I was all ready to fire up the grill and cook myself a nice, big T-Bone for dinner when, for the third night in a row, the Lansing area got pounded with heavy storms. As I’ve mentioned in this blog before, I’m a former news photographer, so my girlfriend and I grabbed a camera and went storm and damage chasing. Unfortunately for my T-Bone, the storm came during dinner time, so we needed a back-up plan. We were on our way home, tired and wet when we remembered the KFC on the corner of Cedar and Pennsylvania. A few days ago, we walked to Meijer to get some stuff and talked about trying the new Smoky Chipotle Crispy Chicken. Since it was getting late and we were tired, this was as good a time as ever to give it a shot.
I’m not really a fan of Mexican food, but the one thing I use all the time in my own cooking is chile’s, dried chile’s and chile powder’s. I have bags of Chili De Arbol and Ancho Chile Powder in my spice cabinet and there’s usually a can of chipotle’s in adobo in my fridge, so I was really looking forward to this chicken.
Everyone on the south end of Lansing must have had the same idea as us as the parking lot was pretty full. This KFC is a little bit smaller than most of the ones I’ve been to. There a few tables and booths that line the walls of the building and that’s the only seating. The counter is right there when you walk in the door. There were a couple families in front of us, but the wait was probably only five minutes. My girlfriend doesn’t like dark meat and I’m not a huge of it, but I will eat it. I like that dark meat isn’t as dry, but I find in chain store chicken, it’s usually slimy and that’s a turn off to me. We asked if we could get an 8-piece meal, but make it all white meat. I think she misunderstood and though we wanted 8 breasts. The clerk went and checked to see if they had enough of the Smoky Chipotle Crispy to see if it was possible. There were enough breasts and we asked for four breasts and four wings. They only upped the price by two bucks to make it all white which is better than what other chains charge. The meal came with two sides and four biscuits. We got Mac ‘N Cheese and baked beans. It took the order fillers about five minutes to fill the order then we grabbed our chicken and headed home to relax and watch The Simpsons.
I grabbed a breast and dove right in. I was expecting a little bit of heat, but what I got was a smoky flavor with just a hint of heat. I would have liked it a lot spicier, but I’m sure most people won’t. When I used to go to a lot of dirt track races with my dad, one of my favorite stops was the Jackson 100 at Brownstown (IN) Speedway. We would always stop in Seymor, IN on the way to the track and grab a bucket of KFC for lunch. My dad likes the Original Recipe while I prefer extra crispy. The Smoky Chipotle is a lot like the extra crispy. This is a definate improvement on both recipes. I’ve been avoiding KFC for a long time. When I lived in Peoria and wanted chicken, I would always go to Popeyes even though KFC was closer. I was thinking about that last night, but KFC won out.
The sides were nothing special in my opinion. I don’t like baked beans so those were my girlfriend. The Mac ‘N Cheese was really cheesey. It was good, but nothing I can’t do better. The biscuits weren’t as good as Popeyes, but were still soft and flaky. It’s just not encouraging when the butter and honey that come with it are labled as “Honey Sauce” and “Buttery Spread”
We’ll be back. I don’t usually say that about chains, but chicken chains are the exception with me. It’s hard to find good fried chicken where you can order by the bucket. The Smoky Chipotle Crispy is a huge improvement on KFC’s recipe and something I can see myself eating quite often
Mid-Michigan Dining 
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