Food Review: Popeye's Wicked Chicken & Cane Sweeeet Iced Tea

I first learned of Popeye's Wicked Chicken from an e-mail I received because I do not watch much live TV with commercials. The title made me curious but when I went to see the photo, the chicken looks like it was dead -- dried out like some kind of beef jerky. Going into this, I really thought that this chicken was probably leftover chicken that was going to be tossed and some executive came up with the idea of making money off of the leftover chicken. I decided to try it anyways so that it could write a review about it.

The official description from the Popeye's site states: "Popeye's Wicked Chicken are thin strips of tender, juicy, all white meat marinated in authentic Louisiana seasonings and cooked| in our uniquely crispy coating until twisty and curly. Served with Cajun fries, a buttermilk biscuit and your very own mini bottle of Tabasco sauce."

I ordered the Popeye's Wicked Chicken, which is part of a combo that comes with Cajun fries, a buttermilk biscuit and a miniature bottle of Tabasco hot sauce. Everything was in order and no surprises. The website shows the combo costing $3.99 but, apparently, this depends on the location of the Popeye's because mine cost $4.99.

Wicked Chicken

I received about 12 pieces of Popeye's Wicked Chicken but not all of the pieces were whole strips, so I really received about 9 strips of chicken. Still, I did receive a lot of chicken for the price, which I did not expect.

The strips do not look very good but, as I was expecting to chicken to be dried out and almost inedible, I was pleasantly surprised when the first piece of chicken I bit into was moist and almost juicy. The second strip was almost as good.

I thought I was on a roll with great chicken but then I started eating more pieces and found some of them to be tough and stringy, nothing like the 1st 2 pieces I ate. So, be warned that the wicked chicken is not uniform in the size of the chicken pieces or the resulting texture. Bigger pieces will usually be tender and thinner pieces will usually be stringy. This lack of uniformity both confirms and goes against my original opinion of the chicken probably being leftover chicken that is used for this purpose instead of tossing it away or using it for some sort of gravy dish.

The breading was not as crispy or crunchy as I expected it to be. The photos make the chicken looked like it would be very crunchy. Some of my chicken breading was crispy but none of it was crunchy, so if you are really looking for a crunch, this will probably not satisfy you.

I could detect a little oil in the chicken when I tasted it but not too bad.

The seasoning in the breading was definitely hot but not excessively so. I tried some Louisiana hot sauce packets on 2 chicken strips and it was too hot to be tasty for me at least. If you'd like some heat and still like to taste your food, I recommend eating the chicken without hot sauce because there is plenty in the breading. If you really want a "wicked" chicken, as advertised, then you should use the hot sauce.

I saved the tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce because I collect bottles of hot sauce but there really was not enough for more than one piece of chicken. I find it a bit strange that Popeye's uses Louisiana hot sauce in their packets but gave a mini bottle of Tabasco hot sauce with this combo because they are competitors. As for me, I prefer Texas Pete's hot sauce but everyone has their favorite.

Overall, Popeye's Wicked Chicken is pretty much your standard chicken strips done in the manner of popcorn chicken only on a larger scale. If you like popcorn chicken, you will probably like this. The wicked aspect of the chicken seems to be merely a name because the chicken is far from wicked. It might be slightly hotter than KFC chicken but the batter tastes pretty much like most of Popeye's chicken menu items. In my opinion, Popeye's Wicked Chicken is just a marketing campaign to build popularity for an old menu item idea repackaged to look really new and attract business.

Cajun Fries

The Cajun fries were good as usual. They tasted fresh, the oil was clean and the seasonings were good. I have eaten the fries before but it was a while ago and I forgot how much of a great potato taste Popeye's Cajun fries have, compared to other fast food fries. I would say these are comparable to Arby's tries, which are just as good but with a similar but different seasoning. The fries were the best part of this combo and I received a ton of fries -- probably enough for 2 orders, which was a pleasant surprise. I don't remember them giving me this many last time. The amount of fries, coupled with the amount of chicken, in this combo makes it well worth the price.

Buttermilk Biscuit

The buttermilk biscuit was a big letdown. I don't really remember eating biscuits last time I bought food from Popeye's but, after this order, I will not forget it. These are the most bland and unbuttery buttermilk biscuits I have ever eaten. I recently ate buttermilk biscuits from KFC and they were exponentially more flavorful and buttery than that of Popeye's.

Cane Sweeeet Iced Tea

To go along with my Popeye's Wicked Chicken combo, I also ordered a cup of Popeye's Cane Sweeeet Iced Tea, which I saw advertised beside the Popeye's Wicked Chicken ad. Popeye's official description states: "Popeye's Cane Sweeeet Iced Tea is fresh brewed from a blend of premium orange pekoe and pekoe cut black teas from the Far East and South America and cane sweetened to create a refreshing Iced Tea with consistently superior taste."

The iced tea tasted like regular old iced tea without the cane sugar. The teas are your basic teas that you can buy in stores, like Lipton or Tetley. It was a bit sweet for me, so this tastes almost like regular sweet tea, which is not my favorite because I don't like my drinks that sweet. I can't really tell the difference in taste between regular sugar and cane sugar in this drink. I can make the same tasting tea at home for a few pennies -- then again, this is fast food, not gourmet, so what can you expect?

Popeye's Wicked Chicken Rating

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

Average Rating: 3/5

Read more details about Popeye's Wicked Chicken on the Popeye's site. Also be sure to check out my Gugie Gourmet blog.