KFC x Duck Neck Gods Make a Killer Sandwich

advertisement

I’m not a sinew guy, or a bone guy, or a cartilage guy. I almost always prefer my meat without its skeleton and tough connective tissues. Thus I generally stay far away from ubiquitous Braised Duck Neck purveyors Zhou Hei Ya 周黑鸭 (and their endless copycats), because, frankly, chewing my way through skin and fractured vertebrae for bits of meat is just a little too much work for me.

Zhou Hei Ya's signature product: Stewed Duck Necks.

In fact, I’m even often unpleasantly reminded of my place in the Circle of Life’s food chain when biting into a simple drumstick and pulling away in horror as my teeth come across the bird’s tough Achilles’ tendon, which once held its calf muscle to its foot. Ugh. There goes my appetite.However, despite repeated attempts to go veggie, I am a carnivore at heart. Thus the idea a chicken fillet sandwich appeals to me: a soft bun, a tender fillet, and no unexpected bony crunches or extended chewing sessions due to an errant sinew.

Having said that, KFC is not one of my go-to places for a chicken burger. Their sandwiches with deep fried battered chicken fillets are all wrong (starch-on-starch is another one of my culinary bugbears), and I run screaming from anything in this hemisphere claiming to be “New Orleans” flavored, which to my knowledge is not a thing anywhere but here.

What's wrong with this picture? (a) Crunchy coating doesn't belong inside a sandwich, and (b) that's an obscene amount of mayo.

Finally there is the constitutional requirement that every one of KFC’s sandwiches must be lubed up for easy eatin’ with obscene amounts of vulgar mayonnaise, and ordering one of their sandwiches sans mayo is always a crap shoot.

So all of this is an extremely long-winded way of saying: when I heard KFC was launching a collab with Zhou Hei Ya on a sandwich, I was not enthralled. But hey, someone’s gotta take one for the Fast Food Watch team, and my number was up.

Taking one for the Fast Food Watch team

A word about Zhou Hei Ya, for the un-initiated: it’s a national chain with hundreds if not thousands of locations that specializes in braised duck parts – aka pretty much everything left over after the breast meat is removed for Roast Duck and the legs for some fancier meals. Depending on your culinary adventurousness, a display case filled with necks, tongues, feet and clavicles could look positively mouth-watering, or else like outtakes from a cartoon remake of Saw starring Donald Duck.The magic is in their lu (卤) flavoring used to braise the meat: a soy sauce-based concoction livened up with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and aniseed.advertisement

So, back to the subject of this piece: the 卤辣辣卤鸭鸭风味鸡腿堡, which lacks an identifiable English name but I’ll call the Stewed Spicy Duck Chicken Burger.

Bonus points for cute packaging

So what is it? It’s a chicken fillet (no crunchy coating, no sickeningly sweet New Orleans sauce), served with shreds of Zhou Hei Ya’s signature braised duck meat and pickled bamboo shoots. Lettuce and some obnoxious orange mayo-based sauce complete the deal. I ordered mine without the sauce.

OK despite this image, it's good. The braised duck meat and pickled bamboo really give the sandwich some life.

The lowdown: the sandwich is easily my favorite of the KFC repertoire. Absent the crunchy coating (which does not belong on a sandwich) and none of that foul New Orleans gunk, the marriage of two foul, chicken and duck, works perfectly. The lu flavoring of the duck lends its signature aroma and flavor to the otherwise fairly bland chicken fillet, and the pickled bamboo shoots impart a fresh, tart shine. It also has a spicy bite that stops short of being overwhelmingly la.

It’s good enough to be more than a novelty – in fact, I ordered it again the next day for a second try.

Get one before they pull it in favor of some other promotion

This has all the markings of a short-term promotion, which makes me kind of sad because this burger should really be part of the KFC canon, a veritable chapter in the Gospel According to St Sanders.

My suggestion? Run out and enjoy one now before it’s taken away.

Images: Kris Wei, Michael Wester, Uni You, KFC, Zhou Hei Ya

---

advertisement

Top Stories This WeekAlways Expect the Unexpected with COVID-19
 
The '22 Holiday Calendar is Here
 
Trending in Beijing: Beijing Opens VPN Service Investment
 


Beijingers Are Buzzing AboutCelebrate Halloween Week with These Events
 
Dada Rises From the Ashes in New Ritan Digs Wednesday, Oct 27
 
Salty or Sweet? Your Guide to Mastering Sarcasm in Chinese