentioned David Henkes, a senior predominant with the eating place analysis company Technomic. Most quick-service chains are experiencing slower expansion and better prices as a result of inflation, he famous, and they’re steadily turning to limited-time choices to spice up trade. “Bringing back items that have nostalgic appeal, celebrity meals — chains are doing what they can to cut through the clutter,” he mentioned.
In different phrases, we may not be as disgusted/awed as we have been greater than a dozen years in the past, however hi there, it’s one thing.
Henkes notes that the Double Down is dependent upon pieces KFC places have already got readily available. “Everyone is trying to do more with what’s in the store, because of supply chain and the fear of operational complexity,” he mentioned. “You’re deploying existing products for a higher margin.”
When they made their 2023 debut Monday, I ordered a bagful and taken them to the place of work to pattern with colleagues. First, let’s run the numbers: These sandwiches are giant, clocking in anyplace between 10 and 14 oz. And at about 2.5 inches tall, they’re exhausting to get your mouth round. If that turns out larger than you remembered from the ultimate go-round, you’re proper — the hen patties the chain makes use of for its sandwiches are higher now, because of a retooling in recent times caused via the ones notorious Chicken Sandwich Wars. The value has additionally modified: Two places in suburban Maryland and Virginia charged $10.79 in step with sandwich.
Figuring out the Double Down’s dietary information is tricky, since KFC’s web page lists most effective 930-950 energy for the sandwich and does not notice different stats, so one has to calculate for themselves. Each of the 2 patties accommodates 1,100 mg of sodium, and that’s prior to you upload the salt within the bacon strips, cheese and mayonnaise. Even with out doing the mathematics, it’s obtrusive this is one salt bomb of a sandwich.
Our first order appeared to be a sufferer of inadequate group of workers coaching at the new menu merchandise — there used to be no bacon in any of them. A 2d order from a other location were given us the sandwiches we have been in quest of. The double Double Down order used to be a reminder, too, that even at chains that try for uniformity, the meals can range. The breading at the patties of our first order used to be pleasantly golden brown, whilst the second one batch used to be paler, with a coating that got here off on my arms.
And that brings us to the inevitable unpleasantness of the Double Down, a issue so glaring that it kind of feels pedantic to whinge about: It’s simply roughly gross to devour fried hen patties together with your arms. I’d fairly devour a bone-in piece of fried hen; a minimum of that wouldn’t fall aside and depart an oily blob of mayo on my arms. I just like the patties in KFC’s hen sandwiches, I truly do — they’re juicy and neatly seasoned, with well craggy crusts — but it surely seems that I don’t need to devour two of them immediately, and unquestionably not glued along side mayo and a small slice of unidentifiable cheese, and maximum undoubtedly not accompanied via small strips of aggressively smoky bacon. (The highly spiced model, with a kicky sauce rather than the mayo, is marginally higher because it a minimum of provides a bit of warmth to chop thru all. That. Chicken.)
There’s a reason why we adore a sandwich. There’s a good looks to it — a good judgment.
A colleague of mine who is supremely rational fretted that the Double Down defies all of the ones rules. Without bread, there’s no softness to distinction the feel of the filling. There’s no sweetness to offset the saltiness. Even extra essentially, there’s no automobile to put across the meal in your mouth, which in the event you ask the card-playing Earl of Sandwich is the entire level of the item. “It just doesn’t make sense,” she moaned.
Others weren’t as via questions of nomenclature. “If you like KFC chicken, there’s no reason you wouldn’t like this,” reasoned some other taster. But they could need to transparent their calendars in the event that they do indulge — after sampling the Double Down, my colleagues and I all felt as despite the fact that we have been dragging throughout the afternoon in a fog of dehydration and sluggishness.
Maybe KFC’s nostalgia play will repay. After all, we’ve made up our minds to present Uggs and low-rise denim some other shot. Chandler questioned if the Double Down’s go back may make us lengthy, if not for the sandwich itself, for the less-splintered global that after seen it with fascination and revulsion. “There is something nice about it being something we all knew about,” he mentioned. “Maybe in some ways we long for that mass knowledge of a thing, what it meant for something to break through culturally. It’s our deep-fried madeleine.”