Let’s skip to the point: Lay’s needs to man-up and start making some really ballsing flavors of potato chips. Sour Cream and Onion and BBQ are great and all, but a guy needs to mix it up a bit when it comes to getting his chip fix. I’ve had Sea Salt and Pepper chips. I’ve had “Name Your Spicy” Cheese chips. But until recently I never had Roastin’ Chicken Potato Chips.
As you may know, my buddy Melissa sent me a goodie bag of Canadian snacks a while back. I’m a little ashamed to admit (actually I’m not, but it sounds good, right?) I’ve plowed through most of the candy and chips before giving them the time for a full-out review, but a quick word is in order about the merits of seasoned and cooked poultry in potato chip form.
It just freaking works.
Don’t tell me why it works, and don’t attempt to explain by what feat of science it’s even possible to simulate the flavor of a roasted chicken in a fried spud, but by some bizarre circumstance, our Canadian friends have achieved what few U.S. chip manufacturers can. They have made a meat flavored chip worth actually eating, and, what’s more, they’ve done it without trying to use bacon.
Maybe that’s what works here. There’s no fake smoke taste, and no attempt to add a sour cream and onion component. The first notes are heavy on celery salt and onion powder (think Old Bay), but there’s a real miripoix and herb thing going on, and an enduring meaty depth to the potatoes that lingers on the way down (thanks, no doubt, to the monosodium glutamate.) Perhaps it’s because I’m accustomed to eating baked potatoes which have gotten a shot or two of roasted turkey fat, but the entire chip just tastes like a meal. A my-mom-just-slaved-in-the-kitchen kind of meal.
I don’t know if I’ll ever have a chance to procure these chips again, but if I ever do, you can bet I’m emptying the store. I’ve had one to many ‘meat’ flavored chips which just taste like salt and fake smoke and bad bacon, and now that I’ve had a flavor which actually kind of tastes like the impossible to replicate flavor profile it seeks to represent, I ain’t never going back.
Well, at least until it’s time for my next impulsive buy.
Ranking: 8/10
