Are These The Worst KFC Menu Items Of All Time?

Much has been said about KFC’s decline in recent years (although it may finally be getting better, so if you’re a longtime fan, have faith!). Time and time again, people have said that its food is getting worse, that its stores’ standards are slipping, and generally, that it seems to have lost its way. All of this hasn’t been helped by a couple of decisions KFC has made about its menu. As virtually every other fast food chain does, KFC has leaned into innovation a few times, in ways that customers have felt hindered it instead of helped it. In other words: It’s released some pretty terrible menu items. 

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Which have been the worst, though? Well, here are our picks. Sorry, KFC. We’re not sure we can defend these. 

Cheetos Sandwich 

Released in 2019, this sandwich was a marketing stunt that backfired pretty spectacularly for KFC. The chain’s Cheetos Sandwich was available for a four-week period in July of that year, and it consisted of a chicken fillet covered in a Cheetos sauce, with a layer of crunchy Cheetos thrown in for good measure. First off, the whole thing looked pretty gross – and then, when people came to eat it, the sauce was overly salty, and folks said it didn’t taste anything like Cheetos, and the Cheetos themselves were stale. Basically, nothing about it worked. 

Nacho Box

Dropping in 2014 in Australia, the Nacho Box had the potential to be a cool mash-up. Combining tortilla chips, salsa, cheese, and popcorn chicken, it wasn’t exactly an elegant meal, but I can see the vision. The first problem, though, was quality control: The Nacho Boxes were poorly constructed, with crushed tortilla chips and weird blobs of melted cheese and sauce everywhere.

Then, there was quality control of a different kind. Shortly after the Nacho Boxes debuted, people started complaining that their meals contained moldy cheese, which forced KFC Australia to withdraw the offending ingredient and replace it. Too little, too late, though. 

Double Down Dog

Much has been said about the KFC Double Down, but here, I wanted to shine a light on a menu item that, to be honest, was even worse. I’m talking about the Double Down Dog, a very short-lived extension of the double chicken sandwich that was released in the Philippines in 2015 for two days only. As you can probably figure out from the name, the Double Down Dog took the concept of a Double Down, but instead used two chicken pieces to make a hot dog bun – and then placed a weiner inside. 

It sounds pretty gross; it looked pretty gross; and people found that it was – yes! – pretty gross. As is often the case with some KFC items (and fast food sandwiches in general, fried chicken buns or not), the Double Down Dog was badly put together, with people posting pictures of extremely unappetizing masses of fried chicken, cheese, and sausage. It was also unbelievably messy to eat. Naturally, it got them a lot of attention, but was it a wise, considered choice? It was not.