Elevate Your KFC Famous Bowl With These 5 Ordering Tips

While KFC is famous for its buckets of fried chicken (which is actually pressure-fried), its menu has a few other options. Those looking for a change from bone-in pieces can find sandwiches and the brand's Famous Bowl. This signature item is like a small taste of some classic Kentucky-fried flavors, consisting of fried chicken nuggets on a bed of mashed potatoes and gravy. The whole affair is sprinkled with corn kernels and a blend of three shredded cheeses. When ordering it online, you can customize it by removing ingredients along with requesting some of the chain's signature sauces, though you can't do much else to switch it up.

The rest of the menu is pretty straightforward. The fast food empire sticks to its namesake and well-known side dishes, like coleslaw, biscuits, and the aforementioned mashed spuds. And unlike some other chains that are known for going above and beyond to fulfill customers' wishes, KFC follows a more streamlined model comparable to many fast food restaurants. Nevertheless, you can get creative if you look outside the bowl for inspiration. Below are five ordering tips that will elevate your KFC Famous Bowl beyond the mundane — we're talking taking inspiration from things like disco fries and buffalo chicken wings. Just keep in mind that many of these suggestions include upcharges for sides or other extras, and there are a couple of special requests that not every restaurant may be allowed to satisfy.

Disco fries are a specialty of New Jersey that you can typically find at many diners in the Garden State. It's a late-night meal that's often compared to Canada's poutine. Both contain french fries, cheese, and gravy, but there's one key difference: Instead of cheese curds, disco fries use shredded cheese, usually mozzarella. You can transform your KFC Famous bowl from a Southern-inspired meal to a Jersey late-night classic with a few modifications.

First, remove the mashed potatoes and corn from your bowl when ordering and request an extra bowl. Now, order a side of french fries, dump them into that clean plastic dish, and tip the rest of the ingredients over them for a North-meets-South invention. You can add a side of gravy if you like your fries extra saucy. If you're ordering in person, you may even be able to top your creation with extra cheese. Just make sure to leave a cash tip if you ever want to try this again at the same location. After doing it often enough, you may even be able to make it your "usual" there.

Holiday feasts traditionally feature an assortment of dishes that you only get to enjoy a few times a year. Luckily, some of those dishes are available as sides at KFC, meaning that you can create a holiday-inspired plate (or bowl) whenever you want that may be hefty enough to share. Start with a regular Famous Bowl — there's no need to remove anything. Add a side of string beans and macaroni and cheese. Lastly, order a single chicken drumstick, so you don't have to fight anyone for this prized piece of poultry. You can also substitute it for any other part of the bird you prefer.

If you're sharing this with someone else, you may want to ask for a few extra bowls and order a side of corn, since a Famous Bowl only includes a scattering of kernels. And unless you want to reenact a family feud at this fast food restaurant, make sure to order an extra piece of chicken for any dining companions you might have.

Although you cannot get buffalo wings or its distant Tennessee cousin (Nashville hot chicken) at Kentucky Fried Chicken, you can modify a KFC Famous bowl to get a Super Bowl-inspired meal. Nix the corn and gravy from your order and add an order of nuggets. Now drench all the chicken with the chain's hot sauce — we recommend ordering two portions. 

Finally, drizzle your creation with some ranch dressing. You can also skip the middle man, so to speak, and just order two portions of buffalo ranch. If you don't think you'll enjoy buffalo wings with mashed potatoes, you can totally apply this tip to a normal order of nuggets and smother your fries with this game-day favorite.

Esquites doesn't translate to exquisite in Spanish, but this popular Mexican street food is so good that you may confuse the two words. It consists of corn kernels dressed in a mayonnaise-based sauce seasoned with lime, chiles, and sharp cotija cheese. It's basically the de-cobbed version of Mexican street corn (aka elote). You can transform your KFC Famous Bowl into a Southern-fried twist on this popular dish by replacing the mashed potatoes and gravy with an extra order of corn kernels.

To mimic esquites' tangy, spicy, and creamy dressing, mix in some of the chain's signature Comeback Sauce and add a little hot sauce to taste. The result will have you exclaim, "¡Exquisito!" You can skip the shredded cheese if you want, or you can request extra cheese and sub the Comeback and hot sauce for ranch dressing and ketchup. Using all that, you can create an American fast food riff on the Colombian version called maicitos.

You may anxiously await the coming of summer to enjoy cookouts with family and friends. Or you may be lucky enough to live in a barbecue hub where you can dig into smoky cuts of meat and all the fixings. But for those desperate times when nobody's hosting a backyard feast, and there's no barbecue to be had anywhere nearby, you can get a similar flavor experience at KFC.

This is another tip that will require you to ask for an extra bowl to assemble your creation. First of all, remove the mashed potatoes and gravy from your Famous Bowl order and replace them with macaroni and cheese, as well as coleslaw. Dump your chicken, corn, and shredded cheddar blend over your noodles, artfully scatter your slaw over your bowl, and drench the entire creation in plenty of barbecue sauce.