I Tried KFC's New Snack Wraps and One Tweak Would Have Made Them Excellent
At least one fast-food chain has gotten the message from customers: We want more wraps! KFC has finally listened to the social media cries of hungry fans who wanted to see its wraps return. This week, the Classic Chicken Wrap and Spicy Slaw Chicken Wrap officially hit KFC menus for a limited time after a successful test run in Atlanta in 2022. I had to try them both the minute they hit stores to see what all the uproar was about.
These wraps are a nod to the KFC Twister wrap that was available in the 2000s. The Twister wrap was a larger wrap with the chain's crispy chicken, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. A couple of versions are still available overseas. Social media requests and a Change.org petition with thousands of signatures have implored KFC to bring the wraps back to the United States. "Wraps fans have been begging for fried chicken wraps to return, and we're answering the call," said CMO Nick Chavez in a press release.
The new snack wraps are smaller and available as a duo for $5, or you can get them for $7.99 with a side and a drink (prices may vary depending on where you live). And don't forget that KFC also carries the new Starry flavor from Pepsi if you are interested in trying that. I grabbed the $5 two-pack and enlisted another person to help me try them. Here's what we thought.
Classic Chicken Wrap
The classic version of the wrap has a single Extra Crispy Tender with "crunchy" pickles and mayo in a warm tortilla.
The look: Sadly, this little wrap doesn't look too appetizing. The chicken is somehow grayish and the small chicken tender is dwarfed by the tortilla. The pickles should run the length of the tortilla, but they are overlapped in some places and are nonexistent in others. Neither the tortilla nor the chicken was warm after delivery, even though the wraps were snugly nestled in a wrapper. Maybe foil would have made for better packaging?
The taste: Thankfully, this wrap tasted better than it looked. The chicken has those 11 herbs and spices that really peeked through the breading and tingled my tongue. The pickles really are crunchy as promised and add just the right amount of tang, despite being unevenly spaced. The mayo is enough, it moistens the wrap without overwhelming it. However, the wrap would have been worlds better if the chicken tender was larger. The bottom of the wrap lacked flavor because all it held was a little nub of chicken and excess tortilla.
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Spicy Slaw Chicken Wrap
The spicy version of the KFC wrap also has one chicken tender. It is wrapped in the same warm tortilla with the chain's classic slaw, pickles, and a spicy sauce.
The look: The spicy wrap looks better than the classic because the tender was more substantial, although still an odd gray color. KFC really needs to make these with meaty tenders that have just been taken out of the fryer. The slaw peeked out the front as did a hint of a pickle.
The taste: The spicy sauce was very prominent in this wrap, with one taster thinking it was a bit too spicy. The slaw did tone it down though and the pickles added a little bit of crunch, again more pickles would have been better. Same as the last one, the end of this wrap had more folded tortilla than anything else.
Overall
Both of these wraps would have been better if they were freshly fried. They both tasted like they had been sitting for a while before being wrapped. KFC is doing more delivery than ever, just like other chains, so it has to think about what happens when the item sits. Plus, I wasn't sure why the chicken had that off-putting grey hue. Also, be aware, these wraps are small, three or four bites max.
Besides being small, they seem to lack a little bit of ingenuity. It's almost like KFC just grabbed whatever was around and threw it into a wrap. It's hard to believe that these needed to be tested so long when they are made with everything that is already in the store, minus the tortillas. That being said, the chicken is tasty enough, which improves the overall impression. They have the potential to be amazing though with a little bit of TLC. Either way, McDonald's should take note, the wrap gauntlet has officially been thrown.
