Review: Popeyes Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken

Last week, Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken returned for a limited time to Popeyes menu boards everywhere. Looking to capitalize on the apparent success of the original Wicked Chicken, the Georgia-based poultry slingers rolled out this kicked-up version early last year, and it’s back for the first time.

For some reason, Popeyes enjoys creating types of chicken that resemble various appendages. First fried mutant hands, and now fried witch fingers? What is with these people?

They also like to give their different styles of chicken ambiguous names (Rip’n and Dip’n?). For those who don’t speak their backwater, bumfuck language, I’ll translate: Wicked Chicken is just thin, breaded strips of chicken breast. The Garlic Pepper variety, in a surprising twist, is marinated in roasted garlic and black pepper.

Side note: in the process of writing this, I learned that an equivalent Australian term for ‘bumfuck‘ is ‘woop woop.‘ I very much enjoyed learning that.

Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken comes in a combo box with fries and a biscuit for $3.99. You can add a drink for an extra buck. It seems like a great deal to me considering the rest of Popeyes’ prices are on the high side. In my neck of the woods, the 3-Piece Tender combo costs over $8 with tax. That is TOO DAMN HIGH. Luckily, their limited time offers are usually $3.99, so a brotha has a few simoleons to waste on scratch-offs.

I was compelled to try Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken by a Popeyes TV spot. It was one of those featuring their sassy, black stereotype, Annie the Chicken Queen. She says “honey” twice in the commercial, so she must know a thing or two about fried chicken. Donnell Rawlings knows of what I speak.

Anyway, I’ve had Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken twice now since its return, and I have to say it’s pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. Aside from having to wait in the parking lot for it both times. That part was not good. But that did not detract from my enjoyment of this particular foodstuff.

Each order comes with a good number of these mini chicken tenders; I didn’t count but I would estimate there were between 10 and 15 pieces. The chicken was very tender and pretty juicy as well, and the breading was super crispy, which I liked. The chicken-to-breading ratio is lower than a typical chicken tender due to the slender nature of the Wicked Chicken, but I am a proponent of mass quantities of breading, so no complaints from me. I do have some questions about the flavor, however. For example, where is it?

The black pepper is definitely evident in the breading, but garlic was nowhere to be found. What you’re left with is a sort of dry flavor from the pepper that really isn’t all that appetizing. It was hard to eat on its own. But then I dipped it in Garlic Pepper Parmesan Sauce, and everything changed.

At first, Garlic Pepper Parmesan Sauce seems redundant with Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken. But it was frickin’ awesome. It’s a ranch-type sauce, and all three of its namesake elements were present, especially parmesan. This sauce packs a definite punch. I tried the chicken with regular ranch as well and it was still fairly bland. The magic is in the sauce!

You might say I shouldn’t overrate this chicken just because the sauce was great; however, I feel that since each Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken combo comes with Garlic Pepper Parmesan Sauce, it must be evaluated in tandem with the sauce. One would not judge a French Dip sans jus, would one? One would hope that one would not.

With that said, I give Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken 8.5/10, with the caveat that under no circumstances should it be eaten without the accompanying Garlic Pepper Parmesan Sauce. Also under no circumstances should you pretend the pieces of chicken are fried witch fingers and point them at people and cast a spell upon them that turns their hair into snakes. That would be very immature. Don’t do that. Do go get this chicken because it’s delicious and a great value!