Tasting Taco Bell Thailand's New Kickin' Chicken Taco

Taco Bell recently opened their first location in Thailand and exclusive to the territory is the new Kickin' Chicken Taco, which features a "unique spicy Kickin' Sauce." Now I've never been to Thailand but I was able to try the Kickin' Chicken Taco courtesy of Taco Bell.

Beyond Kickin' Sauce, the Kickin' Chicken Taco tread fairly traditional territory: it also includes a crispy-fried chicken strip, lettuce, pico de gallo, and a two-cheese blend folded in a soft flour tortilla.

The crispy chicken in Thailand features a red chili spice marinade but, unfortunately, I wasn't able to try the Thai version as the logistics of shipping the chicken from Thailand makes that difficult. Instead, my Kickin' Chicken Taco was made with an Extra Crispy chicken strip from KFC.

I asked about the inspiration for the sauce and was told it was actually inspired by the discontinued Lava Sauce. It's been a long time since I've had Lava sauce so I can't really say much about the similarities between the two.

However, I can say that Kickin' Sauce comes in reminiscent orange color and is moderately spicy. It doesn't have that cheesy funk of Lava Sauce though. Instead, there's a tasty savory depth that, interestingly, isn't as salty or tangy as a lot of hot sauces and neither is it sweet like a sweet Thai chili sauce. It's really good though and I'd love to see them bring it to the States as the flavorful but otherwise neutral heat could work well with a number of items.

As a whole, the Kickin' Chicken Taco brings to mind a spicy version of the long-discontinued KFC Twister.

I was also able to try the Thai version of Taco Bell's Hot and Fire Sauces, which taste the same as the US versions but are about four times hotter according to the chain. I didn't feel either was hotter than Diablo sauce though. The Thai sauces come in a flatter, wider packet but that's simply what the suppliers in Thailand use.

Finally, I sampled the Mango Madness Freeze, which is also exclusive to Thailand. It was fruity but more like apricot than mango to me.

Photo by BrandEating.com.