KFC – Michael Eats

Flamin’ Hot Chicken Sandwich from KFC

Published on August 25, 2026August 25, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

For the last few years, it feels like KFC has been asking themselves “would this item be out of place in a carnival?” whenever they come out with a new menu item.

In case it’s not clear, I am 100% on board with this philosophy. All fast food should be an affront to good taste. If it isn’t, what’s the point??

And yes, good taste has been affronted. The Flamin’ Hot Chicken Sandwich, as per KFC’s website: “Craving some heat? The Flamin’ Hot Chicken Sandwich features KFC’s juicy, crunchy, signature triple-breaded chicken fillet turned up with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos heat. Coated in bold Flamin’ Hot seasoning, drizzled with spicy Flamin’ Hot sauce, and topped with crunchy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos for an extra fiery kick in every bite – all served on a soft potato bun.”

This is exactly what you want it to be: stupid, but tasty. The sauce is pleasantly zingy with a mild cheesy tang, and the Cheetos (which are generously applied) add an extra dose of crunchiness to a sandwich that’s already quite crunchy. It’s good.

It’s not particularly spicy, which is a shame from something with “Flamin’ Hot” in its name, but it does have a mild kick.

As with everything from KFC, the quality of the sandwich depends quite a bit on whether the chicken was freshly fried, and in my case, it was hot and fresh.

I also tried the Flamin’ Hot Fries: “The Flamin’ Hot Fries feature our crispy golden fries turned up with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos heat. Tossed in bold Flamin’ Hot seasoning for a fiery, crave-worthy bite every time.”

I won’t lie: these were terrible. I got lucky with a fresh piece of chicken, and very unlucky with these fries, which tasted like they had been sitting out for several hours. They were also so lightly seasoned that if I had eaten these blind, I don’t think I would have guessed that they were supposed to be Flamin’ Hot.

(Or maybe my palate was just blown out by the sandwich — it’s not exactly subtle, that’s for sure.)

And of course, I got an order of the Flamin’ Hot dip: “Turn the heat wayyyyy up with our Flamin’ Hot dip. A creamy, spicy dip packed with the bold heat of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Perfect for dunking fries, chicken, or anything that could use a little extra flame.”

This was the exact same sauce that’s on the sandwich, and I’ll admit that it works better as a condiment on a sandwich than as a dip for fries.

It’s weirdly thick, and its one-note zesty flavour gets tiresome when you don’t have a whole bunch of chicken and bread to mellow it out (though the fact that the fries were borderline inedible certainly didn’t help this dip’s case).

They also have a Cheetos Dirty Soda as part of this promotion, but it’s just a normal orange soda with Cheetos on top, so I skipped it. Give me a Cheetos-flavoured soda, you cowards.

I should note that all this stuff is currently supposed to be exclusive to the KFC app until August 31, though I was able to order it on the website without downloading anything. You definitely can’t order it in person for now, however (at least not at the KFC I visited, which didn’t even have any signage up for the promotion).

Zinger Drip Sandwich from KFC

Published on May 6, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

KFC recently came out with a “Zinger Drip” menu, which seems to have nothing to do with the Zinger Sandwich that they currently serve, aside from the presence of spiciness. But sure, I like spice — I’ll check that out.

There are three items to choose from: a sandwich, popcorn chicken, and hot wings, all coated in a spicy sauce.

I went with the sandwich: “The Zinger Drip Sandwich brings bold, saucy heat to a fan-favourite classic. Our Famous Chicken sandwich fillet fully coated in KFC’s rich Zinger Drip sauce, then layered with cheddar cheese and fresh lettuce – all served on a soft potato bun. It’s a spicy, satisfying bite from top to bottom.”

It’s tasty. The Zinger Drip sauce has a vinegary, Frank’s-esque base, but with some mild sweetness and a bit of a garlicky punch to round things out. It’s not particularly spicy, but there’s enough heat to give your mouth a tingle. It’s pretty satisfying, which is good because the chicken is absolutely drenched in the stuff.

The word “drip” in the name of this sandwich is extremely appropriate — this was one of the drippiest, messiest sandwiches I’ve eaten in quite a while. After I was done, I had to lather up my hands like a doctor preparing for surgery just to get the stickiness off them.

As for the rest of the sandwich, it’s all pretty standard KFC stuff. I will say that the cheese feels entirely superfluous — the Zinger Drip sauce is not subtle, and its flavour completely wipes out the cheese, which may as well not be there.

Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich from KFC

Published on February 24, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

I was actually kind of shocked to see that chili crunch is now mainstream enough to pop up at a giant fast food chain like KFC — but then I guess it’s been on its way up for a few years now (here’s an article from 2022 about how chili crisp “took over America”).

KFC’s got several items with the stuff, including a sandwich, Loaded Chili Crunch Tenders, a chili crunch Snacker Wrap, and chili crunch fries.

I went with the Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich: “Meet your new spicy obsession – the Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich. KFC’s juicy, crunchy, signature tripled-breaded chicken fillet is layered with spicy chili crunch oil, creamy chili crunch mayo, crispy onions, and pickles— all sandwiched between a toasted potato bun.”

I’m a fan of chili crunch, so I sort of figured this would be good, and yeah, it is. For one thing, unlike my last experience at KFC, the sandwich was hot, fresh, and made with some level of care. This seems like it should be the bare minimum, but here we are.

But even aside from that, this is a tasty sandwich — the chili crunch they’re using is a bit tangier than the norm, but it works. Combined with the heat and the garlicky punch, it’s a great topping for a fried chicken sandwich. The mayo also has some of that flavour, which is nice.

The level of spice is pretty decent, too — it’s certainly not the spiciest thing you’ll ever eat, but it’s got a nice kick. It’s a level of heat that would have been unheard of from a fast food chain a few years ago, but fast food places have been upping the spice recently.

I’m not sure if the crispy onions add all that much, and the sandwich is maybe a bit too salty, but otherwise I really enjoyed this.

Matty Melt Sandwich from KFC x Matty Matheson

Published on January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1610 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

KFC is making a pretty big deal out of their collaboration with celebrity chef Matty Matheson. At the location I went to, there was signage all over the restaurant, and even the bag was emblazoned with Matheson’s name. It’s in the news. People are excited!

And sure, it is kinda exciting. An ostensibly talented chef teaming up with a fast food joint? Yeah, I’m all over that.

There are three new items in this promotion: the Matty Melt Sandwich, the Matty Melt Slider, and the Matty Mega Melt Poutine. Hilariously, that poutine weighs in at a whopping 2390 calories (??), which seems like it’s probably too many calories? I briefly considered ordering this just for the novelty of it, but I just don’t think I’ve reached the level of self-loathing required to want to consume a 2400 calorie poutine from KFC. Sorry.

So I went with the Matty Melt Sandwich: “The Matty Melt Chicken Sandwich features our signature triple-breaded chicken fillet layered with cheese sauce, sweet caramelized onions, and creamy mayo, all stacked on a potato bun.”

I did not enjoy this sandwich. It’s that “cheese sauce,” which has zero cheese-like properties and is mostly just one-note salty in an oddly unpleasant way. If you served this to me blind, I never in a million years would have guessed that it was supposed to be a cheese sauce.

KFC doesn’t mention this in their description, but the only flavour there (aside from the vaguely off-putting amorphous saltiness) is truffle oil. I might be wrong, but there’s either truffle oil in there, or something that tasted a lot like truffle oil to me. I’m not particularly crazy about truffle oil, so can’t say I enjoyed this. Your milage may vary if you like the stuff more than I do.

The only other thing that differentiates this from a standard KFC sandwich are the caramelized onions. Some sweetness actually would have been nice, considering how salty the sandwich is, but I can’t say the onions added much.

It probably didn’t help that the chicken itself had obviously been sitting out for quite a while, and was dried out and chewy around the edges. This is partially my fault — the last time I visited this particular KFC location, I had a bad experience and someone commented that it was “the worst KFC in the GTA.” But that was a few years ago, and I had hoped things had gotten better since then. Clearly not! Oh well.

Pickle Sandwich and Fried Pickle Chips at KFC

Published on August 27, 2025August 27, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

The last time I had a pickle-themed fried chicken sandwich, it was the Pickle Glaze Chicken Sandwich from Popeyes, and it was legitimately one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten. So I won’t lie: I was a bit wary to try what KFC had cooked up.

Thankfully, KFC’s version of the pickle / fried chicken sandwich was actually pretty tasty. Which is a good thing, because they’re really going all in with the pickle-themed menu: they’re also serving Fried Pickle Chips (which I tried), Pickle Pepsi (???), and Loaded Pickle Fries.

The Pickle Sandwich, as per KFC’s menu: “KFC’s Pickle Sandwich is made for true pickle lovers—because there’s no such thing as too many pickles. Featuring our crispy, hand-breaded chicken, it’s topped with crunchy dill pickle chips, sweet bread and butter pickles, creamy mayo, and bold dill pickle seasoning—all on a toasted potato bun.”

It’s good! Maybe it was my rock-bottom expectations, but I liked everything about this. The pickle flavour is pronounced but not overwhelming, with a nice balance between the actual pickles, the crunchy fried pickles, and the punchy pickle seasoning. It seems like it should be too much pickle, but the pickle-explosion flavour contrasts well with the creamy mayo and the fried chicken (thankfully, I got lucky and got a piece of chicken that was hot and fresh).

I also tried the Fried Pickle Chips: “Made for serious pickle fans, crunchy & tangy Fried Pickle Chips topped with dill pickle seasoning and paired with dipping sauce.” I’m a fan of fried pickles in general, and this was a good version of the dish. Sometimes fried pickles come in spears, and that is incorrect — with the slices that they’re serving here, you get a much better ratio of crispy fried exterior to pickle interior.

It comes with a little tub of ranch for dipping, which seems like a missed opportunity for yet another pickle-themed component — but maybe that would officially tip over into too much pickle? Either way, the creamy ranch works quite well with the enjoyably crunchy, somewhat sweet fried pickle slices.