Kentucky vs. Louisiana, Colonel Sanders Vs. Popeyes Annie. The biggest rivalry in Southern fried chicken has arrived. KFC vs. Popeyes Is upon us and the second battle of the Chicken Nugget Wars is here!
Last semester in the Chicken Sandwich Wars, the battle between KFC and Popeyes was razor close and was decided by just one half of a point. This battle is just as even of a matchup as last time. Will the returning champion Popeyes pull it off once again? Let’s find out.
Popeyes showed its strength in the crispiness section. The breading on the Popeyes nuggets was about as far from soggy as a nugget could be, earning a perfect 10.
The KFC nuggets were not nearly as crispy. Although they were slightly above average, they were not nearly as good as the Popeyes nuggets, earning a 6.
Popeyes was not as dominant in the juiciness category. The nuggets seemed like they were made fresh and then placed under a heat lamp for an hour, completely driving out any juice from the nuggets. The uncharacteristically dry nuggets were a disappointment coming from what is usually a reliable fast-food stop for some juicy chicken, earning a 5.
The KFC nuggets were the first nuggets in the chicken nugget wars to come through with some actual juicy nuggets. Although the nuggets from Jack in the Box were juicy, they were borderline soggy. These nuggets were juicy for the sake of the juice, earning an 8.
Both nuggets left something to be desired in the tenderness category. Both nuggets were clearly made from actual whole pieces of chicken instead of a ground chicken mixture, which set them above the other nuggets in the competition. However, they were still slightly tough, both earning a 6.
Popeyes was a bit of a letdown in the flavor category. The nuggets didn’t taste particularly bad, but they tasted of mostly nothing. What flavor did come through was delicious, but compared to the flavor in the chicken sandwich, the Popeyes nuggets were subpar, earning a 7.5.
The KFC nuggets introduced an interesting dilemma to the flavor category. The 11 herbs and spices KFC is known for definitely came though, but the issue was that those spices were all that came though, especially pepper… lots and lots of black pepper. Although this was not necessarily a bad thing depending on personal preference, this battle is not a battle that will be decided on the taste of pepper. This battle will be decided on the status of chicken, which was nearly absent in the KFC nuggets.
The spice blend left the impression that it was trying to hide something by masking all the other flavors in the nuggets. And since this is a chicken nugget battle and not a spice nugget battle, the KFC nuggets earn a 6.
The sauce category was an absolute disaster for Popeyes, which shot itself in the foot due to the mistake of an employee. The Popeyes nuggets came with two sauces, and the sauces selected for this battle were Ranch and Bayou Buffalo. Despite this, the sauces that were in the bag were both sweet heat. For ignoring the demands of the chicken master, Popeyes will have 1 point automatically deducted from the sauce category, but it gets worse.
The sweet heat sauce was godawful. It tasted like someone mixed some Aunt Jemimas with Frank’s RedHot in an unhappy marriage that will likely end in a divorce in your stomach. Popeyes and the not so sweet heat sauce earn a 3 in the sauce category.
The KFC sauce was unfortunately not much better. The selected sauce was Classic Ranch, but when I think of classic, I do not think of the ranch I received. The ranch was unnaturally fatty and tasted more like mayonnaise or old butter with pepper than ranch. Paired with the overtly peppery taste of the nuggets and this sauce added up to a disappointment. KFC earns a 3 for this sorry excuse for ranch.
KFC earns a massive 2 price points as the KFC I went to apparently doesn’t even have size on their nuggets, they just hand out a whole box chock full of them. After a careful nugget count, KFC gave me 48 individual nuggets in my order, which was astounding especially considering I only paid $7. However, the KFC nuggets were only about a quarter of the size of their Popeyes competitors.
This brings the scores for this battle to 31 for KFC and an incredibly close 31.5 for Popeyes! Although the record is currently 2-0 in Popeyes’ favor, the insanely close score in both battles ensures that this rivalry will certainly live on.
Make sure to catch the next edition of the Clarion to find out who will win in the third battle of the chicken nugget wars between Chick-fil-A and The Habit!
