Food Review: KFC Double Down Sandwich

For anyone who has not heard of the KFC Double Down sandwich, it is a relatively new menu item that is described by KFC as featuring "two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel's Sauce."

The majority of people, who have either eaten or heard from others that have eaten it, that I have talked to have said that KFC's Double Down is not very good and do not recommend it to others. While, I know the Double Down is not healthy to eat, I think it has a great taste. If you are all about the health benefits of food, this sandwich is definitely not for you. However, if you just want a good taste and do not care about the health aspects, I recommend this sandwich.

For those of you that already like KFC, I see no reason why you would not like this. Basically, the main ingredients for this sandwich are already on the KFC menu, that being the KFC Original Recipe Filet on the regular Double Down or the Grilled Filet or Tender Roast Chicken Filet on the Grilled Double Down. The filets have already been on the KFC menu for quite a while, so, if you eat the Double Down, you are just eating 2 filets combined with the Colonel's Sauce, Bacon, Pepper Jack Cheese and Monterey Jack Cheese. The Colonel's Sauce is just like a spicy chicken broth without much flavor. Everyone likes the taste of bacon and pepper jack and Monterey Jack cheese. Based on all of these ingredients, the only thing that might influence your opinion on this sandwich is the Colonel's sauce, which, like I said, does not have much flavor.

I ate the regular Double Down with the KFC Original Recipe Filets and they tasted just like (drum roll) KFC Original Recipe Filets. The chicken tasted good and the breading had a great taste and crispy texture, making it something I would probably order again. As I said previously, I really did not notice the taste of the Colonel's sauce, so that is a neutral for me. The bacon tasted like bacon, which is probably the ingredient that is causing all the controversy over the high levels of salt/sodium in this sandwich. You can always take the bacon off. The 2 kinds of cheeses were okay but they did not seem to be melted at all, just tossed on the sandwich while it was warm without any further heating, which I would have preferred because then the cheese would have been melted and blended into the taste of the filets.

The Double Down is a very salty sandwich, like everyone is saying. You really do need a drink, such as a sweet soda, to counterbalance the salt taste. As an experiment, I took the bacon off of a few pieces of the filet, leaving the sauce and some of the cheese, and the sandwich tasted a lot less salty. This leads me to the conclusion that most of the excessive salt/sodium taste comes from the bacon almost exclusively. Without the bacon, you are left with an already salty sandwich, but more manageable. It is still not healthy for you but at least the taste of the salt will not overpower the taste of the whole sandwich. I think that KFC can make the bacon optional to avoid all of the controversy over the excessive sodium for health and taste reasons. If people like the taste of the bacon and don't care about the unhealthiness of the sandwich, let them have their bacon.

As I said before, the Double Down comes in two versions -- Original Recipe and Grilled, each with different nutritional content. Some of the differences are perplexing to me. Let's have a look at them.

Regular

weight: 8.5 ounces
calories: 540
fat: 32 g
saturated fat: 10 g
cholesterol: 145 mg
sodium: 1380 mg
carbohydrates: 11 g

Grilled

weight: almost 9 ounces
calories: 460 calories
fat: 23 gm
saturated fat: 9 g
cholesterol: 185 mg
sodium: 1430 mg
carbohydrates: 3 g

The regular Double Down contains about half of the USDA daily intake levels for total fat (65g), more than half of the daily saturated fat (17g), a little over half of the cholesterol (230mg) and an astounding 78% of the daily intake for sodium. Carbohydrates are very low, which is not surprising because there is no bread except for the breading. The sodium levels are insane.

Now let's look at the Grilled Double Down. It contains about one third of the USDA daily intake levels for total fat (65g), more than half of the daily saturated fat (17g), a little over one third of the cholesterol (230mg) and an even more astounding 80% of the daily intake for sodium. Carbohydrates are very low, which is not surprising because there is no bread or breading whatsoever. The sodium levels are even more insane than the regular.

I find it surprising that the grilled version of the Double Down contains more cholesterol and sodium than the regular Double Down. The fat and carbohydrates are lower but the saturated fat is only 1 g lower. I thought the grilled version is supposed to be healthier for you because it's grilled? The grilled does weigh about half an ounce more, which might cause some of differences in cholesterol and sodium. There are fewer calories which probably means that more of the calories are due to the fat.

The price for the Double Down at my KFC was about $5.50 plus tax, which seems a little bit high to me but, when you think about it, this is about the average price for fast food like this. If you have a large family with 5 or more people ordering, $27.50 sounds a bit high for this level of fast food.

In conclusion, the KFC Double Down has a lot of flavor and I recommend it to people that are not health-conscious fanatics or do not have pre-existing health conditions. If you just do not like the saltiness, you can always take the bacon off. This is definitely not a healthy sandwich but, at this point in my life, I really do not worry too much about the healthiness of my food. If it tastes good, I might as well die happy!

I give the KFC Double Down 3 stars out of 5 because it's not really a new idea, just a repackaging of pre-existing menu items and the sodium is rather unnecessary, considering every item used in the sandwich contains sodium. They could have used low sodium bacon, cheese or sauce to counterbalance the sodium already in the meat parts.

Taste: 4/5
creativity: 2/5
Healthiness: 1/5
Size: 4/5
Price: 3/5

Average Rating: 3/5

Read more details about KFC Double Down sandwich on the KFC site. Also be sure to check out my Gugie Gourmet blog.