KFC Zinger Pie Review

Well, I've just finished my KFC Zinger pie, and to be honest I feel a bit empty. Not in the 'gee I wish I had ordered more Wicked Wings because I'm still starving' kind of empty; more in the 'this had the potential to be anything, looked great, but just failed to deliver' kind of way.

To start with, it's a pretty good looking pie. The top is nice and flaky, and the paper bag (nice authentic touch) proudly states that the pie has been baked fresh daily.

Turning the pie out of its foil nest shows a lightly coloured base that is slightly undercooked in the manner of the Wavell Hot Bread Shop (see review). It also has quite a wide lip that gives you confidence that the pie is going to hold together under pressure.

Unfortunately it was about as stable as an Australian betting lineup, and it all went south pretty quickly as you can see from the last picture. Do not attempt to eat this pie whilst driving unless you are on your way back from the tip in your gardening clothes.

My first bite revealed a very soft base - which isn't an automatic fail in my book, but I know a few people who would starting marking it down immediately. I kind of had to take a couple of quick extra bites to even things up before it started slopping all over my desk, and you can see below how the slight pressure of my thumb has squished the pie innards over to the left hand side...and I'm an expert pie-handler. In the hands of an amateur, things could get very ugly, very quickly.

 The temperature of the filling was pretty well perfect - top marks there. Nice and hot without scalding anything.

The filling itself is very runny, bordering on sloppy; and you've got a combination of small chunks and shredded chicken floating about in a reasonably flavoursome gravy...all backed by the heat of the Zinger spices. There didn't appear to be any vegetables in there anywhere. Zinger is actually a pretty good descriptor for the flavour profile - it's not exactly hot hot, but there's a bit of zing there.

Being KFC, the pie (like everything else on the menu) is pretty salty. Personally, it's what attracts me to KFC in the first place, but if you don't like salt then this probably isn't the pie for you.

It's a standard-sized pie, so eating two won't be an issue for most people. Perhaps I had a premonition; perhaps I knew KFC well enough to know that it wasn't going to blow my hair back - but either way I opted for the box of Wicked Wings instead of a second pie - and I enjoyed them more than the pie itself.

Rimmer said that the pie 'wasn't a fail, and that it had to be worth a 6/10'. I think he's being a bit generous myself, and I felt it was more like a 5/10, with most of those points coming from the flaky top and perfect temperature. The rest was pretty average. Sorry Colonel, but maybe you should stick to what you know.