Chicken. Bacon. Cheese. Chicken. In that order. That’s it.
With most fast food restaurants trying to eliminate the waist-expanding items on their menus, Canadian KFCs are bucking the trend with the Monday release of the breadless Double Down sandwich, the meatiest entrée to hit the shelves since Wendy’s triple-stacked Baconater burger.
While the sandwich has been available south of the border since April, KFC Canada waited to see if it was successful before bringing it north. With sales still strong six months after its release, it was only a matter of time. But for one Saskatchewan KFC franchise owner Barry Gunn, it’s been a long wait.
“Half a dozen times a day I get asked about it,” Gunn explained. “There’s some pent up demand, that’s for sure.”
Gunn has been promoting the sandwich on local radio shows and will have extra staff on hand to keep up with expected sales.
For those curious how to eat a sandwich encased in fried chicken without making theirfingers go translucent from the oils, the Double Down comes in a wrapper and you eat it much like a gyro. A greasy, greasy gyro.
The nutritional numbers for the Double Down aren’t very surprising, as each one has 540 calories, 30 grams of fat and 1,740 milligrams of sodium. That’s 50 and 116 per cent of your recommended daily intakes of fat and sodium, respectively.
While those statistics may seem daunting at first, comparatively it’s not as bad as you think. A Burger King Triple Whopper has over double the fat (72g) and calories (1,160) while a Big Mac has the same amount of calories and cholesterol (142 mg) as the Double Down.
Will any of these heart stopping risks stop customers from coming? Probably not.
“I just tried it this week,” said Gunn. “I think it’s going to be real popular.”
While you might think that a sandwich encased in two pieces of fried chicken would be dry, the secret sauce in the middle of the bacon and cheese balances out the texture and makes it an incredible culinary experience.
You better hurry if you want to try one, however, as the Double Down is only going to be here for six weeks.
“If the first run’s successful, we’ll try it again in 6 months,” said Gunn.
With over 10 million sold in its first four months in America, it’s hard to believe it won’t be successful here as well.
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image: Mike Saechang