by Bottom Line: The Spicy Mac & Cheese Wrap from KFC may have familiar ingredients but it is a tasty and filling wrap that actually delivers some heat.
KFC (or Kentucky Fried Chicken for those of us old enough to remember when it went by that name) has been doing chicken since Colonel Harlan Sanders was frying it up in the back of his gas station in the 1930s (yes, he was a real person). But chicken is big business these days, and chains can’t rest on their laurels, no matter how good the Colonel’s original recipe is (a favorite of mine among the chicken fryers). The competition is stiff, and everybody is coming up with the latest “new” thing to get people lining up in the drive-thru. For KFC, wraps are one of the additions that have been bringing in business since they were introduced last year, so they are increasing the selections, and one of the new offerings adds some spice.
The Colonel already had the Spicy Slaw Wrap on the menu starting last year (you can read my review of that here), and now he has added the Spicy Mac & Cheese Wrap to the lineup. This includes an Extra Crispy Chicken Tender, spicy sauce, Mac & Cheese, and a three-cheese blend wrapped up in a soft flour tortilla. You may notice that there is nothing in the list of ingredients that wasn’t already in the kitchen before this “new” wrap was added. They just borrowed one of Taco Bell’s tricks and mixed things up to make you think it really is new. (Not surprisingly, KFC is owned by Yum! Brands, which also owns Taco Bell).
But who really cares if the wrap is all new or not? The real question we are asking is whether it is any good and does it have a kick!
The tender is pretty meaty and seasoned just right, as you would expect from KFC. It uses the extra crispy breading, but it loses a fair amount of crunch once added with the other ingredients in the wrap. The mac and cheese is plenty creamy and quite tasty, just like what you get as a side order from this place. Combining the two is a little weird, though, and it is sort of like taking a bite of a wrap then popping in a bite of mac and cheese. But the Mac & Cheese bowl with popcorn chicken is one of the rotational items at this chain, so I guess they just decided to stuff it into a wrap (and call it new). The three-cheese blend adds a little more creaminess and sharpness, but mostly just gets lost in the mix. There is a little bit of a tang from the spicy sauce, but not much flavor beyond that. The tortilla is standard for the drive-thru and holds everything together well enough, but it doesn’t really add much beyond that.
Heat-wise, this comes in somewhere between Mild and Medium on my scale. I would have expected less heat, seeing as the cheese sauce counters the burn, but the spicy sauce does manage to deliver a kick (even if it doesn’t add much flavor). The wrap is not consistently spicy throughout, though, as some bites are hotter while some have very little kick, which is a factor of how the sauce was distributed. But you definitely get some heat while munching on it. Between the two, I prefer the Spicy Slaw Wrap, but the Mac & Cheese wrap still worked out pretty well.
Nutrition-wise, they do not give a full breakdown for the new wrap, but the calories total up to 470. That’s not bad for a fast-food item, but you will need to go easy on the sides. Your best bet is the sweet corn, which only comes in at 60 cals, and you can even claim that you are eating your veggies!
The Spicy Mac & Cheese Wrap is advertised as a limited-time-only item, as is the new non-spicy version of the same thing and the Honey BBQ wrap. But the other wraps were originally advertised that way, and they are still around. One of these will set you back three bucks in my area, or you can do the two for $5 deal. That’s pretty cheap for the drive-thru these days (fast food is no longer cheap food), and these will fill you up, so it is worth a trip to KFC to try the Spicy Mac & Cheese Wrap, even if it is just a remix of ingredients already in the kitchen.
