KFC Secret recipe accidentally revealed! Watch how to make it!

On August 29 2016 Rumors hit the internet stating that Colonel Sanders' secret recipe was accidentally revealed. A sheet of paper with the hand written ingredients are supposedly Colonel Sanders' secret herbs and spices. Fact or fiction, I don't know but as Chef, I thought I'd do the taste test. See for yourself how to make what I feel is if not the original, the closest recipe ever. It's finger Lickin good.

Excuse the chewing sounds, but when tasting complex flavours you need to open your mouth to let in the oxygen. My mother wouldn't be proud but my old Chef School science teacher would. Same with wine tasting, you need to slur and let in the oxygen. Try it and see for yoursel, but please not in public. :)

Little tips
This recipe seems a lot stronger in flavour than the real KFC (see video above). You can always add an additional cup of flour or two to the mix bringing it closer to the real deal. I personally prefer it stronger, as per this recipe. Seems more like the old fashion KFC recipe. Try it first on a few fried chicken pieces, if it's too strong, it's always easier to add the additional flour to the mix later.

Also if you marinate your chicken with a little salt and butter milk overnight, you will get a juicier and more tender meat.

Some suggest that MSG is added to the original recipe and that could be the missing ingredient, I'm not a fan of MSG, I prefer to go without, but it's another ingredient that may bring it closer to the original. MSG enhances flavours.

Cooking it in a pressure cooker will also cook it faster giving you a less dark outer coating the way KFC does it, however I don't recommend it as hot oil under pressure is quite dangerous!!! KFC had special pressure cookers designed specifically for that purpose. That's why it's best to use smaller chickens, as large chickens will need to cook much longer making the outer crust too dark.

Either way, home made fried chicken beats any takeout chicken! ENJOY! :)

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#secretrecipe #kfc

[meizigaodobson]

Thank you for your time and the comparison!What I believe is Good recipes always make good food. KFC is convenient when we want to eat but no time to cook. However, when we have time, why don't we give it a try by buying some good recipes and cook for our family with love at home! Again, There is no right or wrong answer on this comparison. Be positive and be thankful to person who spend time on making video for us. Thank you! I'm going to buy some chicken now lol. See ya!

[TheParadisecove]

I Worked at a KFC in Burbank, CA, 1969-1971. Old school...and the best KFC made. We used a wire basket to dunk the chicken in a milk and egg batter for about a minute. Then shook the basket gently to free excess batter. We then breaded the chicken piece by piece, loading it into a pre-mixed flour, containing the 11 herbs and spices. (I could have walked off with some of these pre-mixed bags, but never did) We then shook the pieces gently to free of excess flour. Meanwhile, using a deep fry thermometer, the uncovered pressure cooker was heating to a temp of 400 degrees. Then using a small "serving" tray, gently dropped the breaded chicken in the heated oil, piece by piece. Using that technique kept the oil temp from dropping too much. Keeping the dial at maximum heat, we'd brown and stir the chicken gently with a spoon, rather than a fork, so as not to disturb the breading.
Once the chicken was golden brown, we'd cap the pressure cooker, the temp still on high, until the pressure control piece on top of the cover started hissing. We'd then turn the heat down, far enough to maintain a steady hissing from the pressure piece 8-10 minutes later, we'd then pull up on the control piece to release the pressure.
We'd finish by dumping the chicken into a rack situated on receiving bin. The hot oil would flow back into a oil heating stove.
The result was the most delicious KFC that you have ever tasted.

[Creativechaos]

I tried this at home :-) :-) ... I would like to share my experience with you:
- First of all: it is impossible to make exact copy at home for a lot of reasons, and discussing why is wasting of time. Lot of people explained that on a few threads.
- Second: This is recipe is great ... taste is good and I can say that it is very, very close to original. Try it and then do some changes and try to find what you prefer - adapt it to yourself.
- I used deboned drumstick and thighs and cutted them in halves. This recipe is good for bigger pieces like that, for smaller pieces like stripes or wings it is too salty - use three cups of flour instead two and it will be ok.
- Another advice: I didn't wipe chicken pieces - I putted them in flour and spices mixture first and let it dry with it. Then coated in eggwhite and back to flour and spices mixture. That way you will have richer coating.
- Also - whisk your eggwhite from time to time while frying - that will make it fluffy and it will increase volume of coating in the oil ... interesting thing is that whole my life I was almost sure that those big "grains" in coating was from corn flour in some shape (manna-croup or semolina) - it is from fluffy eggwhite and flour mixture.

P.S. Sorry for my bad English ...

[rudyardkipling]

We didn't have KFC when I was a lad, we had to make do with Kentucky Fried Chicken...

[mtk]

Well, I worked at a KFC for 3 years during high school and you got it really wrong.
1. you may or may not have the spices listed correctly but I wouldn't know that because they came in a sealed plain packet that was labeled herbs and spices.
2. KFC does not "double coat" its original recipe only the extra crispy is double coated,
3. Fryer oil should be at 350* not 300* time is 13 minutes exactly,
4. Chicken is tumble marinated for close to 5 hours in a cold tumbler before breaded and cooked,
5. KFC chicken is Fried in a(Henny Penny) a brand of pressure fryer, or in newer stores a deep submersion rack pressure fryer at 3 atmospheres pressure.


the marinate and pressure cooking is essential to tenderness, flavor, and juiciness associated with the true KFC experience. the spices may be close or even right on, but without all the steps you are just getting close not truly making a 1for1 copy, nice attempt though it really resembles it in looks anyway.

[DavidWilliams-hndy]

I too worked at KFC when I was a teenager. We used to put the raw chicken in what looked like a miniature washing machine. I believe it ran about an hour. Then we would dredge it in the "Secret Flour Mixture" and load them on a pressure cooker with oil in it. It ran 13 minutes when it came up to pressure. To make the extra crispy version we would double dredge it with that second coating and then fry it in a normal frying vat. In the bottom of the of the Pressure Cooker when cleaning the grease there would be all the chicken coating that fell off during the cooking process. This would be saved and that is what we made the gravy from. However, my favorite was the Cole Slaw.

The Coleslaw now comes in a Gallon square box pre-made. When I worked there we made it ourselves, homemade! It was simply the best thing to go along with the entire meal.

I made so much of it that year I remembered the recipe by heart. The key is finely cutting the cabbage and carrot toa little bigger than rice size and the onion must be almost a paste consistency before adding to the recipe. We used to use what was called a buffalo chopper to get them all the proper size and consistency. Enjoy!

Cole Slaw Recipe


1 cup of Mayonnaise
2/3 cup of Granulated Sugar
½ cup of milk
½ cup of buttermilk
6 TBS Lemon Juice
3 TBS white Vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon Black Pepper
16 cups of Finely cut Cabbage ( 2 heads)
Small quarter head of purple cabbage for color( May be omitted)
½ cup of finely chopped carrots
4 TBS finely minced Onion (almost a paste)

Instructions

1. Be sure Cabbage and Carrot are finely chopped using buffalo chopper. ( a little bigger than the size of rice)
2. Combine Mayonnaise, Sugar, Milk, Buttermilk, Lemon juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, Cabbage, carrots, and onion.
3. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours before serving.

Yields: 20 to 24 servings

[sevenstone]

the secret ingredient is the sadness of the employees who get twelve hrs a week and smell like chicken 24/7...

[ShadowPoet]

The problem with copy-cat recipes isn't just an issue of ingredients. There are the exact quantities used on a small scale compared to a more precisely controlled "commercial" preparation but also where the ingredients are sourced. Different brands of ginger or pepper for example will taste different depending on source. Freshness of the ingredients or how they were handled will have an impact. Frying under pressure might impact flavonoid solubility in the oil (impacting flavor profile). Temperature settings, oil types and sources and usage (oils used longer pick up different flavors). etc etc. KFC is KFC because it's KFC lol ... not just the ingredient list :)

[pervotheclown]

Kentucky Fried Chicken was the best tasting chicken around but once they got bought out by yum yum foods and became KFC the product has deteriorated significantly. Popeyes Chicken nowadays runs circles around KFC. Kids don't realize how much better KFC was in the 70s, 80s and 90s .

[madscientistshusta]

The secreate ingrediant was partially hydrogenated oils and msg, now that they cut those out its just soggy meat, its gross

[toddbob]

KFC quality of food just isn't there anymore, It was better 40+ Years ago.

[That_AMC_Guy]

I used to work for the Colonel a little over 10 years ago. I'm going to assume they still make it the same way. I didn't work there long, but one conversation we'd always have was: Who's nose could detect what spices in the flour mix? Then, one day I just looked on the ingredients label on the flour mix bag (insert head slap here).

One step KFC does is the marinating of the chicken. You toss two chickens-worth into a tumbling machine with this horribly caustic mix of salt and god knows what. Once the chicken has been marinated : IT MUST BE USED. The chicken starts to break down from the horrific amount of salt in the marinade so much so that after two days in the fridge, the uncooked chicken turns into this soggy, black, gelatinous mess. I only witnessed that once over a Christmas (because we'd close for the holiday) and it was ghastly.

The second part is that most stores don't do the egg-wash step anymore. After the marination step, the chicken simply gets lightly rinsed off in tap water then tossed into the breading.

I was a really good cook - I loved my job, and it was fun and surprisingly rewarding. I added my own extra step of DRAINING the chicken as it came out of the fryer. The instructions say to go right out of the fryer, onto a rack and into the warmer. But if you do that, the chicken soaks in it's own grease. What I'd do is take the basket out of the fryer, but lock the basket OVER the hot oil, so the basket & chicken stayed warm, but I'd let it sit there for 30 seconds or so before opening the rack to allow the chicken some time to drip. Many times we'd get compliments from customers but many thought we were making the Extra Crispy recipe! The chicken was that tasty and crispy.

One step a lot of restaurants miss is they don't sift the breading mixture enough. It's supposed to be light and fluffy and free of any clumps from the previous chicken. Without sifting, the flour mixture doesn't get evenly spread out and the chicken gets clumpy.

Looking at this recipe, I'm going to say it's correct, aside from missing MSG. But, I would hardly call that a bad thing.

But I would definitely agree - there is a huge difference from the KFC I had as a child, versus the stuff today. Even the stuff today doesn't hold a candle to the chicken I made way back in the early 2000's. When I'd bring buckets home to my friends after work - they WANTED my chicken. Today, very few people want to go to KFC.

[jeananton]

I remember KFC being a lot different in the 80's when i was a kid. Ive been a chef for years..ive made many different recipes to try attain the same. The recipe in my opinion changes from shop to shop. All the businesses are franchised and ive had different tasting chicken in the same town from different premises. I also have the Official KFC Recipe book. On a side note...Dixie Fried Chicken is better, its tastier and no way near as dry as KFC. You cannot attain the same results as KFC without a Pressure cooker, plus I beg to differ on your recipe.
There is 24 hour Marinate process and seperate recipe for this preceding the below cooking recipe ( which im not posting)

KFC Original Recipe
6 cups Crisco Shortening
1 eggs well beaten
2 cups Milk
2 cups Flour
2 teaspoons ground pepper
3 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon MSG
1/8 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 dash paprika
2 Frying Chickens cut into 6 pieces
Place shortening into the pressure cooker and heat over medium heat to the shortening
reaches 400F. In a small bowl, combine the egg and milk. In a separate bowl, combine
the remaining six dry ingredients. Dip each piece of chicken into the milk until fully
moistened. Roll the moistened chicken in the flour mixture until well coated. In groups
of four or five, drop the covered chicken pieces into the shortening and lock the lid.
When pressure builds up cook for 10 minutes.
RELEASE TO MANUFACTURER'S INSTRUCTIONS!!

[infohomestaging]

Just made this chicken - EXCELLENT!!! Truly reminded me of my KFC childhood days and best of all MADE AT HOME with pure ingredients. This fried chicken recipe is by far the best one I have ever made! a HUGE THANK YOU!!!

[waynekendall]

How come everybody leaves the MSG out??? That's 95% of the secret!!!

[FinsRacksOutdoors]

We never got a KFC outlet in my hometown until 1975. We were so poor however, that when we did go there WE HAD TO LICK OTHER PEOPLE"S FINGERS...

[RickeyMoore]

One additional thought ...mix the spices together first. I suggest using a mixer on it's slowest speed, and add the flour slowly. This way you don't get hot-spots of spices on the chicken. I would add about 1/8 ts of curry powder for that buttery taste. I wouldn't count salt as a spice. Mix the hell out of it. Would you try this?? I just ordered a chicken pressure cooker to get the cooking part right. But, mixing the spices thoroughly has to be the key.

[grimmington]

Eggwash is going to offset your flavor, simply dip the chicken in water... 7 times (anyone thats worked at KFC will get this). also gotta "toss" the chicken in the flour for an even coating... 7 times; double dip for crispy, for regular you need a pressure cooker

[GodsndFavoriteBassPlyr]

I've done this experiment a few times.. and have to say that it's damn close to the real thing. Virtually indistinguishable. And I do agree with the chef's analysis.

[tomamyx]

OK... a couple of things. Use cake flour rather than all purpose flour (better coating), and substitute Accent for the salt. If you would rather not use the Accent, try popcorn salt (unflavored). It mixes better with the flour (doesn't "settle"). Then pressure fry the chicken, NOT deep fry! Original recipe KFC doesn't "crunch" (unless it isn't properly done), but rather has a softer skin. But otherwise a good job! By the way, I was a training director for a KFC franchisee in Texas for 12 years. I don't know the "secret" recipe, but I know the methods quite well. Thanks!