KFC Put Oreos on a Chicken Sandwich. Seriously.

Strange food combinations exist, and then there is the Oreo Original Recipe Chicken Burger reportedly coming from KFC China. The sandwich combines a fried chicken thigh fillet and lettuce with mashed potatoes covered in crushed Oreo pieces, all tucked between two dark buns made to taste like Oreo. Yes, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and chocolate cookies have apparently ended up in the same sandwich, and somehow we’re supposed to believe this is a good idea.

There is certainly plenty of buzz around it, with images and reports circulating online and the product being attributed to KFC China. The Chinese operation and affiliated promotional channels appear to be getting the word out, while KFC’s main global channels have been noticeably quieter. So we’re not quite ready to swear this is going to become the next big fast-food sensation, but there is enough evidence to make us very curious. And let’s be honest, if this is a hoax, somebody has gone to a ridiculous amount of trouble to make us hungry.

The idea isn’t completely ridiculous, which may be the most dangerous part. Fried chicken has always worked with sweet flavours, from honey to maple syrup, while chocolate and salt are a pretty dependable combination. Potatoes are also remarkably good at getting along with almost anything. So perhaps the flavours aren’t as crazy as they sound. The real question is whether they actually work together, because understanding the theory is one thing; taking a bite of mashed potatoes covered in crushed Oreo is another.

What makes this even more entertaining is that KFC and Oreo have already been playing around with each other’s identities. The brands have experimented with an Oreo cookie filled with KFC Original Recipe-inspired crème, essentially making an Oreo taste like fried chicken. Now the idea has been flipped around, with a chicken sandwich getting the Oreo treatment. At some point, somebody apparently decided dinner and dessert had been kept apart for far too long.

Whether you think it sounds brilliant or completely disgusting, you have to admit the sandwich gets your attention. You see that dark Oreo bun wrapped around crispy fried chicken and immediately wonder what the hell it tastes like. That’s the beauty of a product like this. It doesn’t need everyone to love it. It just needs enough people to be curious enough to try it, photograph it and ask their friends the most important question in fast food: Would you eat this?

For us, the answer is pretty simple. If somebody puts one in front of us, we’re taking a bite. Maybe the sweet Oreo flavour somehow works with the salty chicken and creamy potatoes. Maybe it tastes like somebody dropped dessert into dinner and forgot to clean up the evidence. Either way, we’d rather try it than spend the rest of the day wondering.

So is the Oreo chicken sandwich real? It certainly appears to be, but we’re keeping one eyebrow raised until KFC makes the whole thing impossible to dispute. Until then, we’ll happily enjoy the pictures, the debate and the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

Because sometimes the strangest food is the food you most want to try.

Nibbles

Nibbles: OREO is the world’s biggest-selling cookie, with more than 500 billion cookies sold since its introduction in 1912. Guinness World Records says that if you stacked all those cookies, they could reach the Moon and back more than six times.