Definitive Ranking of Every KFC Popcorn Chicken Dipping Sauce
When it comes to dipping chicken, people get pretty serious about their sauces.
KFC's sauces are no different. Though the restaurant is most well known for its fried chicken breasts, thighs and drumsticks, there are also delicious tenders and popcorn chicken on the menu that are much better when accompanied by the perfect sauce.
Because no two sauces are created equal, I visited my local KFC and bought a box of popcorn chicken and asked for one of every dipping sauce so I could try and rank them for myself. Here were my findings:
6. Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
I'm usually a big fan of ranch, but I found this sauce disappointing. Any herb and garlic flavor hit me up front, leaving the rest of the experience unfortunately bland. The result is a sauce that's more like mayo than ranch, and that isn't a good thing.
5. Honey Mustard
At first glance, this honey mustard looks quite promising. It has a soft brown color, like a dijon mustard should, instead of the bright yellow-orange of some other fast food honey mustard. Still, it doesn't live up to the visual. While it has a tiny dijon kick, I found that this flavor was mostly masked by the sweet, sweet honey. In my opinion, the kickier, the better.
4. Finger Lickin' Good Sauce
I hadn't even heard of this sauce before my taste test, though I wouldn't expect any other name from KFC. I'd heard that the sauce includes all of the 11 herbs and spices included in KFC's original recipe, but I didn't know what to expect in terms of taste. The sauce was a light brown, and when I tasted it, it started off sweet and ended with a flavor that reminded me of an herby pickle. Because of the spice blend, the taste was indeed reminiscent of the restaurant's famous fried chicken coating. Still, it wasn't my favorite.
3. Sweet N' Tangy
I like that KFC didn't take a totally traditional approach to sweet and sour sauce. Their Sweet N' Tangy sauce is more like a sweet chili sauce, adding an element of heat to the chicken nugget-dipping staple. It still might be a bit too sweet for more discerning palates, but the spice makes it super tasty.
2. Creamy Buffalo
If there's one reason the Creamy Buffalo sauce ranks this high on the list, it's because it packs a punch. While it is creamy, it's also full of hot sauce flavor and vinegary tang. It is spicy, and that heat stuck with me even when I moved on to the other sauces.
1. Summertime BBQ Sauce
KFC's Summertime BBQ Sauce is a winner. It's ultra smokey, with a hint of tomatoey sweetness and a bit of spice as well. Together, those things unite to create everything you'd want out of a barbecue sauce. Again, it might be too sweet for some, but I think it's just right.
Speaking of delicious BBQ, click HERE for a definitive ranking of fast food barbecue sauces.