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The Snack Attack: Burger King Unveils Cheetos Chicken Fries [TASTE TEST]

Burger King this week unveiled its second Cheetos-inspired food mashup and the internet went wild: Cheetos Chicken Fries. It piggybacks on the Mac N' Cheetos, deep fried macaroni and cheese bites, which were introduced earlier this year.

Cheetos Chicken Fries are made with white meat chicken covered in a crispy Cheetos-flavored breading. Burger King says the fries are "cooked to crispy perfection so that they have a dangerously cheesy outside with juicy white meat chicken inside." What could go wrong, right?

Apparently, lots. Instead of crispy Cheetos Chicken Fries, I got burnt chicken turds. Not once, but twice!

Here's what happened -- I was out and about with my husband in Dearborn, so we stopped at a Burger King for dinner. I got the Cheetos Chicken Fries and they were made fresh to order -- "Bonus!" or so I thought. When I sat down and opened the box, I almost couldn't believe my eyes. "Um, why are they brown? I thought Cheetos were orange?"

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Take One: Lookin' a little crispy there. No, that's straight up burnt. (Credit: CBSDetroit.com)

These suckers were burnt to a crisp, and practically had ZERO flavor. The only thing I could really taste was burnt breading. I peeled some of the breading off, too, just to see if maybe I could get another flavor... nope. My husband even joked that maybe this particular location double fried regular Chicken Fries because they didn't have the Cheetos ones. Either way, they were straight up burnt.

I didn't want to be "that person" and make a big fuss about it, so I didn't complain. We finished eating our meals and left, but on the way home I was thinking "Maybe someone was just having an off day and left my food in the fryer a little too long." I get it, things happen. Even in the difficult world that is serving fast food (Side note: I worked in the food service industry for six years so I feel justified in making that statement, first-hand experience and all. It's really not rocket science). So, trying to give these things a fair review, I decided to hit up a BK drive-thru on the way home in Southfield and order a second batch.

I resisted the urge to rip open the box right in the car and see what was waiting for me inside until I got home. And although I had high hopes because they didn't smell as fried as the first batch, I was quickly let down -- again.

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Take Two: Cooked a little better than the first batch, but still a little burnt. (Credit: CBSDetroit.com)

While the fries were slightly less crispy, they were still definitely burnt. The saving grace with this batch, though, is that the breading did somewhat still have a cheesy flavor, but it absolutely wasn't "dangerously cheesy" in any sense of the phrase. At least they were still edible.

I mean, check out what these things are supposed to look like. They're practically neon orange.

All-in-all, the Cheetos Chicken Fries were a huge letdown. Especially on the heels of the Mac N' Cheetos, which were perfectly crisp and cheesy.

Rating: A big, fat 0 out of 10. ZERO.

The Snack Attack is a feature on CBSDetroit.com that centers around all things food. Know of a new snack we should attack? Send an email and we'll be sure to add it to the list.

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