I Try It So You Don’t Have To: New Lays Chicken and Waffles and Sriracha Flavors

Potato chips can be flavored with just about anything, it seems. When Lays announced the flavors they were testing out I was immediately intrigued by two of them: Sriracha and Chicken & Waffles.

I am among the legion of Sriracha fans; I use it on just about anything. I have been a chicken & waffles fan for a long time as well. I don’t eat much in the way of sweets but a little real maple syrup and some salty, crunchy, fried chicken is a wonderful combination.  Cheesy garlic bread in a chip just didn’t seem all that interesting to me, so I didn’t bother with the third new flavor. Besides, the bags were 2 for $5 so why screw up a nice round number? I did send all three flavors to Andy since they have not made their way Beyond The Wall yet.

Andy: stop reading here if you don’t want your fun spoiled.

I opened the chicken and waffles first, and the immediate smell was faux maple. Never a good sign in my book. If you dig Aunt Jemima or Log Cabin, then you might be in to it. Growing up around real maple syrup, I am a complete syrup snob. I dumped out a few and opened up the Sriracha next. You can really smell the spice–not quite Sriracha smell but clearly the scent of chilies. Into the basket they went.

Up first: chicken & waffles.  A hint of sweetness up front,  definitely the cloying fake maple flavor that we all know and (should) despise. It was nice and salty, but chicken was completely missing. I really wanted the chicken-y richness of a Chicken in a Biskit cracker, but it failed to show up. Color me disappointed. The upfront sweetness and flavor went away almost immediately and left me with a bad chemical aftertaste.

On to the Sriracha flavor. They were nice and spicy up front. Unfortunately, like their cousin above, the spice faded fast. It was also not the vibrant chili spice of Sriracha, more of a straight-up spicy with no other flavor at all.  The unfortunate decision to add some kind of cheese powder to the chip made it cling to my tongue in a very unpleasant fashion. They did make a passable vehicle for actual Sriracha.

All in all, I was really disappointed in both chips. Neither of them captured the flavor they were attempting to mimic, and the chicken & waffles flavor was actively bad. If you want Sriracha and chips just mix some in with some sour cream and use a plain chip. As for chicken and waffles, I just don’t think it’s worth it in chip form. Fake maple is a crime against humanity and there is no way to capture the real flavor with food additives.

Both of these get a “you don’t have to” from me.