KFC

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The KFC recipe!

We picked up a bucket of chicken to have lunch on our boat on Lake Shasta...once. Is this the original recipe or a copycat? I thought this recipe was a secret.

That's not the genuine recipe. My first job in high school was kitchen prep at KFC. The breading mix with the 11 herbs and spices is a corporate trade secret. Franchisees get it already mixed from headquarters. The recipe is also wrong in that KFC deep fries their chicken in a pressure cooker. At least that's now it's done for the Original Recipe. The Extra Crispy uses a different (much blander) breading and I think it's fried in an open container, not in a pressure cooker (it hadn't been invented yet when I worked at KFC so I don't know for sure). Extra Crispy was invented after Sanders sold off the business. He detested it, calling Extra Crispy "a damn fried doughball stuck on some chicken."

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Come on, guys. It's a copycat recipe for the home cook and as such, will get you VERY close to the original. Which I love, love, love to this day. No other comes close though there was, for awhile, a chain in So Cal called Pioneer Chicken that I also liked a lot. Popeye's seems to be very popular too--Anthony Bourdain was famously a fan--but it's not as flavorful and it's way too greasy.

I agree with the Colonel about Extra Crispy being extra bland. Yuck.

Wow, I way prefer Popeye's to KFC. Kenji A-L is an even bigger fan that Bourdain was, he claimed in any city that had a Popeyes, it was the best fried chicken (not just fast food). I might not go that far (I really love the other KFC, Korean fried chicken, as well as Hawaiian style mochiko fried chicken), but Popeyes is really the only fast food I'll eat without it being last option. We've even ordered a couple buckets (one regular and one spicy) for some fairly upscale Champagne tastings.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xppqv/ ... ed-chicken

[Robin Garr]

Take it from a resident of KFC's Mother Node: It's been a long time since the Colonel sold out, and KFC has been through a string of corporate changes since then. Sanders to John Y Brown Jr to Pepsico to Yum Brands, and I may be leaving some out. With every corporate sale the hand of the bean counter fell more heavily on product. It got worse and worse and worse. Paul, any memories you may have from Snders' time are almost certainly long gone, and Yum, the last, is clearly the worst.

We used to like KFC but in recent years we have given it a pass as other franchises have offered better tasting chicken.

[Jenise]

Dale, I read Kenji and was unaware of this! There's actually a fantastic local fried chicken outlet in Seattle called Ezell's--fantastic stuff. Now that Kenji lives here, I wonder how he'd rate the two.

I remember when KFC first showed up in Whittier, California, where I grew up. I was staying over at a friend's house and the dad brought a bucket home for dinner. All I knew of fried chicken at that point was Swansons TV dinners, and the complex seasoning of KFC just blew my little mind. I was probably 10. I also loved the mashed potatoes and gravy, notable since I otherwise hated gravy at home. The potatoes were real and the gravy was a very kid-cool if unnatural bright yellow full of chunks of chicken coating that fell off in the fryers and made in house by the franchisee. OMG so good. Though the original recipe chicken is actually as good as it ever was IMO, the sides didn't survive scaling up (they never do).

Same here: no more KFC, love Popeye's.

If you're curious, I have an online copy of Harlan Sanders' autobiography.

It's been years now since I last ate fast food fried chicken, but definitely preferred Popeye's to KFC.

Around here all of the KFC outlets share the same storefront with Taco Bell. Yum Brands is the parent company of both. I've never been to a Taco Bell. There weren't any around here until Yum took over KFC. Has Taco Bell suffered the same quality slide as KFC under Yum Brands ownership?

-Paul W.

Not sure that's possible: Taco Bell wasn't any good in the first place.

[Jenise]

Have no idea. They seem to be prospering with all kinds of silly (to us) menu items that would seem to have popularity. Here most of Taco Bells are stand alone--the one KFC in town shares its space with A&W Root Beer.

Yum Brands was originally PepsiCo's fast food division. They used to own A&W as well as their current stable of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill. That would explain the A&@W + KFC combo.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Oh yeah, I realize. I was just pointing out that the combo locations have more than version.

But man, you guys got me hungry for KFC. I even thought of doing a KFC vs. Popeyes shoot-out. Would be a bit of a drive to round up both in one night, but it could be done.

We used to eat chicken when I was a kid, and KFC was a treat for me. For my mother, it was usually something for Friday, when she was too tired from the week to cook.

Funny how those childhood memories stick, because I can still feel and taste that savory spicy crunchy coating around the chicken. Aside from the fact that I haven't eaten chicken in decades, I'm sure nothing could replicate those sensations, even if I tried!

Was at Popeyes the other day. First time and a realy good crispy chicken burger. Will go back for sure. Avoid KFC as usual.