Mid-Michigan Dining

Well, I didn’t plan on being home again last night, so I had nothing prepared for dinner.  Stupid rain screwing up my work schedule.  I started going through the cupboards to find food when J e-mailed me and said we should try KFC’s news grilled chicken.  It sounded good to me, so about a half hour before she’d be home for dinner, I headed to the KFC on South Cedar Street to pick up a bucket.

A fairly empty bucket of KFC's new grilled chicken

When I walked in, I was met by a clerk yelling from behind the counter that they were out of dark meat.  Yes, KFC, a chicken place, was out of chicken.  She just said they were out of original and extra crispy and didn’t say anything about the grilled chicken so I waited in line while a few other customers yelled at this poor girl for not having chicken.   I mean, really, it’s not her fault.  She’s not a manager.  She’s not a cook.  She was the poor girl who got stuck at the front register.  Apparently, KFC is running a special on an all dark meat bucket and they got swamped at dinner time and couldn’t keep up. 

When it was my turn to order, I asked if they had the grilled chicken.  She said she’d check and mistook that I wanted an all dark meat bucket.  She told me there wasn’t enough, but when I said I’d rather have the mixed bucket anyway, there was actually enough so I put in an order for the 8-piece meal which included two sides and biscuits.

I paid and waited for my chicken to come up and again, got the pleasure of seeing a number of @*&holes yell at this girl for something she had no control over.  Yeah, it sucks that you’re dinner plans just got ruined, but don’t be a jerk about it. 

Anyway, I grabbed my chicken then went home to wait for J.  I opened up the bucket and was a little disappointed.  It didn’t look anything like it does in the commercial.  The bucket was mostly empty.  At first, I thought I got shorted, but as I pulled the pieces out, I counted eight.  I didn’t get cheated, but the grilled chicken pieces are much smaller than the fried pieces.

A KFC grilled chicken breast

While I was waiting for J, I ate the whole box of potato wedges which were much better than I remembered.  I felt bad about not waiting for J, but they were good and I was hungry.

When she finally did get home, we dug into the chicken.  It did have a nice grilled flavor, but it seemed a little greasy or slimy to me.  The size was the biggest disappointment.  I ate a whole breast in two bites.  J really liked it and didn’t seem to notice or mind the faults I found with it.  It’s definitely something we would order again, but it’s not going to replace fried chicken.  The healthier option is nice and I hope it sticks around, but it’d also be nice if they could find an efficient way to grill bigger pieces or, at the very least, charge a little bit less for the grilled chicken.  The two sides (I got potato wedges and mac ‘n cheese), biscuits (which are good, but not as good as Popeye’s) and eight pieces of chicken set me back just over $13.  Not a bad prices for a meal that left us with lunch for tomorrow, but not as good of a deal as the fried chicken.