After years of selling it in various countries all over the world KFC finally launched their CHIZZA (Chicken Pizza) nationwide here in the United States so on day one I headed to my local KFC to give it a try!
KFC’s CHIZZA consists of two decently sized breaded pieces of boneless chicken topped with marinara sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.
Upon unboxing the CHIZZA I was pleasantly surprised how closely it actually resembled the promotional photos I’d seen online prior to my visit. I would have liked a little more cheese, or for the cheese to be melted a bit more, but I also went in with very low expectations and the understanding that most of these crazy fast food creations usually don’t look very good in real life.
It’ll set you back $9.99 on its own or $12.99 with a side and a soda, which is a little bit expensive. Had it been $6.99 or $9.99 as a combo I probably would have been a repeat customer, but since it’s also only available for a limited time so I’m guessing that they’re probably fine making a little more money from people that are curious to try it vs. getting their customers to come back again and again for it.
The sides you can choose from are fries, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, sweet corn or just a giant side of gravy, which seems like an odd choice…. When you think about how many people put ranch dressing on their pizzas these days and the fact that the pizza “curst” is just made up of a couple pieces of breaded chicken a side of ranch dressing would have been a great addition, but KFC offers that as a dipping sauce along with their chicken tenders so I’m sure you could get some if you wanted it.
Tastewise I really enjoyed the CHIZZA. Again, it would have been better with more cheese or if the cheese had been melted more, but the chicken was perfectly crispy and you can’t go wrong with crispy chicken, marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. I mean, it’s basically chicken parmesan with the addition of pepperoni and I don’t think you’ll find too many people that don’t like chicken parmesan. Plus, I’d had plenty of chicken parmesan where the breaded chicken is just completely soggy, so KFC is already ahead of the game in that department with how crispy their chicken is.
Like everything else in the food world though I’m sure your experience with CHIZZA will be determined by whoever is working at whichever KFC location you visit. I’ve already seen a couple not so appetizing looking photos of it from other people on social media. You’d think that taking a couple pieces of chicken, adding sauce, cheese and pepperoni to it and tossing it in a microwave for a predetermined amount of time would be a universal process, but apparently it isn’t.