Review: KFC - Smoky Mountain BBQ Fried Chicken Tenders

KFC's Smoky Mountain BBQ Chicken Tenders feature Extra Crispy fried chicken breast strips covered in a sweet and smoky barbecue sauce.

An order of three tenders, a side, and a biscuit rang me up for $4.99 (I opted to forgo the pickles).

While the chicken was moist enough, each piece was so thin that I wondered if they purposefully hammered them flat so that they would cook faster (or just cut really thin pieces). Whatever the case, they felt like half of each piece was crispy, flaky breading. The tenders I've had recently at Wendy's and McDonald's have been noticeably thicker and meatier.

Beyond the chicken, the sauce brought to mind Lay's Barbecue-flavored potato chips. It had that seasoned, slightly sweet smoky quality with just a hint of vinegary tang. I enjoyed the flavor although I thought it rather odd to have a barbecue sauce that tastes like barbecue-sauce-flavored chips. Combined with the saltiness of the fried chicken batter, it was a touch on the too-salty end of the spectrum though. I should note that Smoky Mountain BBQ is an oil-based sauce like the chain's Nashville Hot and Georgia Gold before it (although it looks more like a tomato-based sauce in the promotional pictures).

So basically, I liked the new Smoky Mountain BBQ sauce and I liked the crispy breading but KFC really needs some thicker-cut chicken strips. I recommend going for the bone-in fried chicken if you tend to have the same problem at your local KFC.