KFC Corporation, or
KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky
Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville,
Kentucky
. KFC has been a brand and operating segment,
called a "concept", of
Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off
from
PepsiCo as
Tricon Global
Restaurants Inc.
KFC primarily sells
chicken in form
of pieces,
wraps,
salads and
sandwiches. While
its primary focus is
fried chicken,
KFC also offers a line of roasted chicken products,
side dishes and
desserts.
Outside
North America, KFC offers beef
based products such as
hamburgers or
kebabs, pork based products such as ribs and other regional
fare.
The company was founded as Kentucky Fried Chicken by
Colonel Harland
Sanders in 1952, though the idea of KFC's fried chicken
actually goes back to 1930. The company adopted the abbreviated
form of its name in 1991.
Starting in April 2007, the company began
using its original name, Kentucky Fried Chicken, for its signage,
packaging and advertisements in the United States
as part of a new corporate re-branding program;
newer and remodeled restaurants will have the new logo and name
while older stores will continue to use the 1980s signage.
Additionally, Yum! continues to use the abbreviated name freely in
its advertising.
History

The restaurant in North Corbin,
Kentucky where Colonel Sanders developed Kentucky Fried
Chicken
Born and
raised in Henryville,
Indiana
, Sanders passed through several professions in his
lifetime. Sanders first served his fried chicken in
1930 in the midst of the Great
Depression at a gas station he
owned in North Corbin,
Kentucky
. The dining area was named "Sanders Court
& Café" and was so successful that in 1936
Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon granted Sanders the title of
honorary
Kentucky Colonel
in recognition of his contribution to the state's cuisine. The
following year Sanders expanded his restaurant to 142 seats, and
added a
motel he bought across the street.
When Sanders prepared his chicken in his original restaurant in
North Corbin, he prepared the chicken in an iron skillet, which
took about 30 minutes to do, too long for a restaurant operation.
In 1939, Sanders altered the cooking process for his fried chicken
to use a
pressure fryer, resulting in
a greatly reduced cooking time comparable to that of
deep frying. In 1940 Sanders devised what came
to be known as his
Original
Recipe.
The
Sanders Court & Café generally served travelers, often those
headed to Florida
, so when the
route planned in the 1950s for what would become Interstate 75 bypassed Corbin
, he sold his
properties and traveled the U.S. to sell his chicken to restaurant
owners. The first to take him up on the offer was
Pete Harman in South Salt Lake,
Utah
; together, they opened the first "Kentucky Fried
Chicken" outlet in 1952. By the early 1960s Kentucky Fried
Chicken was sold in over 600 franchised outlets in both the United
States and Canada. One of the longest-lived franchisees of the
older Col. Sanders' chicken concept, as opposed to the KFC chain,
was the Kenny Kings chain. The company owned many Northern Ohio
diner-style restaurants, the last of which closed in 2004.Sanders
sold the entire KFC
franchising
operation in 1964 for $2 million
USD Since that
time, the chain has been sold three more times: to
Heublin in 1971, and most recently to
PepsiCo in 1986, which made it part of its
Tricon Global Restaurants division, which in
turn was spun off in 1997, and has now been renamed to
Yum! Brands.
Additionally, Colonel Sanders' nephew, Lee Cummings, took his own
Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises (and a chicken recipe of his own)
and converted them to his own "spin-off"
restaurant chain,
Lee's Famous Recipe
Chicken.
Today, some of the older KFC restaurants have become famous in
their own right.
One such restaurant is located in Marietta,
Georgia
. This store is notable for a tall sign that
looks like a chicken.
The sign, known locally as the Big Chicken
, was built for an earlier fast-food restaurant on
the site called Johnny Reb's Chick, Chuck and Shake. It is
often used as a travel reference point in the
Atlanta area by locals and
pilots.
The secret recipe
The Colonel's secret flavor recipe of 11 herbs and spices that
creates the famous "finger lickin' good" chicken remains a
trade secret. Portions of the secret spice mix
are made at different locations in the United States, and the only
complete, handwritten copy of the recipe is kept in a vault in
corporate headquarters. On September 9, 2008, the one complete copy
was temporarily moved to an undisclosed location under extremely
tight security while KFC revamped the security at its headquarters.
Before the move, KFC disclosed the following details about the
recipe and its security arrangements:
- The recipe, which includes exact amounts of each component, is
written in pencil on a single sheet of notebook paper and signed by
Sanders.
- The recipe was locked in a filing cabinet with two separate
combination locks. The cabinet also included vials of each of the
11 herbs and spices used.
- Only two executives had access to the recipe at any one time.
KFC refuses to disclose the names and titles of either
executive.
- One of the two executives said that no one had come close to
guessing the contents of the secret recipe, and added that the
actual recipe would include some surprises.
On February 9, 2009, the secret recipe returned to KFC's Louisville
headquarters in a more secure, computerized vault.
In 1983, writer
William
Poundstone examined the recipe in his book
Big Secrets. He reviewed Sanders'
patent application, and advertised in college
newspapers for present or former employees willing to share their
knowledge. From the former he deduced that Sanders had diverged
from other common fried-chicken recipes by varying the amount of
oil used with the amount of chicken being cooked, and starting the
cooking at a higher temperature (about ) for the first minute or so
and then lowering it to for the remainder of the cooking time.
Several of Poundstone's contacts also provided samples of the
seasoning mix, and a food lab found that it consisted solely of
sugar,
flour,
salt,
black pepper and
monosodium glutamate (MSG). He
concluded that it was entirely possible that, in the years since
Sanders sold the chain, later owners had begun skimping on the
recipe to save costs. Following his buyout in 1964, Colonel Sanders
himself expressed anger at such changes, saying:
"That friggin' ... outfit .... They prostituted every goddamn thing I had. I had the greatest gravy in the world and those sons of bitches they dragged it out and extended it and watered it down that I'm so goddamn mad."
Ron Douglas, author of the book "America's Most Wanted Recipes,"
also claims to have figured out KFC's secret recipe.
Products
Packaging
The famous paper bucket that KFC uses for its larger sized orders
of chicken and has come to signify the company was originally
created by
Wendy's restaurants founder
Dave Thomas.
Thomas was
originally a franchisee of the original Kentucky Fried Chicken and
operated several outlets in the Columbus, Ohio
area. His reasoning behind using the paper
packaging was that it helped keep the chicken crispy by
wicking away excess moisture. Thomas was
also responsible for the creation of the famous rotating bucket
sign that came to be used at most KFC locations in the US.
Menu items
This is a list of menu items sold at KFC.
Chicken
- KFC's specialty is fried chicken served in various forms. KFC's
primary product is pressure-fried pieces of chicken made with the
original recipe. The
other chicken offering, extra crispy, is made using a
garlic marinade and double dipping the chicken in flour before deep
frying in a standard industrial kitchen type machine.
- Kentucky Grilled Chicken – This marinated grilled chicken is
targeted towards health-conscious customers. It features marinated
breasts, thighs, drumsticks, and wings that are coated with the
Original Recipe seasonings before being grilled. It has less fat,
calories, and sodium than the Original Recipe fried chicken.
Introduced in April 2009.
- KFC has two lines of sandwiches: its
"regular" chicken sandwiches and its Snackers line. The regular
sandwiches are served on either a sesame
seed or corn dusted roll and are made from
either whole breast fillets (fried or roasted), chopped chicken in
a sauce or fried chicken strips. The Snackers line are value priced
items that consist of chicken strips and various toppings.
In the
UK
, Australia and New Zealand
, sandwiches are referred to as "burgers"; there is
the chicken fillet burger (a chicken breast fillet coated in an
original-recipe coating with salad garnish and mayonnaise) and a
Zinger Burger (as with the former but with a spicier coating and
salsa). Both of these are available as "tower" variants,
which include a slice of cheese and a hash brown.
- A variety of smaller finger food
products are available at KFC including chicken strips, wings,
nuggets and popcorn chicken. These products can be ordered plain or
with various sauces, including several types of barbecue sauces and buffalo sauce. They also offer potato wedges.
- Several pies have been made available from KFC. The Pot Pie is a savory pie made
with chicken, gravy and vegetables. In the second quarter of 2006,
KFC introduced its variation on Shepherd's pie called the Famous
Bowl. Served in a plastic bowl, it is layered with mashed
potatoes or rice, gravy,
corn, popcorn chicken, and cheese, and is
served with a biscuit. The bowl had been available at KFC's special
test market store in Louisville since
the third quarter of 2005.
- The KFC Twister is a wrap that
consists of either chicken strips or roasted chicken, tomato,
lettuce and (pepper) mayonnaise wrapped in a tortilla. In Europe, the Twister is sold in two
varieties: 1) the Grilled Twister (chicked strips), and 2) the
Grilled Mexican twister/Spicy Toasted Twister (UK) (chicken breast
supplemented by tortilla chips and salsa, UK: adds only salsa to
pepper mayonnaise),
- KFC Fillers are a sub, available in four varieties over the
summer period in Australia.
- Shish kebab – in several markets KFC
sells kebabs.
- Kentucky Barbecued Chicken – barbecued chicken dipped in the
original recipe
- Wrapstar is a variant of the KFC Twister, consisting of chicken
strips with salsa, cheese, salad, pepper mayonnaise and other
ingredients, contained in a compressed tortilla.
Other products

Coleslaw
- In some international locations, KFC may sell hamburgers, pork ribs or
fish. In the U.S., KFC began offering the Fish Snacker
sandwich during Lent in 2006. The Fish Snacker
consists of a rectangular patty of Alaskan Pollock on a small bun, and is the fifth KFC menu
item in the Snacker category.
- Some international locations also may sell KFC 'Mashies' -
balls of mashed potato cooked in original recipe batter
- Three types of salads (which can be topped with roasted or
fried chicken) are available at KFC: Caesar, house, and BLT salads
(in the US).
- The Boneless Banquet
- Zinger Burger – A regular sized burger which regularly consists
of a boneless fillet of hot and spicy chicken, lettuce and
mayonnaise in a burger bun. Cheese, tomato, bacon and pineapple can
be added upon request. Barbecue sauce can also replace/join the
mayonnaise.
- Chili Cheese Fries – By 2007, 2 former KFC/A&W Restaurants locations in Berlin
and Cologne, Germany had reverted to KFC-only locations and the
third location in Garbsen (by Hannover) was closed in 2005. The
only remnant from the former A&W menu are the Chili Cheese
Fries which were added to the systemwide KFC Germany menu.
- Parfait desserts – "Little Bucket Parfaits" in varieties such
as Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Crème (once called the Colonel's Little
Fudge Bucket), Lemon Crème and Strawberry Shortcake are available
at most locations in the US.
- Sara Lee Desserts – Available in either Cookies and Cream
Cheesecake or Choc Caramel Mousse.
Sides
Discontinued products
- The Colonel's Rotisserie Gold – This product was introduced in
the 1990s as a response to the Boston
Market chain's roasted chicken products, and a healthier
mindset of the general public avoiding fried food. Purportedly made
from a "lost" Col. Sanders recipe, it was sold as a whole roaster
or a half bird.
- Tender Roast Chicken – This product was an off-shoot of 'The
Colonel's Rotisserie Gold'. Instead of whole and half birds,
customers were given quarter roasted chicken pieces. For a time,
customers could request chicken "original", "Extra Tasty Crispy",
or "Tender Roast".
- Chicken Little sandwich – a value
oriented sandwich that sold for $0.39(USD) in
the U.S. during the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was a small
chicken patty with mayonnaise on a small roll, similar to White Castle's mini chicken
sandwich.
- Extra Tasty Crispy (ETC) – Chicken much like the Extra Crispy
served today, except ETC was prepared using chicken that had been
soaking for 15 minutes in a special marinade machine. There is some
speculation that the marinade may have been made with trans-fats,
and KFC boasts to no longer use trans-fats in their chicken, the
known ingredients were garlic and chicken stock. In the summer of
2007, KFC started marketing the chicken just as "Extra Crispy"
without the marinade.
- Kentucky Nuggets were a chicken nugget product available at KFC
until 1996. No reason has been given for their
discontinuation.
- Smokey Chipotle – Introduced in April 2008. The chicken was
dipped in chipotle sauce then doubled breaded and fried. It has
been discontinued since August 2008.
Nutritional value
KFC formerly used partially hydrogenated oil in its fried foods.
This oil contains relatively high levels of
trans fat, which increases the risk of
heart disease. The
Center for Science in
the Public Interest (CSPI) filed a court case against KFC, with
the aim of making it use other types of oils or make sure customers
know about trans fat content immediately before they buy
food.
In October 2006, KFC announced that it would begin frying its
chicken in trans fat-free oil. This would also apply to their
potato wedges and other fried foods, however, the biscuits,
macaroni and cheese, and mashed
potatoes would still contain trans fat. Trans fat-free
soybean oil was introduced in all KFC restaurants in
the U.S. by April 30, 2007. CSPI announced that it would
immediately drop its lawsuit against KFC and was hopeful that this
would create a
ripple effect on other
restaurants or fast food chains that prepare food rich in trans
fat. "If KFC, which deep-fries almost everything, can get the
artificial trans fat out of its frying oil, anyone can," CSPI
executive director Michael Jacobson said in a
statement.
Advertising

KFC's logo used from 1997 until
November 2006
Early
television
advertisements for KFC regularly featured Colonel Sanders
licking his fingers and talking to the viewer about his secret
recipe. Despite his death in 1980 Sanders remains a key symbol of
the company in its advertising and branding.
Throughout the mid 1980s, KFC called on
Will Vinton Studios to produce a series
of humorous,
claymation ads. These most
often featured a cartoon-like chicken illustrating the poor
food quality of competing food chains,
mentioning prolonged freezing and other negative aspects. TV ads
also featured
Foghorn Leghorn
advising
Henery Hawk to visit the
restaurant for better chicken.
In the 80s, KFC was an associate sponsor for
Junior Johnson's
NASCAR
Winston Cup Series cars, with
such drivers as
Darrell Waltrip,
Neil Bonnett, and
Terry Labonte.
In 1997 KFC briefly re-entered the NASCAR Winston Cup Series as
sponsor of the #26
Darrell
Waltrip Motorsports Chevrolet with
driver
Rich Bickle at the
Brickyard 400.
By the late 1990s, the stylized likeness of Colonel Sanders as the
KFC logo had been modified. KFC ads began featuring an
animated version of "the Colonel" voiced by
Randy Quaid with a lively and
enthusiastic attitude. He would often start out saying "The Colonel
here!" and moved across the screen with a cane in hand. The Colonel
was often shown dancing, singing, and knocking on the TV screen as
he spoke to the viewer about the product.
The animated Colonel is uncommon today. Still using a humorous
slant, the current KFC campaign revolves mostly around customers
enjoying the food. It also features a modified version of
Lynyrd Skynyrd's "
Sweet Home Alabama" as the
theme song for practically all its
commercials, though the restaurant actually hails from
Kentucky.
In 2006, KFC claimed to have made the first logo visible from
outer space, though
Readymix has had one since 1965. KFC says
"
It marked the official debut of a massive global
re-image campaign that will contemporize 14,000-plus KFC
restaurants in over 80 countries over the next few years." The logo
was built from 65,000 one-foot-square tiles, and it took six days
on site to construct in early November.
The logo was placed
in the Mojave Desert near Rachel,
Nevada
. It is located in the northern section of
Rachel,
Nevada
at .
Many KFC locations are
co-located with
one or more of Yum! Brands restaurants,
Long John Silver's,
Taco Bell,
Pizza Hut, or
A&W Restaurants. Many of
these locations behave like a single restaurant, offering a single
menu with food items from both restaurants.

The resurrected Kentucky Fried Chicken
logo
One of KFC's latest advertisements is a commercial advertising its
"wicked crunch box meal". The commercial features a fictional
black metal band called "Hellvetica"
performing live, the lead singer then swallows fire. The commercial
then shows the lead singer at a KFC eating the "wicked crunch box
meal" and saying "Oh man that is hot".
In 2007, the original, non-acronymic
Kentucky Fried
Chicken name was resurrected and began to reappear on company
marketing literature and food packaging, as well as some restaurant
signage.
Criticisms
Environmental concerns
KFC in the US has been accused by
Greenpeace of a large destruction of the
Amazon Rainforest, because the supply of
soy used for chicken food that KFC receives from
Cargill has been traced back to the European KFC. Cargill has
reportedly been exporting soy illegally for several years. The
Greenpeace organization researched the
issue and brought it to the attention of the parent company YUM!
Brands, Inc. The parent company denied the illegal operation, and
said that their supply of soy is grown in parts of Brazil.
Greenpeace has called on KFC to stop purchasing soy from Cargill,
to avoid contributing to the destruction of the Amazon.
Trademark disputes
In 1971, Sanders sued
Heublein Inc.,
KFC's parent company at the time, over the alleged misuse of his
image in promoting products he had not helped develop. In 1975,
Heublein Inc. unsuccessfully sued Sanders for libel after he
publicly referred to their gravy as "sludge" with a "wallpaper
taste".
In May
2007 KFC (Great Britain) requested that Tan Hill
Inn
, in the Yorkshire Dales
, North Yorkshire, UK
refrain from using the term 'Family Feast' to describe its
Christmas menu,although this problem was quickly resolved
with the pub being allowed to continue use of the term.
Wages and working conditions
Like many fast food outlets, KFC employs a high proportion of
young, unskilled workers, at or just above
minimum wage, and its workers are not
unionized.
In New Zealand
, KFC youth workers earn NZ$10.13 an hour. Staff at the Balmoral,
Auckland
store went on strike for two hours on December 3,
2005 after Restaurant Brands, the
franchise holder, offered no wage increase in contract
negotiations. In March 2006, Restaurant Brands agreed to
phase out youth rates in New Zealand, although no date was
set.
Many stores in
western Canada are
unionized with the Canadian Auto Workers, and as a result many
non-franchise stores in western Canada pay higher than minimum
wage.
Animal rights
Since 2003,
animal rights and welfare
organizations, led by
People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), have been protesting KFC’s
treatment of the animals used for its products. These groups claim
that the recommendations of the KFC Animal Welfare Advisory Council
have been ignored. Adele Douglass, a former member of the council,
said in an
SEC
filing reported on by the
Chicago
Times, that KFC "never had any meetings. They never asked any
advice, and then they touted to the press that they had this
animal-welfare advisory committee. I felt like I was being
used."
KFC responded by saying the chickens used in its products are
bought from suppliers like
Perdue
Farms,
Tyson Foods, and
Pilgrim's Pride, and that these suppliers
are routinely monitored for animal welfare violations. Several PETA
undercover investigations and videos of these and other KFC
suppliers purporting to show chickens being beaten, ripped apart,
and thrown against walls contradict KFC’s claims. PETA has
criticised some of the practices of chicken breeders, such as
beak trimming and overcrowding, but
KFC says its suppliers meets UK legal requirements.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs
recommends a maximum stocking density of
34 kg—around 30 chickens—per square metre, and say that in
circumstances where beak trimming needs to be carried out to
prevent the birds injuring each other, only one third of the beak
should be trimmed "measured from the tip towards the entrance of
the nostrils". PETA states that they have held more than
12,000 demonstrations at KFC outlets since 2003 because of this
alleged mistreatment of chickens by KFC suppliers.
In June 2008, KFC Canada agreed to PETA's demands for better
welfare standards, including favoring suppliers who use
controlled-atmosphere killing
(CAK) of chickens, and other welfare standards as well as
introducing a vegan sandwich at 65% of its outlets. PETA has called
off its campaign against KFC Canada, but continues to demonstrate
against KFC elsewhere in the world.
Hygiene
In
February, 2007, a KFC/Taco Bell outlet in New York City
was found to be rat infested. A video
showing the rats running wild inside the restaurant was shown on
television news bulletins around the world, as well as disseminated
on the internet via sites such as
YouTube.
Two KFC
outlets in Sydney
, Australia, were fined record amounts for having
unhygienic food preparation areas. Inspectors found layers
of grease and dirt, as well as evidence of vermin. The KFC stores
had been repeat offenders, and had ignored previous warnings to
keep their restaurants clean. They were charged with 11 breaches of
food hygiene laws.
International operations
Global locations

Countries with KFC restaurants
Key:
Blue: Countries currently with KFC restaurants
(Listed alphabetically by country)
- PFK (Poulet Frit Kentucky) in Quebec
- (肯德基)
- (Franchised by Ibersol Group)
Gallery
Image:KFC
Home Base.jpg|KFC in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
, AustraliaImage:Kfcdhk2.jpg| Gulshan, Dhaka
, Bangladesh
Image:KFC in Hohhot.jpg|Hohhot
, Inner Mongolia, China
Image:KFC_Hohe_Straße_120-122,_Cologne.jpg|KFC
at Hohe Straße 120–122 (former Pizza Hut location), one of 3 KFC
locations in Cologne, Germany
Image:New Market Fast Food.JPG|co-located
KFC and Domino's in Kolkata
, India
Image:Bfc shiraz.jpg|KFC clone
(BFC) in Shiraz
, Iran
Image:KFC kingston.jpg|Kingston
, Jamaica
Image:KFC2.jpg|Keihan Moriguchi City station,
Osaka, JapanImage:Kfcq8.jpg|Kuwait City
, Kuwait
Image:KFCBangkok.jpg|Bangkok,
Thailand
Image:KFC sg.jpg|Singapore
Image:KFC Philippines.jpg|Angeles City
, Philippines
Image:Kfcgrenada.jpg|KFC in Meville Street
Saint
George's, Grenada
See also
Notes
- I've Got A Secret interview,
originally broadcast April 6, 1964 (rebroadcast by GSN March 30,
2008).
- According to a profile of KFC done by the Food Network television
show Unwrapped.
- Poundstone, pp 20-21.
External links