KFC Australia has finally dipped its talons into the fast food breakfast market, with a range of morning-only menu items available at select stores. The meals on offer include typical bacon & egg muffins as well as more unusual fare such as the KFC Breakfast Twister. Can the Colonel’s famously greasy chicken work in a brekkie meal? Let’s find out!
Most of us enjoy eating an egg or two for breakfast, but the bird that laid ’em is usually kept off the menu. For whatever reason, the western world prefers to chow down on poultry during lunch or dinner. (Pigs and cattle enjoy no such reprieve, as evidenced by bacon and sausages.) [related title=”More Taste Test articles” tag=”taste-test” items=”4″]
Presumably, this is the reason that KFC has stayed away from the lucrative fast food breakfast market, despite the success enjoyed by McDonald’s and Hungry Jack’s. Well, times have changed and KFC is finally looking to shake up the pecking order.
Late last year, KFC tested the waters with the launch of the Bacon & Egg roll. Now, it has expanded its breakfast offerings to include hash browns, donut sticks, brekkie-themed Chicken Twisters and coffee.
I decided to try the Chicken, Bacon & Egg Twister Combo which includes a twister, hash brown, a coffee and three donut sticks for $8.95. But first I had to find the damn thing. [clear]
Breakfast meals are currently only available at a handful of KFC stores in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, with the rest of Australia still on the waiting list. My first stop was KFC’s flagship NSW outlet near Town Hall train station, which covers two expansive floors. Surely if any KFC store sold breakfast in Sydney, it would be this one? As it turns out, they weren’t even open for business. Tch.
I next tried the KFC express store at Westfield Sydney: Success! The menu board was lit up with a variety of breakfasty morsels, including the aforementioned Chicken, Bacon & Egg Twister Combo. You can also order regular KFC burgers if you want, although anyone who feels like a Double Zinger Burger at 9am probably needs to reassess their dietary habits and/or life.
As its name implies, the KFC Chicken, Bacon & Egg Twister is a regular Twister with bacon and egg added. It comes with two pieces of short cut bacon, a fried egg, two crispy chicken strips, cheese and BBQ sauce housed in a warm wrap.
The Twister on its own costs $6.95, which makes the combo deal excellent value for money — you’re basically getting a coffee, a hash brown and a trio of donut sticks for an extra $2. On the downside, the combo does pack on an extra 1270 kilojoules of energy, bringing the total to a gut-busting 3859kJ.
After a lifetime of meagre McDonald’s McMuffins, I was pretty blown away by the heartiness of this offering. Just look at the size of that wrap! Granted, at $6.95 the Chicken, Bacon & Egg Twister is significantly more expensive than a typical takeaway muffin, but you’re also getting a lot more for your money. (And that’s before you throw in all the combo extras for $2.)
So, how did the Twister taste? Surprisingly good, actually! While the crispy chicken strips don’t exactly scream “breakfast”, the bacon and egg do help to make up for it.
I was particularly impressed by the quality of the egg: the yolk in my wrap was bright orange and slightly runny which is almost unheard of from a fast food chain. Usually, the egg is synthetically scrambled or suffers from a drab colour and taste. I can only assume KFC’s chickens are putting in extra effort in a bid to save their necks.
I was far less enamoured with the combo extras, however. While the coffee was fairly inoffensive, everything else left a lot to be desired. The hash brown was far too soft and soggy — even more so than the ones at McDonald’s, which is really saying something.
The donut sticks weren’t much better. As you can see from the below photo, two of mine were still grafted together, which isn’t a great testament to quality. They were also a little too sugary for my tastes, although that probably has more to do with my lack of a sweet tooth.
Unless you’re really famished, I’d recommend sticking to just the Twister and keeping the extra $2 in your pocket. (Your arteries will thank you, too.)
All in all, the KFC Chicken, Bacon & Egg Twister is far better than I anticipated. As you’d expect, it makes for a pretty greasy start to the day, but I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily a bad thing. If I ever find myself wandering the streets with a morning hangover, this is totally going to be my go-to cure. Now I’m keen to see what Domino’s Pizza can cook up for breakfast! Egg ‘n’ Bacon Calzone, anyone?
Comments
16 responses to “Chicken For Breakfast?? We Test KFC’s New Brekkie Menu”
DAMN YOU CHRIS… i want KFC now, but i JUST ate!!!
What the hell is wrong with your mcdonalds stores that you get soggy hashbrowns?
I haven’t had a soggy one since like 1999
They are normally awesome and crunchy when i get them
HJ have had the cruchiest hash browns IMO.
Damn you though, I’m trying to eat better and you do this to me LMAO Friday KFC Breakfast tomorrow it is!
Not the Taringa HJ. Usually soft.
New? Their brekky menu has been around for at least since last April when I moved here (my walk to work just happens to go past one of the three QLD stores). I usually grab the Twister/coffee/HB combo, swapping the coffee for a Mountain Dew or Krusher.
EDIT: Agreed on the HBs; the KFC ones are soft, limp and sticky (you sometimes have to peel them off the paper) where the ones from Macca’s are nice and crunchy.
Your store must have been part of a ‘soft’ roll out. The breakfast menu was only officially announced recently.
Yep only limited stores
http://www.kfc.com.au/media/164550/kfc-breakfast-stores.pdf
yolk….
The hash brown was far too soft and soggy –
Just like their chips
well fuck me if you work the graveyard shift and have a different eating schedule to @chrisjager … you better re asses your entire life people.
You heard it here first. Judgmental breakfast reviews brought to you by Lifehacker.
kidding… but seriously though do you think before you type?
Have you seen the crap I eat? It was a joke.
I don’t see much salad in the twister. Was it just that one leaf (and the other small shred)?
There was no salad. “It comes with two pieces of short cut bacon, a fried egg, two crispy chicken strips, cheese and BBQ sauce housed in a warm wrap.” Although I’m sure they’d add some if you asked.
I would have asked them to remove it if they had it 😛
I was going off this “As its name implies, the KFC Chicken, Bacon & Egg Twister is a regular Twister with bacon and egg added.” and thought that normal twisters had salad.
Oporto – probably now KFC’s biggest competitor in the chicken-rich fast food stakes – has been offering poultry-based breakfasts for quite a few years, so the market must be there. I’m surprised it took KFC so long to make this move.
Question, Chris – how did you find the BBQ sauce levels? Did it tip it over the edge in terms of too much sweetness at all?
I’m not a fan of sweet sauces in general, but the Twister BBQ sauce wasn’t too bad: you could still taste the chicken, bacon and egg underneath and it wasn’t too messy either.
Am I the only person in the country who remembers the last time KFC tried to enter the breakfast market?
Does no one remember the “What! Chicken for Breakfast?” adds?