6440 E 82nd St
Indianapolis, IN
Since this is my first post, I figured I’d write about something that was once near and dear to my heart but that has since changed since I dropped 150 pounds. I hope you like it!
What I Ate: 8-piece original recipe chicken family meal (comes with 2 sides and biscuits); side items of cole slaw and a side salad. $16.99
A while back, KFC made a big deal that the were changing the oil in their fryers to trans fat free oil just like other fast food chains had done. They said that the taste difference in the use of different oil would only be slight and most customers would not notice a difference.
At first glance, there is nothing out of the ordinary from the new oil change, but when you look deeper, you will notice a change. Original recipe chicken used to have a firm, but also somewhat soft textured breading that had a little kick to it in the flavor department. With the new trans fat free oil, their breading is now soggy and bland and really lacks the punch of the old breading. In all honesty, this is no better than supermarket chicken in terms of blandness (I’ve been made two trips several months apart to verify this taste change).
Not only have they changed the oil and taste, but they’ve started to skimp on the size of the chicken pieces. It would appear that KFC feels that price and not taste is the major driver because a lot of their pieces, the chicken legs specifically, now look like they’ve come straight from Lindsay Lohan’s body. In the old days, I could eat five or six pieces of original recipe along with some small portions of my side dishes and be feeling pretty full. Now, I can bury all eight with no issues whatsoever and still finish the ENTIRE side dish servings. This is embarrassing to me personally and should be embarrassing to KFC as well since they’ve shrunk their pieces down so much.
As for the side dishes, they run both hot and cold. Their coleslaw is always a mainstay in my book and I order it every time I go. It tends to be a little bit on the runny side, but the taste is outstanding. It’s relatively crunchy, chopped into tiny squares (different than a lot of slaws that you see out there) and has a great tangy flavor. You can never go wrong here. The salad was an abomination and biscuits are biscuits in my mind.
Would I Buy It Again? No. For the original recipe chicken, but yes for the coleslaw. Original recipe is all but dead to me. The coleslaw is a winner though and that will always stay on my must order list.
Instead: KFC does have several other chicken dishes worth trying (sandwiches, wings, etc.), so that’s enough to get me to go back to the restaurant to try other things. For fried chicken, I don’t know since KFC has always been my bread and butter. I’m told Popeye’s is outstanding, so give them a shot.
Additional Rambling: I’ve always found the employees of KFC to be very entertaining. Seriously, have you ever been to a well-run KFC where they haven’t run out of at least one thing? I know I haven’t.
-IndianapolisEater
