Chick-Fil-A is going to be giving out free spicy chicken sandwiches - with a caveat. Image from Flickr.

A free Chick-fil-A spicy chicken sandwich sounds tasty, doesn’t it? Well, the company is offering limited free spicy chicken sandwiches – with a reservation. In order to get your free Chick-fil-A spicy chicken sandwich, you have to add your name to the reservation list. Once you’ve got your reservation made, you can get a “preview taste” of a Chick-fil-A spicy chicken sandwich.

Chick-fil-A spicy chicken sandwich

Slated for rollout on June 7, the Chick-fil-A spicy chicken sandwich reservation allows for limited preview tastings. In order to reserve your sandwich, go to GetSpicyChicken.com and choose which Chick-fil-A store where you want to pick up your free spicy chicken sandwich. Print off your reservation, and take it in to the Chick-fil-A between May 31 and June 5.

Chick-fil-A still privately held

The Chick-fil-A company has been around since the 1940s and has been known as Chick-fil-A since the 1960s. The company has always been privately held. At one point, Warren Buffett offered significant payday cash advances to the company to go public – but it opted to not take the offer. With revenue of about $3 billion in 2009, the company is proving a good investment for the owner and three generations of family that continue to operate the business.

Problems with Chick-fil-A reservations

Some people trying to make reservations for the free spicy chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A have been encountering problems on Monday morning. With hundreds of thousands of people trying to get their reservations in, the website appears to not be operating correctly. This spicy chicken sandwich reservation is Chick-fil-A’s way of avoiding a KFC-like disaster and running out of free product. If the website does not return to functioning soon, however, it is possible that Chick-fil-A may be facing customer frustration and anger.

The Chick-fil-A chicken secret

The Chick-fil-A spicy chicken sandwich is going to, most likely, use a spicy breading on the traditional Chick-fil-A sandwich. Chick-fil-A was the first fast food place to use high-pressure peanut oil to fry chicken, which helps create the thick, juicy sandwich that the company is known for. This high-pressure method is now used in most grocery store delis as well. If you want a Chick-Fil-A style sandwich at home, try browning breaded chicken in oil in a pan for a few minutes, then baking the chicken in the oven to cook it through. It may take a bit more work, but it means you can get a Chick-fil-A style spicy chicken sandwich long before it goes on the menu.

Add some bacon and cheese to that chicken, and you have KFC's Double Down. Image from Flickr.

Last year, the KFC Double Down sandwich was tested in two markets – and created so much talk that some wondered if it really existed. Well, the truth is out – and KFC stores around the country are going to start carrying the KFC Double Down on April 12th. No word on the pricing structure, though if it were based on calories this sandwich may require instant payday loans no faxing just to try. The KFC Double Down is reported as having 540 calories (460 for the grilled version) and very close to a full day’s sodium.

The KFC Double Down does away with the bun

The idea of the KFC Double Down is pretty basic, and could very well come from the Atkin’s Diet Days. Do away with the bun – and replace it with meat. The KFC Double Down sandwich puts bacon and cheese between two chicken patties. The sandwich sounds incredibly decadent, and is targeted towards “customers that really want to fill up”. The idea isn’t necessarily new to all celiacs, low-carb dieters, and bread-haters, but it seems be creating tons of buzz.

The Caloric load of the KFC Double Down

KFC has reported that the Double Down is going to weigh in at 540 calories per serving for the classic sandwich. For an adult on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet (which, unless you are watching your calories, you probably aren’t), that is barely over 1/4 of their daily calories. However, the fat, sodium, and cholesterol load of these sandwiches come closer to 60-100% of the recommended daily allowance. Ouch – that’s worse than getting rejected for online payday loans instant approval. This is, of course, assuming that the KFC Double Down estimates are correct.

Doing the math of the Double Down

The Double Down sandwich sounds like a fairly good deal, calorically. However, there are many that question KFC’s Double Down estimates. So let’s do some math. Three of the Colonel’s Cripsy Strips have 400 calories. Assuming that the chicken patties are the approximate weight of one chicken strip each, that’s 267 calories. Two slices of bacon, even sliced very thinly, add about another 100 calories. While KFC has not announced how much cheese in each Double Down, most pictures indicate it is at least four slices of cheese and/or cheese sauce. At an average of 90 calories per slice, that is at least another 360 calories. That means, being generous, the KFC Double Down could be, at a minimum, 727 calories. Still significantly better for you than a Big Mac.

Sources:

About.Com Calorie Count
NPR

Image from Flickr.

Despite the mayhem that occurred in some areas the last time KFC gave out free chicken, the fast-food vendor is going for it again. If you sign up for the Colonel’s E-mail Club, you can print a coupon for a free piece of KFC grilled chicken.

Previously, KFC gave out full grilled chicken meals for free. In that case customers also needed a coupon that could be printed from the web site. Also, Oprah promoted the giveaway on her show and her site, adding a whole new level of hype to the phrase “KFC free chicken.”

Boston Market meals for $1

It’s a good day for chicken lovers, as Boston Market is running a special on chicken meals through Nov. 1. Customers who print out the online coupon can get a Boston Market meal for only $1. So if you were thinking of getting payday cash advance loans to pay for groceries this week, you might want to hold off.

Boston Market meals are pretty hearty. The $1 meals include a quarter of a chicken, cornbread and mashed potatoes. That is a whole lot of food for $1. Boston Market probably figured out that in order to compete with the ever-more-popular Dollar Menus popping up at every fast food place, they’d have to run this promotion to get people hooked. The strategy seems to be working, as the page that allegedly contains the Boston Market coupon (www.bostonmarket.com/restaurant?page=coupons) won’t even load right now, probably because of too much web traffic.

More free stuff

Taco Bell also is participating in a giveaway this week. Taco Bell says it will give a free Black Jack Taco to customers after dark on Halloween, which is Saturday. The only difference between a Black Jack Taco and a regular taco from Taco Bell appears to be the “zesty pepperjack sauce.”

Of course, the color of the shell is different, too, but that’s not really an ingredient. Black Jack Tacos are normally 89 cents, but you can try one for free on Halloween. In case I don’t make it to Taco Bell on Saturday, let me know if the Black Jack Taco lives up to all the hype. As far as I can tell, you don’t need a coupon to get a free taco.