The Colonel would die...

...if he knew how much his chicken cost today...and he wasn't already dead.

              The Colonel

I'm not a heavy fried chicken eater - really, I'm not. But it was late, I was finally on the way home from work, navigating through a heavy downpour and I knew that cooking wasn't high on the list of priorities tonight. So I pulled into KFC; what we used to call Kentucky Fried Chicken back in the day.

It must have been meant to be. I mean, there was a parking place right in front of the door. Not a handicapped space that I would feel guilty about taking up because it was really raining hard, but a normal parking place. Feeling pretty good about that I parked and dashed in, barely getting wet. The nice, young lady at the register asked me all the usual questions:

   "Dine in, or carry out?"

   "Regular or extra crispy?"

Somewhere in there she sneaked in, "Would you like to try our eight piece family dinner?"

Scanning a menu that I'm sure is scrambled daily to confuse the customers, I finally found the eight piece family dinner...for $17.99.

That's $18 plus tax for eight pieces of chicken, two large sides and four biscuits. I'm guessing that's what passes for a deal at KFC.

                                       Seriously?

I take my blogging seriously, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find a recent price comparison on fast-food chicken. I know the economy is bad and I know prices have gone up, but really? $18 plus tax for eight pieces of chicken?

In a completely unscientific ranking, here are the most expensive fried chicken restaurants - at least the ones I've been to in the last year or two:

1. Most expensive: KFC
2. Popeye's
3. Chick-fil-A
4. Church's

Chick-fil-A should have an asterisk - although they serve fried chicken, it's not really a fried chicken place. They have chicken nuggets, chicken strips and chicken sandwiches: not fried chicken (i.e. legs, thighs, breasts, wings, etc.)

Popeye's is by far the best in my opinion but it is also expensive to feed a number of people. My wife likes Church's the most but I haven't found one of those in Huntsville, AL yet.

I know you're just dying to know. What did I do?

It was late, and it was pouring down rain; I wasn't going anywhere else. But I wasn't going to let them get me, no sir! I ordered the eight piece chicken-only option and added four biscuits. No large sides for me to inflate the price!

I handed over my $17.88 (that includes tax), took my chicken and biscuits and drove home in the rain. We made our own mashed potatoes and while they were cooking, I went on the KFC website and let them know what I thought about their prices.

Then I ate that chicken.

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