Meat meets meat in KFC's no-bun sandwich
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The KFC Double Down has meat and cheese, no bread.




By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
KFC is putting its chicken where its buns were.
Today, the nation's largest chicken fast-food chain announced plans to nationally roll out a breadless chicken sandwich that uses two boneless chicken fillets as the bun — then squeezes two pieces of bacon, two slices of cheese and some sauce in between.


Drooling yet? You'll have to wait a few days. The $5 sandwich, dubbed the Double Down, will be available at all KFCs on April 12.

The sandwich, which comes complete with 1,380 milligrams of salt (about 60% of what the federal government recommends for an entire day's consumption) and 10 grams of saturated fat (about 50% of a day's supply), would seem to be a slap in the face to nutritionists — and nutrition advocates such as Michelle Obama— calling for more restraint from the nation's foodmakers.

"It's a salt bomb," says Kelly Brownell, director at Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. "That's a better part of a day's sodium in one meal."

The sandwich is not, however, a calorie bomb. The Original Recipe version is 540 calories — about the same as a Big Mac.

"You can do worse than 540 calories," Brownell concedes.

For KFC, it's all about driving buzz and traffic among its heaviest users — guys ages 18 to 24, says Javier Benito, executive vice president of marketing and food innovation at KFC.

In consumer studies, he says, young men said they were still hungry after eating chicken sandwiches served on conventional buns. "They told us they were looking for something meatier," he says.

The sandwich was tested last year in Providence and Omaha. "We had people driving across state lines to try the product," Benito says.

Despite the high salt content of this product, Benito says KFC is committed to lowering salt in its product line overall and is testing a lower-sodium version of its Original Recipe chicken.

The Double Down is a limited time offer that will be available for only six weeks.

What to do with all the buns that won't be used in its Double Down chicken sandwiches?

KFC plans to donate them to food banks. It will be donating "thousands" of buns to food banks nationally in the next six weeks, he says.

But holding the chicken.

Wow...speechless

Looks disgusting.

Timmy84 said:

I can hear the arteries clogging already and I am a carnivore .

Vendetta1 said:

co -

What to do with all the buns that won't be used in its Double Down chicken sandwiches?

KFC plans to donate them to food banks. It will be donating "thousands" of buns to food banks nationally in the next six weeks, he says.

who is gonna want to eat a bun with no meat? "look honey, here's an unwanted bun."

Fury said:

A burger without it's bun is like ..... a naked burger

bboy87 said:

Why is it so disgusting?
It's not uncommon to mix meats with meats and cheese.
It's kinda like Chicken cordon bleu's trashier cousin.

THAT. LOOKS. DELICIOUS.

johnart said:

Looks like KFC's attempt to make a chicken burger.

johnart said:

and its always delicious!!!!

johnart said:

I'm mainly thinking about the salt content. My blood pressure is rising just looking at it.

johnart said:

It's the cousin who wore the daisy dukes that said "juicy" on the back to the senior prom

bboy87 said:

Haaaaay.

The sauce on that thing is actually called "The Colonel's Sauce."

That's a little too intimate if you ask me.

Stax said:

All those spices/sauces are allegedly secret

mmmmm, may i have some chicken with my sodium?

Ew. This sounds like someone overshot the mark on their April Fool's pranking.

I'd eat. I'd order it and then go home and put bread on it.

I think they have a grilled chicken version of this too. Maybe that would have lower sodium? I don't eat at KFC very often, so I doubt I'll have this, but it looks good.

I don't understand why they're worried about the buns they won't use. Why not just not order so many buns? But it's good that they're donating to a food bank.

johnart said:

Because no one's supposed to eat that much meat and fat in one meal!

Even when I still ate meat I would have found this disgusting.



btw - I really, really hate KFC. There's one across the street from my morning bus stop and I am forever running into discarded chicken bones on the street. BLEH.

I stopped eating KFC's after seeing footage of how badly the chickens were treated prior to their death.
Not nice.

Fury said:

that thing looks like one of those tricky, monstrous creatures that'll eat your head before you could do anything to it!!! look at it again!!

KFC has rat droppings in the batter, so live with that.

Stax said:

PricelessHo said:

i haven't ate at KFC in years! thank God!

I like KFC on occasion but i'm not
looking for a way to get that heart attack faster.