This week I reached out for a snack box of Wicked Chicken strips at everybody's favorite Cajun poultry palace, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, with 1,944 restaurants across America and around the world.

For a chicken chain known for Cajun spicy, Wicked Chicken strips are surprisingly innocent. The kick isn't built into the marinade or breading, which actually is quite mild by Popeyes' standards. The mischief is courtesy of a miniature bottle of Tabasco-brand pepper sauce and a jigger of ranch dipping sauce. You can be as wicked as you wish. The Tabasco bottle looks like it belongs on an airplane dinner tray.

Wicked Chicken strips are irregular slices of white breast meat dipped in breading and deep-fried so they come out all crazy-shaped and squiggly. They're different, all right, all of them. Like snowflakes, you won't find two that are the same.

Different is good. More is better. And you certainly get a lot of them. My box had 16 twisty, curly Wicked Chicken Strips. Since they're sold by weight, and each piece is one of a kind, you may get a couple more, maybe one or two less. But it's a heap o' squiggles.

Here's the blueprint: Thin strips of marinated white-meat chicken, lightly breaded and deep-fried, and served with a side of Cajun-seasoned fries, a buttermilk biscuit, Tabasco sauce and ranch dipping sauce.

Total calories: 450 (for 4 ounces of Wicked Chicken). Fat grams: 26. Dietary fiber: 0 grams. Carbs: 30 grams. Manufacturer's suggested retail price: $3.99 for the Wicked Chicken, fries, biscuit and sauces. It's a good deal ... for a good deal of food.

Popeyes is a terrific product. You can make better hamburgers than McDonald's. You can get better pizza than Domino's or the Hut's. But you can't find better fried chicken than Popeyes'. And Wicked Chicken is a whole new way of grabbing Popeyes on the go. They're perfectly sized for dipping, and each piece is one good mouthful.

Wicked Strips are meatier than you'd expect, not sluggy with greasy breading. The chicken is pleasantly juicy and flavorful, too, when you consider what it's been through.

The shapes are silly -- kids will love them. And parents needn't worry about Wicked Chicken being some sort of demented, disfigured, genetically engineered chicken. Nor is this the nightmarish creation of an evil cosmetic surgeon in Hollywood.

The chicken breasts are just cut funny. The mini Tabasco bottle is cute. And the price will put a smile on your face. There's a whole lot to love about the Wicked Chicken snack box.

Popeyes also is introducing Cane Sweeeet Iced Tea, a blend of orange and black pekoe teas fresh-brewed in each restaurant. The tea is made with real cane sugar, lookee there. It's pretty authentic Southern.

Just as "Wicked" refers to the size, shape and sauces -- and not the actual chicken strips -- "Sweeeet" is a play on the legit boldness and awesomeness of the iced tea. Which only makes sense, because Cane Sweeeet Ice Tea comes in regular and unsweeeetened.

Fun fact to know and tell: Wicked Chicken and Cane Sweeeet Ice Tea are Popeyes' first global new product launches, meaning they're available at the same time in every Popeyes restaurant worldwide.

(c) 2010 by King Features Syndicate.