Review: KFC Spicy Mac & Cheese Bowl

Bottom Line: The KFC Spicy Mac & Cheese Bowl may not bring much heat, but it is a hefty and tasty meal at a good price.

How many times can you add fried chicken to a dish? Let the fast food industry count the ways! We have chicken sandwiches, chicken tacos, chicken salads, chicken dogs (or should I say “dawgs”, more on that here) and then there is KFC’s chicken bowls. The most common form of those comes with mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and fried pieces of chicken. But just recently the colonel has brought back its mac and cheese bowls topped with . . . you guessed it . . . fried chicken!

Here’s what you get in a the Mac & Cheese Bowl:

Macaroni and cheese. Good.

Crispy fried popcorn chicken. Good.

or

Spicy crispy fried popcorn chicken. Even better.

All topped with shredded cheese. You can never have too much cheese!

It makes for a nice meal by combining tried and true ingredients! And I recently moseyed on down to my local KFC to try the Spice Mac & Cheese Bowl.

While the chicken pieces are small and pretty heavy on the breading, they are nicely seasoned with a good peppery taste and the crust delivers plenty of crunch. Unfortunately, the chicken in my bowl was a bit overcooked so that smaller pieces almost tasted burnt, but it did not detract too much from the overall experience.

Next up is the macaroni and cheese which is creamy and cheesy and lives up to its comfort food reputation. The cheese sauce is quite smooth and there is plenty to cover all the macaroni, and it has that mild and slightly salty taste you expect from the dish along with a nice richness. It goes quite well with the chicken, and there are enough pieces of those that you get one in every bite. The shredded cheese does not add too much to the flavor profile, but as I already said, you can never have too much cheese.

The spicy popcorn chicken is not too hot, not even having as much spice as I remember from it when having ordered it separately in the past. And when combined with the mac and cheese this dish barely makes it to mild level. But it is still a hefty amount of food with a good portion of chicken and big scoop of mac and cheese that is tasty and will fill you up. See my comments further below on how to spice it up.

Speaking of this filling you up, it will certainly do that and there is no need to order a side along with it (consider the popcorn chicken you entre and the mac and cheese your side). The website shows the calories at 660 to 790, but I’m not sure why it ranges like that because spicy seasoning shouldn’t add any extra cals. So I’m just going to say that my bowl is 660 calories while yours is 790. Anywhere within that range should be enough for a satisfying meal, especially if you are getting this for lunch. I might concede the coleslaw at 170 cals, but stay away from those fries lest you be shopping for the next belt size. And if you are watching you salt intake, you may just want to skip the drive thru because this bowl tops out a 2270mg!

KFC has had the Mac & Cheese Bowls on the menu before and they will have them again, the question is how long will they stay this time? That all depends on the attention span of their latest marketing exec, so if you want to get one head to the drive thru soon lest they get sent back to Limited-Time-Only-Ville. At five bucks a bowl for a hefty meal, that’s a heck of a deal in these days when a combo meal is upwards of ten bucks or more.

Spice It Up: Mac and cheese demands hot sauce unless your grandmother made it and is watching you eat it. A good Louisiana sauce like Franks Red Hot always goes good with the dish, but if you really want to kick it up then add some Habanero sauce like Sontava or Trader Joe’s.

Tale of the Tape:

Serving Size: 1 Bowl
Calories: 660
Fat: 36g (7g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 27g
Carbs: 57g
Sodium: 2270mg