Yum! Brands’ (YUM) KFC has made some headlines recently as it has been changing up its menu with some good changes and some questionable changes. KFC fans are never quite sure if the latest menu changes are for real or just a gimmick to make people think, ‘Wow I better try that,’ before it is no longer on the menu.
One supposedly ‘gimmick’ product recently brought back to the menu for a limited time was the Double Down sandwich, which returned from KFC’s menu back in 2014. The sandwich had made a viral debut and perhaps KFC was hopeful the return of the controversial sandwich would create a stir amongst its customers again.
The Double Down is a chicken ‘sandwich’ if you can even call it that. The ‘sandwich’ uses two slices of KFC’s delicious fried chicken as the buns of the sandwich with bacon and cheese between the two chicken filets.
KFC also announced that it was going to be taking a couple fan favorites off its regular menu. Again, could this be a gimmick to spark an outrage of customers wanting to come and get one final taste of the menu items being removed? Or is it just making room for other menu items to come back to the menu?
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KFC Makes More Menu Modifications
KFC, however, is bringing back the fan favorite $5 Mac and Cheese bowl, according to Chew Boom. The return of the cheesy bowl is set to start on April 3. One of the major changes to the Mac and Cheese bowl will be instead of having the now discontinued chicken bites, the bowl will feature the all-new, all-white meat KFC chicken nuggets.
KFC's Mac and Cheese bowl will still be a hefty serving of the fan favorite elbow noodles with a blend of three cheeses. The creamy cheese bowl is only back for a limited time at participating locations, so before you hop in your car and race off to your local KFC, might want to check the website to see if your local KFC is one of the lucky ones to bring the bowl back.
KFC also, after pulling another fan favorite off its menu weeks ago, has either decided that it was a bad decision, found a stash of left over inventory or heard its customers cry out for the Smokey Nashville Hot Sauce return. The rumor right now is that the hot sauce is back in a limited capacity, which leads one to believe that it is possibly just another one of KFC's gimmicks to get its customers in an uproar and into the fast-food ordering line.
KFC Might Not Be Done Yet
KFC has continued to make questionable changes to its menu, and the fast-food restaurant chain said the key reason for the changes was to streamline its ordering process to get orders out to its customers. KFC dropped its fan favorite and kid friendly chicken bites, that were perfect size for the KFC Famous Bowls.
"It's really to deliver our most popular products perfectly each time and to actually make room for new products,” said Brittany Wilson KFC’s US Director.
KFC replaced its popular bite-size chicken with a meatier all-white meat chicken nugget, but unless it's being served cut up on top of the Famous Bowl or the Mac and Cheese bowl, it's going to require a spork and a knife to get that ready to eat. Adding the needed use of the knife to cut up the meatier chicken nugget in the bowls make it more of a sit-down meal than an on the go, which if one is going to have time to sit down and eat, might as well order the dinners family style, defeating the purpose of the on the go bowls to begin with.
While the chicken nuggets will be available for a kids' meals, many customers are still likely to miss the small chicken bites despite having a so-called reasonable replacement. The new all-white meat chicken nuggets will be made available before the return of the mac and cheese bowls. While the return of the Smokey Nashville Hot Sauce is said to be temporary, there is currently no mention of when the mac and cheese bowls will be taken off the menu, just that it is a limited time.
