KFC China's durian lava chicken nuggets find strong favour with customers

Durian is really popular in China right now – like, really popular. So much so that KFC China has introduced chicken nuggets stuffed with durian-flavoured filling.

KFC started serving customers in China what they call “exploding” durian lava nuggets last Monday (2 September). The nuggets come in a set of four which costs 11.5 yuan (S$2.20). They also come together with a snack platter including fries, fried chicken and drinks, which costs 59 yuan (S$11.50).

Reviews for this unusual sweet and savoury snack are mixed.

A review on a Chinese news website said that the nuggets were very crispy while the filling had a strong and authentic durian flavour.

One Weibo user said that the nuggets had a “wonderful” durian fragrance, and the proportion of chicken meat to the durian filling was just nice.

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Another review on news site Radii was, however, critical. The reviewer said, “It was your average chicken nugget with a sliver of durian sludge... The durian taste is so faint, you wonder if they just killed a chicken that happened to eat durian.”

I guess we have no way of telling how these oddities taste unless KFC Singapore brings them to our shores or we travel all the way to China.

China recently allowed the import of durians into the country, prompting Malaysia to cash in by exporting large amounts of the pungent fruit to China. Malaysia is expected to export US$120 million worth of durian each year to China.

KFC has pursued a strategy of serving street-food inspired menu items in China such as hotpot, and breakfast foods such as congee and youtiao (fried dough sticks). Their menu innovations must be faring well, as KFC is now the biggest fast food chain in China, beating even fast food giants like McDonald’s and Burger King.