Logo-PGT

When most people hear the word “innovation”, they think technology, science, medicine and a dozen other industries where real innovation seems to occur on a day-to-day basis. What if I told you, the greatest innovation of 2017 was not in any of these industries? What if I told you, Taco Bell and KFC have come up with the greatest edible innovations since sliced bread?

Ironically enough, with Taco Bell’s Naked Chicken Chalupa and KFC’s Chizza, those creations have eliminated bread-based products from their respective menu items. Creative destruction knows no bounds.

Taco Bell’s now un-shelled taco is the first taco in the world with a shell made entirely of marinated, all-white crispy chicken. The Naked Chicken Chalupa has been available at Taco Bell’s nationwide since January 26th and Chief Marketing Officer, Marisa Thalberg, has not been shy about promoting the brand’s latest food innovation.

“Something this delicious yet different is bound to ruffle some feathers; some might even cluck their tongues at it,” she said, puns fully intended, through a Taco Bell press release earlier this year.

The Naked Chicken Chalupa follows in the footsteps of the Doritos Locos Tacos, which dropped five years ago, and last year’s Quesalupa. Both have been extremely successful additions to Taco Bell’s offerings and have been mainstays on their menu ever since.

Many experts in the field, myself included as I had one this past weekend, strictly for investigative purposes, believe that the Naked Chicken Chalupa will see similar success but what about KFC’s Chizza?

Following in the footsteps of the Double Down, which was basically just a chicken sandwich with two chicken patties serving as the bread of the sandwich, KFC has once again eliminated bread from an American staple. KFC’s Chizza is a personal-sized pizza in which the crust has been replaced with a flattened piece of fried chicken.

At first glance, the Chizza basically just looks like a chicken parmesan patty with some ham and pineapple sprinkled on it. By second and third glance, it still looks like that but then, by the fourth time you watch the KFC Twitter video, and the clock ticks towards lunchtime, you realize you could probably eat half a dozen of them and still have room for some seasoned potato wedges.

As of now, the item is only offered in Asia and there is no word on when the Chizza will grace American menus. Just know that when it does, I’ll eat one, strictly for investigative purposes.