KFC Japan creates spicy summer fried chicken chips together with Calbee

Red-hot KFC chicken chips are on the way, and green-hot ones too. In May, Calbee, maker of some of Japan’s favorite potato chips, announced plans to switch to black-and-white packaging in response to

Red-hot KFC chicken chips are on the way, and green-hot ones too.

In May, Calbee, maker of some of Japan’s favorite potato chips, announced plans to switch to black-and-white packaging in response to shipping disruptions caused by the war in Iran affecting the company’s pipeline of naphtha, a liquid hydrocarbon used in the production of printing inks. However, it appears that Calbee has found a way to bring both literal and figurative color to its newest snacks, two different flavors of KFC potato chips.

Calbee and KFC Japan actually have a petty long relationship. They first came together in 2012, and over the years have experimented with a number of different tastes to replicate specific KFC menu items, such as the KFC Colonel’s Crispy Potato Chips that graced our taste-testing palates. With summer weather on the way, this time Calbee and KFC decided to make something suitably hot, and so were born the KFC Red Hot Chicken and KFC Green Wing Potato Chips, which take their names and inspiration from a pair of seasonal chicken flavors that just returned to KFC Japan branches.

KFC Japan themselves supervised the seasonings for the new chips. The KFC Red Hot Chicken ones make use of red and white peppers, plus habanero chilies, for a sharp and spicy sensation. The KFC Green Wing chips also have habanero, but pair it with garlic to give you some savory complexity to go with the heat.

Both chip flavors are scheduled to go on sale July 6 at convenience stores across Japan, with a suggested retail price of 210 yen (US$1.30) a bag, so it won’t break your budget to show up at a barbeque with a bag of each (or to have a bag of each within arm’s reach of your spot on the couch on an it’s too-hot-to-go-outside afternoon, no judgement). With both of the spicy chicken types being limited-time items at KFC Japan, odds are there’s going to be a similar summer-only window of availability for the new KFC chips too.