FREE KFC Grilled Chicken Today: Let the Chicken Wars Continue!

Monday, October 26th, 2009 | SMASH Freebies, SMASH Pop Culture with

KFC Chicken FREE

Last April, KFC announced an “UNfry Day” to launch its new grilled chicken. All KFCs all over the country were giving out free pieces of chicken. We featured it back then, and even went through a fearless taste-test (reminder: it’s just OK). That promotion wasn’t such a success, even if Oprah herself got into the act, announcing on her show that people could go in to their local KFCs and demand the free food. The pandemonium soon followed. The long lines at my local KFC told the story: a lot of KFCs simply ran out of chicken. All this excitement for a perfunctory chicken thigh.

Well, Monday is “One Piece Free Day” again. This is KFC’s third promotion sin FREE KFC ce April and they want this one to be successful, adding more staff and, presumably, more chicken to avoid the screw-ups of before. Why is KFC doing this? According to Yahoo!, while 30% of all domestic sales at KFC now go towards the grilled chicken, the chain has seen a 2% drop in sales in the latest period ending September 5. So walk in to your local KFC and ask for your free piece of chicken. You may want to add a biscuit and, say, some corn-on-the-cob for good measure.

Not to be left out of this promotion, rival El Pollo Loco wants its share of the grilled chicken market. We actually much prefer El Pollo Loco; for one thing, this Mexican-American chain has been doing grilled chicken for quite a long time now –and the fresh salsa bar, taquitos and steamed corn tortillas are a nice treat. But clearly El Pollo Loco is nipping at KFC’s heels. They matched KFC’s earlier promotion of free chicken, even saying that, unlike KFC, you didn’t need a coupon to get the offer. This time, they’re offering something a little different.

Starting at midnight on Monday and running all day, all El Pollo fans have to do is visit the chain’s Facebook or Twitter pages and say why they think their grilled chicken is better than KFC’s. According to the company statement last Friday:

“Following several missteps with earlier giveaways, the “fried chicken chain” is hoping its third attempt at a giveaway will fare better. On Monday, October 26th, El Pollo Loco is inviting you and your followers to visit us on Twitter and Facebook and share with us Why FLAME-GRILLED chicken is better than oven “grilled” chicken.”

Twitter Facebook KFC

Another throwdown! Flame versus oven-grilled! Dissing the Colonel! You don’t even have to go in to El Pollo Loco. You just need to get online. You’re gonna post something to your Facebook page or Tweet something anyways, aren’t you? Here’s the reward: there will be a drawing on Tuesday at 10 am and one lucky person will win free El Pollo Loco chicken for a year –namely, 52 certificates good for a 2-piece special. We say, go grab the free piece of KFC chicken and then enter to win the free chicken from El Pollo Loco. OK, then, go to El Pollo Loco instead. And save room for the flan for dessert.