This week I reached out for a basket of Georgia Gold Honey Mustard BBQ Chicken from the No. 1 poultry palace, KFC, with 4,300 restaurants across the U.S. and 15,000 more ’round the world.

Not to stir up a border war, but honey-mustard BBQ chicken really belongs to South Carolina just as much as Georgia. South Carolina should sue, claiming state’s (naming) rights.

Georgia Gold comes a year after KFC struck pay dirt with another regional favorite, Nashville Hot Chicken. If Georgia Gold clicks, expect more local favorites from KFC. Texas has its own unique take on chicken. So, too, do Kansas City and North Carolina.

Let’s see, is there any other place where they know a little something about fried chicken? Hmmm, oh yeah — Kentucky! So drop the “KFC” nonsense. Embrace your deep-fried, greasy roots, Kentucky Fried Chicken! We’ve already forgotten our New Year’s resolution about eating healthier in 2017.

Here’s the Georgia Gold Honey Mustard BBQ Chicken breakdown: KFC Extra Crispy Chicken covered with a tangy sauce that’s decidedly heavy on the honey and not so much on the mustard. But it’s yellow, and you know what they say: People eat with their eyes.

Georgia Gold Chicken is available in several configurations. I went with a basket — two pieces of bone-in Extra Crispy Chicken or three tenders, cole slaw and a biscuit for $5.49. You can upsize to four pieces of Extra Crispy or six tenders, mashed potatoes with gravy and two biscuits for $9.99.

Some KFC locations offer Georgia Gold wings and grilled chicken. I always get thighs, because of the big slab of crunchy skin, plus tasty, juicy dark meat. Drab white-meat chicken has been getting away with murder for decades — where’s the flavor?

But if you’re not careful, chicken thighs go right to people’s thighs. One KFC thigh has 290 calories. Fat grams: 20. Sodium: 720 mg. Carbs: 10 g. Dietary fiber: 1 g. Protein: 13 g. Add a soda and maybe a cookie, and the smaller basket will get you near the 1,000-calorie mark for lunch. The $10 basket … help me, Marie Osmond!

Here’s the thing: Quite simply, Georgia Gold Honey Mustard BBQ Chicken is terrific stuff. It’s sweet, with a hint of bright, sunny mustard, crispy and tender. Good on you, KFC. And Georgia Gold isn’t nearly as sloppy, gloppy and messy as Nashville Hot. I wouldn’t recommend driving while digging for Gold, but it won’t leave your steering wheel a slippery mess either.

KFC even broke out a new Colonel Sanders to introduce Georgia Gold. That’s actor Billy Zane gilded from head to toe, looking like a blooper from the James Bond movie “Goldfinger.” That makes him the seventh Colonel Sanders since KFC resurrected the old fella. Can you name them all? The others: Darrell Hammond, Norm Macdonald, Vincent Kartheiser, Jim Gaffigan, Rob Riggle and George Hamilton.