Review: KFC - Double Down Sandwich

With all the media coverage, everyone and their mom, their dad, and their extended family and friends, now knows that the KFC Double Down Sandwich is two boneless Original Recipe or Grilled Filets sandwiching two strips of bacon, a slice of pepper jack cheese, a slice of Monterey Jack cheese, and a squirt squeeze of the Colonel's Sauce.  The price tag on this almost all-meat monster is $4.99.

It's like KFC watched that Jack in the Box focus group commercial where they ask something like, "We like the meat... And we understand the cheese... but why the bun?" and thought, "They're right! We don't need no bun!"  (Disclaimer: Complete dramatization and ad libbing on my part.)

I order an Original Recipe Double Down Sandwich.  They still don't have Grilled Boneless Filets in my area, so the Original Recipe Double Down was the only one offered.  I guess they still haven't mastered the Grilled Chicken oven.

As I opened the Double Down's clam shell container, I noticed that the chicken wasn't super greasy, the bacon wasn't typical fast-food paper thin, and the cheese was actually melted and gooey.  So far, so good.

So I took a bite.  It was fairly salty.  The boneless filets were thick, juicy, crispy, and had great, 11-herbs-and-spices, Original Recipe flavor but two Boneless Filets with bacon and cheese is too salty for me.

It's a shame because the individual ingredients themselves were quality.  The bacon actually delivered some good bacon flavor whenever I got a bite of it and actually looked like something you could cook on the stove. I wonder how they cooked it...  Can you cook bacon in a deep fryer?  Maybe in the oven?  

The jack cheeses were also good; very cheesy, melty, and gooey; like a grilled cheese but with the obvious chicken instead of bread.  They were reasonably creamy with a hint of peppery spiciness.

I would have really liked it if it were about 50% less salty.  The chicken, the cheese, and the bacon went very well (even surprisingly so) together.  Of course, when you take away the bun (the salt buffer) and add another piece of seasoned fried chicken, it's going to be salty.  I didn't miss the lack of bun though; the wrapper keeps your fingers relatively clean.  As for the Colonel's Sauce, honestly, I couldn't really taste it over the cheese.  (Update: I tasted it again cold.  Still salty but I could taste the Colonel's Sauce, it's a type of mayo/Thousand Island.)  Still, I think a fair number of people (with high salt tolerance), will overlook the saltiness and enjoy the great combination of flavors in KFC's Double Down Sandwich.

But for me, it was so salty, I was afraid to finish it, but do not worry.  I did not let the super salty Double Down "sandwich" go to waste to save myself from sodium overload.  No, I thought ahead and devised a fix!  You can check it out the fix here  (And no, I did not let my dog eat all the breading.  Yes, that was an option.).

Nutritional Info - KFC Double Down sandwich (241g)
Calories - 540 (from Fat - 290)
Fat - 32g (Saturated Fat - 10g)
Sodium - 1380mg
Carbs - 11g (Sugar - 1g)
Protein - 53g