I grew up in the 70s and can remember smelling a KFC before you even got close to the restaurant….the smell was just in the air! Now you can stand inside a KFC and not smell anything but old grease. So sad that generations of people will never know how KFC was supposed to taste like…
I worked at a KFC in the mid 70's. We had a 14 ft long 10 or 12 burner gas stove. We used coconut oil in pressure cookers, one chicken per pot preheated to 400F, dropped in one piece at a time, then capped, and once they started to rattle they cooked for 11 minutes before we'd start to release pressure and dumped the pot onto the sorting rack. I'm sure the air handling systems are better today than back then because we just had maybe a 18 ft long hood over the cooking and sorting area that exitedout the big silver pimple on the roof, maybe 20 ft above the street. There were really busy days or nights when big orders on the phone made for a wedding or the Super Bowl for instance. You couldn't get the smell off without taking two showers. Maybe one shower if you're going to a bonfire and plan to stand in the smoke for the first 5 minutes before getting a beer from the keg. The busiest three days of the year were Mother's Day, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Eve in that order. Your clothes needed to be bleached and there was no sense in thinking about small enclosed areas for at least a week.
I will go along with that - However understand that the 70s and 1970s were two entirely different periods in history. You should not be so lazy as to not correctly write the date. That is laziness at its worst - promoting yourself as a mentally lazy Man. When you allow the small things to 'slip' it does not tale long before you allow the bigger more important things to slip. As a former Air force pilot - I can tell you that it is all about discipline. I will guarantee that you fail to pay attention to detail. It is not entirely your fault - as you were programmed to be a ZOMBIE and you did not realize it. Regrettably barry w - I am too busy to read replies - I may read one in a hundred and ONLY those whose name is mentioned in a COMMENT REFERENCE number However - I wish you well - Good Luck and Good bye
Here's my recollections as someone who cooked KFC chicken for 3 summers circa 1976 to 1978. My uncle was a manager of a chain restaurant called Geno's in Jersey City, NJ...Geno's had apparently obtained a license from KFC to sell their chicken. Geno's is no longer in business. This is how I was taught to make the chicken. 1. The chicken arrived in 40 pound boxes in a somewhat frozen state. It was stored in a freezer upon delivery and some would then be moved to another cool room to defrost. 2. A bag of powdered eggwash would be mixed in a large bowl with room temperature water and set aside. 3. A bag quite like the one in the video which contained the premixed spices would be emptied into another bowl and set aside. 4. A large block of white colored shortening similar to Crisco would be carved up by hand and placed individually into a row of six 22 quart commercial heavy duty pressure cookers, each with their own commercial burners, and heated to 400 degrees F. uncovered. 5. While the shortening was heating, the chicken pieces would be dipped in the eggwash and then into the white spice mixture and coated thoroughly. You could see the black flecks of spices throughout the spice mixture and in the finished product. 6. The chicken would be placed into each of the pressure cookers at 400 F and stirred constantly for 1 minute. This allowed the chicken to brown at atmospheric pressure. They had a color chart that would tell you what color it should be. Each pot was to contain a certain amount of breasts, thighs, wings and a rather delicious piece called a keel if memory serves. I believe the amount was 12 pieces per pot. 7. After 1 minute of stirring, the lids of the pressure cookers would be placed on and the heat would be lowered. This allowed for the chicken to cook internally. This step called for 8 minutes of additional cooking time at low heat. 8. After 8 minutes, the relief valves of the pressure cookers would be opened and after releasing the pressure safely, the lids of the cookers would be removed and the chicken would be dumped along with shortening thru a metal screen into a bin. The shortening would be recycled for the next batch. 9. The chicken would be removed and placed into a warming oven that kept it around 140 degrees I believe. This kept it moist and juicy. After a certain amount of time if the chicken did not sell it was supposed to be destroyed as it tended to get dry. Additionally, around 1977, KFC came out with their extra crispy option which was very popular amongst some folks. I was not a fan and much preferred the original recipe. I felt that the extra crispy stuff lost some of the flavor in the process. Basically, they would recoat the original recipe chicken in a different mixture and flash cook it to puff up the coating. Hope this helps some of you. I'm amazed that I can recall so many of the details after all these years...I'm 63 and was a teenager cooking KFC back then...I still have a few hot shortening splash burns on the inside of my forearms to remind me.
Your commitment and dedication to this series is astounding. I have been watching for a couple of years, and I can say that it is far superior to anything on commercial television, FoodNetwork included. Your enthusiasm is what makes this show, and the fact you do this as a true labour of love is the “secret ingredient”.
Back in the 60's, my dad worked for a company in Florida that had would hold a summer picnic. Around 1965'ish, one of these picnics was catered by Col Sanders himself. I actually got to meet the man, who was very friendly to us kids.
The chicken in the early 60s was great. Real potatoes, rolls, Cole slaw. Once the colonel lost control, it all went downhill..biscuits was it for me....👍👍
@annew7271 I just watched this 5 hr long vid on freemasons here on youtube, that vid was really surprising, I never knew how many hollywood personnel/athletes are involved.
Thanks for watching Everyone! *I can tell from the comments that some of you are disappointed by the outcome of this video, while others have termed it a **#FAIL**. I have given away, and said as much as I could. I wish I was able to say more; but...*
The entire journey/experiment has been great. Lots of good information even if it wasn't a perfect match. Can't speak for anyone else, but I've enjoyed every episode.
Called up Karl yesterday top fella he arranged to meet me today and I got his blend. I have to say his blend is the nicest I have ever tasted on chicken it's kfc and better. Got a photo with him and he was singing your high praises Glen he has been getting emails from all over the world.
This makes me so happy. I live in Kentucky, and I can't even eat KFC anymore-- not because of the pandemic, because the chicken is so soggy and bland now. It's delightful to know the real thing exists out in the world.
Overall this seems to be a common thread, companies that cheap themselves right out of business just to make that much more money. Until suddenly, nobody wants what they are producing anymore.
Thing is - it works, for a while. KFC continued expanding for years on the power of its brand alone long after the product itself dropped in quality. By the time the customers realise the experience they remember but never get isn't coming back, those execs who made their huge quarterly surpluses & multimillion dollar bonuses have moved on to other companies or even long retired.
Clement Moraschi I don't understand how they get away with lower quality. American car manufacturers had the same manufacturing philosophy and they were absolutely demolished by Japanese car manufacturers who reduced cost and increased quality by increasing efficiency.
I'm old school. I have been telling everyone for years that the recipe was different back when I was a kid and no one knows what I'm talking about. Lol
I saw a clip of an interview of an elderly woman who worked for KFC in the early days and she mentioned Tellicherry Pepper and Summer Savory. When I tried it, those two reminded me of the flavors I tasted as a kid in the 60's-70's.
Tellicherry Pepper is black pepper grown in Tellicherry India. Now grown in other areas of South India. And really I still remember the original flavour of that pepper in the chicken in Kentucky Fried chicken in Germany in the 70's
summer savory is always a Canadian herb. USA back in the 40s was dominated by the perennial winter savory which was bitter and more subtle. So that is why the Colonel always visited Canada so often in the 70s and 80s. He wanted to obtain a reliable source of the Annual Sweet Summer Savory.
Loved the video as it brought back memories. I am 76 and back in the 70's I had a friend who owned KFC restaurants. She and her husband acquired their first KFC from the Colonel in the 60's. At that time he did not charge for a franchise. You simply bought your restaurant and paid him "on you honor" 5 cents/chicken. He then showed or told you exactly how to prepare the chicken his way in these pressure cookers. They sold that restaurant and bought three more in another city still not paying a franchise to the Colonel. She also said the Colonel sent you a packet of the spices that you added to your flour etc. She, herself, made the cole slaw which she signed away her life that she would tell no one the recipe (and she never did). When Hublein took over they charged back then $100,000/franchise and you had to pay them 10 cents per chicken but NOT on your honor anymore. Hublein also had a totally different set up to fry the chicken which as I remember were like steam fryers. The Colonel did not like this chicken and he did sue Hublein, the outcome of which was Hublein promised to the Colonel to make better chicken though she never relayed what exactly that was. My friend thought the world of the Colonel and attended his conventions every year. She had many stories to tell all of which were complimentary to the Colonel. I myself if I want KFC I go to the restaurant and buy it! But! I am going to say without a doubt today's KFC is NOT anything much like the old KFC of the 60's and 70's. The taste is similar but texture and chicken are altogether different. The old KFC was "greasy" and just fingerlickin good! I think it's in the preparation and cooking method now used as compared to the old way along with different frying oils.
Carol Kalmer Kalmer, thank you for sharing. I live in Toronto, Canada and enjoyed KFC up until the time Colonel Sanders passed away (1980). As Glen mentioned after Col. Sanders sold KFC USA the new owners changed the recipe in America. So when Col. Sanders took his recipe and moved to Ontario we were lucky to still have the original recipe....that would change after his death and KFC USA took over Canadian operations. The chicken recipe is not the only thing that has changed at KFC the gravy, salads and fries are not the same. I'm 50 years old and have noticed changes to all the popular fast foods over the years. Original recipes are no longer and portion sizes have decreased in order to save money. I got off the junk food band wagon over a decade now. It was a fun ride.
You are right about the gravy etc. The gravy and mashed potatoes (as I recall from my friend) were two of the things Hublein had to promise the Colonel they would change as she said they tasted like paper! And her stories of the Colonel were always touching. He did love his chicken .........done right!!!
The thing about the Colonel is that he never tried to copy anyone else's recipe. He created his own, and so should we. Borrow from what you like, sure, but make it your own. I don't have a pressure cooker so I use the buttermilk 8 hour soak. It makes the chicken as tender and juicy as a pressure fryer, but without having to use one.
So if you want the real ORIGINAL Kentucky Fried Chicken, you have to go to Britain or Ireland. Way to go, corporate America. Take an excellent product & make it mediocre.
@@TheTheofrei Also probably why I remember KFC being really good a long time ago, but the last time I had it, probably back in 2013 or 2014 I was like "this is really bleh now" and have never had the urge to go back. And that was after a camping trip, usually when things taste extra good because you've been eating bland camp food for the last few days. If I had a pressure fryer, I'd track down some of that spice mix and make my own at home. Honestly these days, if I want the best meal, I go to the store, get a nice rib steak for $12 or $15, season it the way I like, grill it the way I like, and put my favourite bbq sauce on it (from Superstore in Canada - even though I'm not in Canada any more I make sure I always have some of that bbq sauce on hand) - it's relatively cheap, quick, and the best! Rarely do I find a steak in a restaurant that can even compare, and it's always more $$ for less satisfaction. Pretty hard to compare a rib steak made the way you like it to chicken in a bucket from a fast food joint that costs more!
my dad managed 3 KFC's in North Bay throughout the '70s and early '80s and met the good Colonel himself. This brought back lots of memories for me.. Thanks, guys!
We do a weeklong camping fishing trip to Martin river for the past 20 years and we have a tradition sice that fist trip when we are heading home we stop at the KFC on Algonquin and eat while driving back to toronto. Literally been eating at the same place for 20 years except for one time I was talked into getting Harvey's about 5 years ago.
Wait, i was expecting a video about how to make something that tasted similar to KFC that could be made at home, I wasn’t expecting my guy to need to hide peoples identities to keep them safe from the KFCIA
There’s chefs out there that can eat something blind and know exactly what’s in it. Times has changed, restaurants stop hiding their secrets because there’s chefs like Nguyen that is half blind that heighten her ability to taste everything in the dish.
The smell isn't even good anymore; it is bad enough kfc is the only restaurant in my town the seagulls do not hang around, they won't even hang out down wind of it.
@@darleschickens7106 In the corporate world there are always "idea men" who will reduce cost by reducing quality. They will get their bonuses from those cost savings and the products will degrade. The public will still buy the product simply because they remember the the original that made the company excel in the first place. For a company that has been around as long as KFC there are very few customers living to who remember the original taste and smell. The new customers just taste and smell crap.
@@darleschickens7106 because we all buy it still, so it is our own fault. if no one bought it then they would ....... A. go out of business B. fix the rubbish and make things great again to have any hope to sell Unfortunately we are mostly selfish and lazy humans and slow to work out we are in control but it takes all of us to work together.......ha ha ha good luck with that, just stick to crap chicken.
I'm in Canada and I remember KFC being like food from the gods until sometime in the 80s/90s. Something changed after that. Now, I sometimes crave KFC, but when I get it, I'm often disappointed. I realized that I'm craving the old recipe.
The silver lining of him not giving the exact ingredients, is that you can tweak the recipe to your specific pallet. So the Colonel's chicken to your taste, not too shabby. If tweaking recipes aren't your thing, premade seasonings are available. Thank you Glen, for your work and sharing as much as you could legally :)
Thank you Glen for the series of videos, this is truly priceless. Now with the premix seasonings the possibilities are endless almost like Bubba Gumps but with the KFC flavor. Imagine KFC fries, KFC deep fried turkey, KFC game hens, KFC potato chips, KFC fish and chips, KFC deep fried shrimp, KFC gizzards.
I don't know how anyone could be so callous and criticize what you did . I mean the tremendous amount of work that it took to go through recipes to purchase a fryer to get your spices to speak to your contacts that in itself is such a dedication to this show . those jerks that said that you're product was a fail should really not watch it anymore. I really congratulate the both of you . you are an amazing team and I love to watch you. thank you for all of your dedication
Ive made this over 100 times now. The only thing that needs measuring is 1350gm salt to the 12kg bag of flour I use. Everything else you can do by eye, and it just tastes awesome! Abouy 1/2 cup cracked, 1/4 ground each of the two peppers. 1/2 cup ginger powder, 1/4 cup allspice, 1/2 cup msg and 1/4 cup each of the herbs.
Around 40 years ago I worked in a local KFC for a few months. There was a soaking period for the chicken before coating it in the pre-bagged spice/flour mixture. The "brine", or whatever it was, also came in a pre-mixed bag. I'm assuming it was some dehydrated form of milk and egg because it was white but probably also salt and/or more MSG. What made me remember this was watching you only getting the chicken wet before the dredge. I believe it was a 10 or 15 minute soaking before coating the chicken. Also as I'm sure you know, the machine used to cook the chicken, which we referred to as Big Bertha, was able to cook huge amounts of chicken for each "drop". This meant that we would prep many racks of chicken, which took some time, before dropping. Typically there could be 30 minutes or more of wait time between chicken being coated and cooked. That could also translate to the reason for a different texture. Note: This has nothing to do with the cooking process but I just felt the need to mention. KFC has always swindled the consumers. The chicken always came pre-cut and they are the only company I know of who managed to get 9 pieces out of 1 chicken. They cut the breasts into 3 pieces. 2 "breasts" and 1 "center breast". The 2 breasts are basically rib meat only and the center breast was a huge chunk of white meat with only the cartilage. You had to ask for it specifically and would rarely be given more than 1 per bucket.
Are you sure you're not thinking of the Extra Crispy? We marinated the extra crispy (which only had salt and pepper), but we didn't marinated the original recipe.
@@johntracy7795 yeah both were marinated. I think there were 2 different bags though for the 2 styles. Definitely different coating bags too. It seems likely to me that as well as everyone else, KFC could very well have changed how they do things.
I can't believe I just watched 10 videos about trying to recreate the original KFC recipe, and it turns out to be the southern fried chicken you can find in a snackbox from any chipper in Dublin. That is absolutely hilarious. Great videos mate. Cheers!
I didn't realize when I found your channel a few weeks back that some Canadian was going to deliver me with the real recipe of the Colonel; who was featured on History Channels the food that built America. God bless you Glenn, and may God Bless Canada 🇨🇦
In the UK, the man that set up KFC was Harry Latham in 1965. Harry was very good friends with the Colonel. In 1988, Harry set up a new chain of fast food take aways in the South West (mostly Bristol region) called miss millies, with the blessing of the Colonel. I learnt the recipe from Harry in the mid nineties while working for miss millies and this is what he told me; 2 cups all purpose white flour 2 tsp table salt 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme 1 1/2 tsp dried basil 4 Tbsp paprika 1 tsp dried oregano 1 Tbsp celery salt 2 Tbsp garlic salt 1 Tbsp black pepper 1 Tbsp dry mustard powder 3 Tbsp white pepper 1 Tbsp ground ginger Just mix all together. I use this recipe at home and it pretty much tastes the same. The consistency isn't exact as I don't have the pressure fryers they use in the restaurant, but deep frying works.
@@douglasadcock549 No, miss mollies used a different but similar recipe. I said I learnt it from Harry as I worked for him. Others learnt of it too. No idea what miss millies use these days but I can tell you that UK KFCs don't use the original recipe anymore, today it's far too salty.
Yes! I’ve used that blend and to me it tastes very much like the KFC original recipe I remember from the 1980s-early 2000s (USA). I’ve enjoyed making it as I can’t have the restaurant version anymore since developing severe gluten sensitivity. Only tricky thing was the ratio of flour to seasoning. First time it came out too salty/overseasoned
Hi Glen. I recently went to my local fish & chip shop and, for once, saw fried chicken and decided to give it a whirl I didn't fancy fish. Having seen this series previously, after eating it and realising it was far, far better than KFC I got chatting to the owner about how good it was and while explaining how they cook it he brought out a bag - it was plain white but it was the Strong Blend mix. They cook it at 180C for about 10 minutes, without pressure, then finish it off under heat lamps used to keep the red meat hot. I thought you'd find this interesting as even over here in the UK the mix is better than actual KFC chicken.
For a small, local US band, I had to get an unauthorized New Zealand release with the only copies for sale in Germany. All the best punk rock ends up in Germany.
I worked for KFC in new Zealand in the 70s. It was cooked in hydrogenated cottonseed oil. A tin of the spices was added to 10kg of flour. We never knew what was in it. But the 11 herbs and spices wasn't the main thing, it was the method that was important. Milk and egg mixture, then into the sifted flour mixture, into the oil at 400 degrees, pressure cook for 10 minutes
In 1971 i was asst. manager to Church's Chicken in Miami, also was a cook for KFC in 1980. Both systems marinated the chicken before cooking, they called processing. The 'secret' large bag of salts, colorings and chemicals were added at the start of a 24 hour processing period in a large stainless steel vat of water and ice, in a 38 degree room with 200 birds. The batter was was important in the flavors and crunch, but the processing accounted for 30% to 40% of the color, flavor and juiciness. I still hold Church's chicken above KFC as they use a larger bird and is more flavorful.
All the pepper makes sense, knew a kfc manager once who told me when the ran out of the flour mixture, they just mixed flour with lots of salt and pepper.......lots of pepper!
I worked at a KFC when I was a kid. I remember that the chicken came in very fresh and on ice. Before the chicken was breaded, it was put in a metal basket and immersed in a water filled sink. The water was circulating and the temperature was regulated... to approximately body temp, I would say. This chicken was brought up to cooking temp and while it was only water, I think it worked to make the chicken not dry out while cooking. I have done this when making chicken at home and it does make a difference.
Called up karl yesterday top fella he arranged to meet me today and I got his blend. I have to say his blend is the nicest I have ever tasted on chicken it's kfc and better. Got a photo with him and he was singing your high praises Glen he has been getting emails from all over the world.
Informative video! In the 80's, my dad worked as a chef for the Pacific restaurant in Toronto on Dundas near the AGO so he knew a lot of restaurant vendors and suppliers and one of the most favourite things he cooked for our family was fried chicken using a fried chicken mix that tasted like KFC. I remember the mixture was sold by a Chinese supplier and was packaged in a clear bag with green or red label printing and it was insanely delicious and maybe 90-95% compared to the KFC recipe. Sadly, the supplier closed their business in the early 2000s so its impossible to find that mixture again.
the secret ingredient is love ! my mom worked at KFC in California when i was a kid , she also knows the secret but has told me she wont give it to me until she is on her deathbed , lol .
At this point anything you make at home will be better than what you get at a KFC. I used to enjoy fast food in the 60’s, when you could taste it and it wouldn’t kill ya. Thank you! ☺️💛
I worked in KFC .the pressure fryer was called the henny penny ,chicken was cooked for 30 mins. The wet mix was powdered egg and milk ,you just added water to it.the spices came sealed in a bag and you added it to the flour. This was in a shop in dublin Ireland in the 1986.
I just saw Food Theory just released a video on KFC today. I wonder how fast he had that x99 spice mix couriered over to his house once Glen talked about it.
Mats timing isn’t suspicious at all lul. But the audacity to call it “I cracked kfcs recipe” on mats channel while pretty much 99% of the research was done by others. That’s shameful
@@jennytrinh2986 Except - he's pretty much open about that fact in the video. As in stating and reiterating the fact multiple times open. It's not like he's trying to pass off other people's work as his own. It's basically just a taste test of proposed recipes with their own contribution added to the closest one at the end. I'm fine with it.
When Glen initially used the term 'mythology' in reference to the original recipe's history, I thought that seemed pretentious and overly dramatic. However, after watching the video, I caught a glimpse of how fascinating the history of KFC's original recipe actually is. Thanks for such an interesting video!
Two things mean we will never, ever have the exact copy. First, our personal tastes have changed. Second, our food sources are not exactly what they were then. Even the exact recipe, made precisely, will not taste the same batch to batch, person to person, and year to year. Some years, one herb or spice can be stronger, or weaker, made so by so many factors. At the same time, how you perceive taste is affected by so many things. Thank you for doing this series. It has been very educational. But, at the end of it all, you've given us workable methods, and a goal. That goal can be achieved to varying degrees, but, in the end, it's fried chicken. It's food, and, to me, if it is the same every time, it looses its interest. Put together the components, call the family to the table, and enjoy it. Wash up, and repeat. Thank you for all the time and effort spent on this project.
Yep, average temperature, atmospheric, water, and soil composition, conditions of manufacture, shipping & storage, humidity & atmospheric pressure when the spices & flour are ground/milled, differences in types of grinders & the materials used effecting particle size, consistency & geometry, natural genetic variation & mutation with selective breeding, feeding/fertilising over time in agriculture & horticulture, equipment used to manufacture & process. - Without even accounting for the subjective factors you mentioned. It's easy to really underestimate just how many steps happen between source production & processing before it gets to them, and that all those things have a very real impact. Nothing is ever exactly the same & authenticity is a constantly moving target. That col sanders himself used different methods (& undoubtedly wasn't precise to the atom of his spice ratios either) shows this is the case. Formula is one thing, taste is another. Formula is a guideline, taste will take you to where you'll be happiest, and it won't be the same thing every time.
Smokers tell me their taste buds change when they smoke or if they quit smoking our taste buds change when we get older too,so that could be why some things don't taste the same as they used to
I was extremely ill in hospital, in Torquay, England, & was having difficulty eating. They sent around a lady to persuade me to eat & it turned out to be Colonel Sanders' granddaughter!
@@gb5uq Nah, couldn't find a plate big enough. Had to resort to sending an assistant to the nearest KFC. I had completely stopped eating & just could not face the hospital food. Everything tasted so artificial & processed that it made me feel nauseous.
You should read The book about Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendys. Colonel Sanders came to him way before KFC or Wendys was ever started. Dave had a little Burger shop, but wasn't doing that well. Sanders came in one day and told him he had a recipe for fried chicken that he would give him and show him how to make as long as dave signed a contract to buy all of his chickens from him at 3 cents a piece.. From then on, Dave had a line waiting out of door every day. The lawyers then Bought out Sanders cheap and tripled the francizes in a year. Very good book!
I worked at a KFC in Sydney, Australia in the late 80s and by then there was no coarse pepper in the spice mix. That bag of slices was a uniformly fine ground mixture. Funny you say the biggest ingredient was salt. We used two bags for each batch of breading. One bag of salt, about a kilo, and another bag of spices, much smaller. They went into a vat of flour and made me sneeze so much I used to tell my friends that the secret herbs and spices were just salt and pepper.
Yeah, sometime in the 90's, KFC corp swapped from using egg/milk to just adding in egg+milk powder to the flour. Sander's original patent had 1 cups of low-fat milk to 1 egg. As for the pepper, I think you're right about no coarse pepper ... here is a picture from about 10 years ago. 1) I don't see anything course, 2) I don't see any herbs (unless it's a fine powder): i.imgur.com/XTLoCHI.jpg
Incredible. I’ve lived within a couple of kilometres of the Grace’s restaurant that’s now closed in Dublin for 8+years and regretfully never visited. Knowing the backstory I’m now so disappointed I didn’t! Great end to the series, Glen.
I’ve given versions of the original mix Glen came up with to people, and they just add it to everything these days, they say it completely changes the flavour of whatever it’s added to and makes it better. Apparently mashed potato is amazing with it in it too.
Greetings from Greece. Summer savory and coriander seeds are crucial ingredients to make delicious gyros! Especially summer savory is something between oregano and thyme that is perfect for pork! Thanks for all your effort!
I really wanted reach through the screen and snag a piece of that chicken. Looks delicious. Thanks for your efforts on these videos. They’ve been very interesting.
This has been my favorite series on youtube. Its a blend of cooking show meets forensic investigation. Traveling to the original site where the recipe began and running down leads to catch the elusive recipe was wonderful. I'm so very sorry to see it come to an end. Not only do we get to follow this mystery. We can get a shot at making it or continue the investigation. Some people today claim to know the identity of the Zodiac killer. Others refute that because they have seen all the evidence that points to the Zodiac to be another person. I do know that Popeye's fried chicken also has a cult following if you ever care to turn your forensic team to investigate that recipe. Thank you for this series.
Maybe its our taste buds that change over time but the product tastes exactly the same? I say that because its the same with many popular food products we ate as kids that taste different.
@@westnblu While that's probably part of it, pretty much every big company in America has been reducing quality/quantity while increasing price for a few decades now.
I first ate it in 1968, and it was different and better. The two men John Brown and Jack Massey the Col. sold it to, used his recipe and made it his way, from 1964 until they resold it in the early '70's. That's when the quality dropped and the recipe changed, the Col. said bad things about the gravy and was taken to court.
I knew that the recipe had changed from when I first tried it in the late 70s here in New Zealand. I only eat it now once a year hoping to recapture that deliciousness but it has never been the same. Thank you for this video. I don't know if they sell those mixes here but I will order it online if they don't
Same. The New Zealand recipe is bland and vitually tastelss compared to what it used to be, like the batter was watreed down or something - but, I had some last night from a KFC in Dunedin - and guess what - its different again - much more taste and flavour! I think the owner of that KFC franchise is using a different mix. I think the owner of that KFC likes his own product.
In a commercial many many years ago, in the USA, Harland Sanders was describing the secret ingredients. He started with "Milk, eggs, savory..." then he waxed whimsical, with "...a shoelace..." And of course from then on it was humoresque. But he clearly said "savory".
KFC Recipe (Many Thanks Glen ) Dry Ingredients: 28g (1oz) white pepper (Use a precise gram scale) 9g Ground black pepper 9g Coarse black pepper 9g Cracked black pepper 7g (.25oz) sage 7g (.25oz) coriander 7g (.25oz) ground ginger 3.5g (.125oz) clove 3.5g (.125oz) allspice (Apparently England calls out allspice and Canada calls out savory) 3.5g (.125oz) savory (So technically just pick one either savory or allspice not both) 1.8g (.0625oz) marjoram 1.8g (.0625oz) thyme 25g MSG 340g (12oz) salt ( Add salt directly to the spice mix after grinding spices, then simply mix in) (7g cayenne could be added and I think it gives just a hue of red however it is not called out in the original ingredients) No Brine This recipe works fine with no brining but then must be pressure fried. 330'F for 9-10 min as usual I use a 6 quart Presto 60% filled with Canola oil. (7 pieces at a time) word of advice is get the lid on fast ! cause it builds steam instantly and the 9-10 min is timed as soon as you get the weight on. Through a wet towel over steam when you release the pressure and do not wait till it has totally steamed off as you will over cook the chicken. Push the lock button down with a fork when the steam has mostly subsided and rotate the lid off, this takes about 1 min. I have done this many many times Egg wash 1 egg to 1 cup of milk Dry Coating Mix together 20g spice to 100g flour. (Cake and Pastry flour preferred) Add 1 TSP of Citric Acid to the flour and spice and mix in. Method: Place all ingredients except salt in a spice grinder; grind and shake to combine. Add salt to mix and shake to combine. Preheat pressure fryer to 330ºF. Mix together 20g spice to 100g flour. (Cake and Pastry flour preferred) Prepare an egg wash of 1 egg to 1 cup of milk. Dip chicken in egg wash, then dredge in flour spice mix. Deep fry until golden brown and cooked through.
I've discovered these videos quite late, and will have to watch what came before. I love the stories about what happened behind the scenes at KFC. Not sure if you've heard about the story of KFC in Japan, or if you have talked about it earlier, but it's interesting that KFC has become a traditional food - there's a tradition that families will buy and eat a bucket of KFC on Christmas Eve. It's gotten so popular that you have to reserve your bucket a month in advance, and a long line of people waiting to pick theirs up develops outside the restaurants late afternoon every Christmas Eve.
Most places in Japan are a shoebox, so having an oven to do turkey on Christmas is a luxury. Instead of roast turkey, we get a bucket meal of chicken :P
This is TRUE! My Kids are World Travelers with Great Jobs. They have verified that KFC on Christmas Eve IS a REAL TRADITION in many Japanese Households!
My kids just mentioned this during a Christmas meal the other day. I Japan, the bars are so small...that when they travel with their group of 10 friends...they take over the bar! Same with eating out at restaurants in Japan...@@michaelmurdoch2087
I used to work at Kentucky Fried Chicken in the mid '70's. What I miss most is the old style BBQ they used to make with the chicken that didn't sell. Mmmmm
I just watched the whole series today for the first time and now I really want some fried chicken 😂 I'm glad you tried frying it like most of us would be doing at home without the pressure frier. I'm also happy that three years later, you can now buy Grace's mix in the US, probably as a direct result of your video 😉 Thanks for the time and effort, it was interesting to watch the journey.
When I worked at KFC in the late 70’s we didn’t close the pressure fryer lid right away. We let it brown for 1.5 minutes then close the lid and fry for around 14 more minutes I think. We also had BIG fryers and would load the cage with 36 pieces at once which is 4 chickens.
I worked for KFC when John Y Brown was the President of KFC.I went to KFC school. You need to use popcorn salt in the flour so it won't drop down to the bottom of the mixing bowl.
Back in the day, I used to cook Kentucky Fried Chicken at the Gino's burger place in Fairfax Virginia. Normally it was cooked in big pressure cookers with the shortening preheated to 350 Fahrenheit. The method was to bread the chicken put it in the pot and close the top. Heat on high until it started venting steam, then cook for 9 minutes with the flame on low, and dump the pot into a strainer tablewhen it was done. Total cooking time was 12 minutes plus or minus a little. When we had a rush on the chicken we would "Highball" cook it which meant we would put it in the pot and leave the flame turned up to high and the total cooking time was reduced to around 6 minutes. It actually resulted in a superior looking and tasting product but was a bit dangerous since if the vent were to clog it would have exploded. We were on about the 15th pot of "Highballed" chicken one Saturday when a regional manager decided to drop in for a visit. He saw how good the chicken looked and tasted it and then wanted to know how we had improved on it. Our manager said to show him and we did. He was impressed but told us we shouldn't do it due to the dangers of potentially having a pot explode. Several years later they started cooking chicken with the big Henny Penny fry machines which replicated our method with a big margin of safety that we never had.
White flour 200 gm Corn flour 50 gm. 1 egg white. 1/2 cup buttermilk. Salt - ground in spice grinder for better coverage 36g. MSG - (Ajji no Motto) - 2g Fine White Pepper 6g Cracked Black pepper, Coarse and Fine black peppers - 2g combined total Savoury 1.5g ground Coriander 1.5g powder Ginger 1.2g powder Thyme 1.0g sage .5g marjoram .25g
I made the coleslaw when i worked there. Cabbage, carots, big jug jfg mayo and malted vinegar. That was it. No sugar, no nothing else. I made huge batches using 20 or so cabbages, full gallon of malted vinegar and restaurant size mayo and about 2 bags of full length carrots run thru chipper. Easy to reduce down recipe.
This is an interesting series. As a 29 year old, I remember KFC used to be better, but idk if that was just my child brain being less picky. The last 2 or 3 times I've tried KFC, it was absolute horse shit. Greasy and little to no flavor.
I agree I loved it growing up but I quit eating it 10 plus years ago it is crap now here in north west Louisiana anyway it literally will make me sick to my stomach What’s bad is Popeyes here is going down hill fast and most churches chickens have closed they are awful awful awful I don’t eat any of them anymore
@@proking5044 Exactly, between 12 to 15 years ago I had to stop eating at KFC. They changed the recipe. I'm allergic to garlic. The KFC near me in New York confirmed it's got garlic in it now. I found out the hard way and spent the day in the er because if it. Haven't eaten there since.
I completely agree with you. It used to be good and it's now just grease and salt. I am 50 years old. It used to be REALLY good. Extra crispy is now just extra crappy.
I feel like I just read the last chapter of a wonderful adventure story. It's been great fun, but I'm also a little sad that it's over. Thank you both for your hard work and bullheadedness to complete this project.
I have a Marion Kay plant here locally in Southern Indiana and have been using their spices and spice blends since I was a little girl. If you get a chance give them a try. The only difference I make is I do soak my chicken overnight in buttermilk, and the ratio of chicken seasoning to flour is a bit more than the spice blend calls for. After breading, I let the chicken sit for a bit before frying. No pressure fryer here, but my very large electric skillet gets a work out everytime. lol
My mom worked at Marion Kay in the 60's and early 70's. We had a lot of pictures with her and Colonel Sanders. After he sold KFC, Sanders opened Claudia Sander's Chicken Restaurant. Marion Kay made the entire spice mix.
My first job as a teenager was at 16 @KFC about 55 years ago and one small thing I saw in this video that was different was that after the chicken has been dipped and floured, it would sit in a chilled high boy chest for an hour or two, allowing the herbs and spices to flavor the chicken. It was then added to the oven chests which I believe added to its crispyness. Not eaten immediately.
"Does it really matter? No" This after years of uncovering secrets, late night meetings with former KFC executives, managers, owners and employees. And countless cooking attempts with dozens of variations..
Textures are also important in KFC. The coarse cracked peppercorn gives an intense burst of flavor and the finely ground ones disperse the flavor throughout the other ingrediends for uniformity. Colonel Sanders was pretty wiley and very dedicated to working out the mix.
@Trapped Within the System White pepper is just the inside center part of the black peppercorn, without the dried fruit layer. When used apart from black pepper it has a pretty distinct taste but when used together with black pepper, it doesn't.
@@denoum coarse black pepper is fresh ground on coarse setting..... and cracked is taking the whole corn and crushing it with a cleaver or heavy pot making very coarse.
I used all those spices and herbs years ago but it was when I ran out of white flour and only had besan flour on hand mixed the two together and then coated my chicken nuggets while I was cooking my husband arrived home from work and thought I had gone to KFC to buy dinner it was never just the herbs and spices but also the flour that was used. Since then I have been making my own at home.
Thanks for sharing the earliest version of the Colonel’s original recipe! It had been altered multiple times that we don't know which version is the original! I think, I would mix 1 tablespoon of each spice/herb to 3 cups of flour should be fine. There's no need to be so precise in the measurements!
Yup. Great job Glenn. You get a solid A on the whole series. Really amazing you found the recipe from Carl and a Canadian. It's amazing. No one else on the internet has done this. Not a fail at all!!!! This is the recipe. I was off by only 1- paprika. No paprika. Yes. It's 95% what I remember KFC to be in the 1970s and 1980s. I think there are some spices I like that I would add to make it even better, but I do believe this is KFC or as close as possible. I prefer it with more white pepper than black. But anyone making this a few times will eventually get it to their liking. I've made 60 versions and I was only off by paprika. And I didn't go off any internet recipes. I tried over 30 spices. Sage is the only one I didn't love. And paprika was the only one I'm a little sad to see go. But I can see now it's better without it. The more I make it though the more nauseated I get every time I eat it. I think it's a recipe that needs tweaking to come out the way I like it.
Grace's Strong Blend is available in the US now so I finally got around to trying that along with your cooking method from video #9. It might be the best fried chicken we've ever had. My husband liked it better than what his grandma used to make. Thank you for all your work on this series!
I knew it had savory! I came across a KFC recipe online about a dozen years ago and judging from the smell I wasn’t too sure about it, but the second I added the savory I was like, “This is it! This is the smell I recall from my childhood.” Not surprised it didn’t have garlic. Garlic burns really easily and gets bitter.
I read a paper where any food containing garlic or onions is required by the FDA to list it, I guess due to some people being allergic. I found a paper put out by KFC to the FDA saying that it had onion and garlic powder. They admitted they were in it, but after that they said "and other spices". I think the insiders from KFC gave Glen some bogus information. Who knows, Glen might be getting paid by KFC to give out disinformation too.
@@captainamerica9028 it is very possible onion, garlic and even celery are in the form of salt in a small amount. Not contributing to the total of herbs and spices.
one question about the ingredients that I'd like your comment on. It seems that the 2-4th ingredients (black pepper) seem all to be derivatives on each other ie same ingredient in slightly different forms. Do you think that it might simply represent the results of incomplete grinding of pepper corns? ie some cracked, some coarse and some fine grind. The fourth, which you list as white pepper is truly different, much more powerful and likely to give an after taste. Lots of people mention "Tellicherry Pepper Corns".... which I understand to be just "longer on the bush" pepper corns.... bigger pepper corns. Hard to believe that a difference in component grind would merit 3 ingredients in the secret recipe! Take care.... you guys are doing a great job! Doug
Thanks for doing the KFC series, it's been really interesting. I had a 5kg bag of perfect blend delivered this morning and just tried it on a couple of small thighs., went with the healthy option and used an air fryer and it was really good. It was so close to kfc that I am tempted to dig out and dust off the old deep fryer to see how much closer it is when deep fried lol. I will try a double dip and air fry later on to see what difference that makes to it.
I actually met Colonel Sanders once, and have a photo of us, as well as a personal autographed pic of him. He used to go to all new kfc store openings, a long, long, long time ago (in the late 60's or early 70's)!
When I was a teenager in the early 80's I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken one of the few girls that was a cook. And I do know it was 1 lb box of salt shifted into 50 lb bag of flour. Now the seasoning came in a packet it was about 2 cups. And it looked, tasted, and smelled the same as the green powdered McCormick's poultry seasoning that my mother bought in the supermarket. Breaded and cooked in a big pressure cooker or the smaller Henny Penny pressure cooker.
I honestly do Dustin's spice mix from your last video that I brine the night before into a double crispy batter and my family and friends go completely nuts over it. More KFC than KFC is right.
I copied the details on the recipe and where to get the mixes... just in case KFC freaks out. :D I really appreciate you going as far as you could. KFC has a real track record of taking people to court. Can you do Popeyes spicy blend next? LOL (please don't reach through the screen and smack me.) I am sure you are chickened out at this point.
Ground Coriander Seed definitely belongs in there. I discovered this while following that famous published recipe and smelling the spices as I pulled them out. I grabbed the Coriander Seed but didn't find it on that recipe, but the smell totally said KFC especially with the Pepper. I don't do breaded, deep fried in the quest for a low carb, low fat alternative. So I just make a rub of the spices and Air Fry or Oven Bake it on a rack, it's not KFC per say but mimics the flavor finally thanks to the Coriander Seed.
I own a bag of Kentucky Fried Chicken. And I can smell the smell of ginger and white pepper very clearly ... There is no red color in the mixture, meaning that the mixture does not contain paprika or hot sauce at all.
@@obaidali6864 have you trie guajillo chili? even in small amounts it smell honey-like when cooked. Here in KFC Canada, the Original Recipe always smell luxuriously sweet peppery
I grew up in the 70s and can remember smelling a KFC before you even got close to the restaurant….the smell was just in the air! Now you can stand inside a KFC and not smell anything but old grease. So sad that generations of people will never know how KFC was supposed to taste like…
Unless we rise and make it ourselves!
Now that's KFCs hallmark, smell it before you see it. Here in South Africa you can still smell it from a mile.
I worked at a KFC in the mid 70's. We had a 14 ft long 10 or 12 burner gas stove. We used coconut oil in pressure cookers, one chicken per pot preheated to 400F, dropped in one piece at a time, then capped, and once they started to rattle they cooked for 11 minutes before we'd start to release pressure and dumped the pot onto the sorting rack.
I'm sure the air handling systems are better today than back then because we just had maybe a 18 ft long hood over the cooking and sorting area that exitedout the big silver pimple on the roof, maybe 20 ft above the street.
There were really busy days or nights when big orders on the phone made for a wedding or the Super Bowl for instance. You couldn't get the smell off without taking two showers. Maybe one shower if you're going to a bonfire and plan to stand in the smoke for the first 5 minutes before getting a beer from the keg.
The busiest three days of the year were Mother's Day, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Eve in that order. Your clothes needed to be bleached and there was no sense in thinking about small enclosed areas for at least a week.
@Barry w...you are sooooooo right!!
I will go along with that -
However understand that the 70s and 1970s were two entirely different
periods in history.
You should not be so lazy as to not correctly write the date.
That is laziness at its worst - promoting yourself as a mentally lazy Man.
When you allow the small things to 'slip' it does not tale long before you
allow the bigger more important things to slip.
As a former Air force pilot - I can tell you that it is all about discipline.
I will guarantee that you fail to pay attention to detail.
It is not entirely your fault - as you were programmed to be a ZOMBIE
and you did not realize it.
Regrettably barry w - I am too busy to read replies - I may read one in a hundred
and ONLY those whose name is mentioned in a COMMENT REFERENCE number
However - I wish you well - Good Luck and Good bye
Here's my recollections as someone who cooked KFC chicken for 3 summers circa 1976 to 1978. My uncle was a manager of a chain restaurant called Geno's in Jersey City, NJ...Geno's had apparently obtained a license from KFC to sell their chicken. Geno's is no longer in business. This is how I was taught to make the chicken.
1. The chicken arrived in 40 pound boxes in a somewhat frozen state. It was stored in a freezer upon delivery and some would then be moved to another cool room to defrost.
2. A bag of powdered eggwash would be mixed in a large bowl with room temperature water and set aside.
3. A bag quite like the one in the video which contained the premixed spices would be emptied into another bowl and set aside.
4. A large block of white colored shortening similar to Crisco would be carved up by hand and placed individually into a row of six 22 quart commercial heavy duty pressure cookers, each with their own commercial burners, and heated to 400 degrees F. uncovered.
5. While the shortening was heating, the chicken pieces would be dipped in the eggwash and then into the white spice mixture and coated thoroughly. You could see the black flecks of spices throughout the spice mixture and in the finished product.
6. The chicken would be placed into each of the pressure cookers at 400 F and stirred constantly for 1 minute. This allowed the chicken to brown at atmospheric pressure. They had a color chart that would tell you what color it should be. Each pot was to contain a certain amount of breasts, thighs, wings and a rather delicious piece called a keel if memory serves. I believe the amount was 12 pieces per pot.
7. After 1 minute of stirring, the lids of the pressure cookers would be placed on and the heat would be lowered. This allowed for the chicken to cook internally. This step called for 8 minutes of additional cooking time at low heat.
8. After 8 minutes, the relief valves of the pressure cookers would be opened and after releasing the pressure safely, the lids of the cookers would be removed and the chicken would be dumped along with shortening thru a metal screen into a bin. The shortening would be recycled for the next batch.
9. The chicken would be removed and placed into a warming oven that kept it around 140 degrees I believe. This kept it moist and juicy. After a certain amount of time if the chicken did not sell it was supposed to be destroyed as it tended to get dry.
Additionally, around 1977, KFC came out with their extra crispy option which was very popular amongst some folks. I was not a fan and much preferred the original recipe. I felt that the extra crispy stuff lost some of the flavor in the process. Basically, they would recoat the original recipe chicken in a different mixture and flash cook it to puff up the coating. Hope this helps some of you. I'm amazed that I can recall so many of the details after all these years...I'm 63 and was a teenager cooking KFC back then...I still have a few hot shortening splash burns on the inside of my forearms to remind me.
You just made me crave a 1970's Gino Giant!! LOL The sauce for that is worth reverse engineering! Those and the Hero Burgers were the best.
The
Well that sounds so yummy
Amazing that as a teenager you took in, and remember all those details! Thanks for sharing them here.
Great story, thank you so much.
Possibly the most thorough analysis of food found anywhere on UA-cam. Great series, I'm going to miss the KFC videos.
Your commitment and dedication to this series is astounding. I have been watching for a couple of years, and I can say that it is far superior to anything on commercial television, FoodNetwork included. Your enthusiasm is what makes this show, and the fact you do this as a true labour of love is the “secret ingredient”.
Back in the 60's, my dad worked for a company in Florida that had would hold a summer picnic. Around 1965'ish, one of these picnics was catered by Col Sanders himself. I actually got to meet the man, who was very friendly to us kids.
Good story! 👍😁
The chicken in the early 60s was great. Real potatoes, rolls, Cole slaw. Once the colonel lost control, it all went downhill..biscuits was it for me....👍👍
Story seller
Never come across anyone or comments that say that they met or know The Colonel. That's awesome!!
@annew7271 I just watched this 5 hr long vid on freemasons here on youtube, that vid was really surprising, I never knew how many hollywood personnel/athletes are involved.
Thanks for watching Everyone! *I can tell from the comments that some of you are disappointed by the outcome of this video, while others have termed it a **#FAIL**. I have given away, and said as much as I could. I wish I was able to say more; but...*
You rock Glen, exact recipe or not, still great content, super informative.
The entire journey/experiment has been great. Lots of good information even if it wasn't a perfect match. Can't speak for anyone else, but I've enjoyed every episode.
Can I buy some of that seasoning from you?
Called up Karl yesterday top fella he arranged to meet me today and I got his blend. I have to say his blend is the nicest I have ever tasted on chicken it's kfc and better. Got a photo with him and he was singing your high praises Glen he has been getting emails from all over the world.
Oooh! Im in northern ireland, the hunt is on for graces chicken seasoning!
This makes me so happy. I live in Kentucky, and I can't even eat KFC anymore-- not because of the pandemic, because the chicken is so soggy and bland now. It's delightful to know the real thing exists out in the world.
They really did do their best to make it cheap, now some restaurants don’t even use the traditional 9 piece cuts and they suck too.
Absolutely agree, modern kfc is garbage. I remember it being so good when I was a kid in the 80s
Always kinda surprised fried chicken isn't near religion in Kentucky, the way Nashville hot chicken is.
Time to steal KFC's thunder.
Lol. Yah. I was just commenting on how it’s too soggy for me. Welcome to marketing I suppose. Good to know that it once was tasty.
I agree. I live in kentucky as well and would rather eat popeyes that the trash that kfc has become. These videos have given me a great alternative.
00:00 - Intro
01:10 - KFC mythology & personal stories
10:21 - Ingredients
12:36 - Cooking process
15:00 - Differences in this recipe vs. others
15:40 - Let's dig in!
You're a life saver 🙂😜
Thanks you I was about to leave the video
God bless you . trying to catch the grocery store
You are a Saint
Just go buy KFC
Imagine spending 18 months trying to clone KFC to find out they sell it premixed in bags already 😭
Maybe the real secret ingredients were the friends we made along the way.
Imagine realising all the "crap" fried chicken I've ever eaten is probably more like KFC than any KFC I've ever eaten! (live in the UK)
@@sweetyeetus beautiful
@@sweetyeetus I hope you think like that all the time we need more people like you
Imagine creating content and having an engaging series for 18 months instead of a couple of videos.
Overall this seems to be a common thread, companies that cheap themselves right out of business just to make that much more money. Until suddenly, nobody wants what they are producing anymore.
Thing is - it works, for a while. KFC continued expanding for years on the power of its brand alone long after the product itself dropped in quality. By the time the customers realise the experience they remember but never get isn't coming back, those execs who made their huge quarterly surpluses & multimillion dollar bonuses have moved on to other companies or even long retired.
It's still my favorite fast food chain and I prefer their chicken over their competition. KFC is also HUGE in China.
Clement Moraschi I don't understand how they get away with lower quality. American car manufacturers had the same manufacturing philosophy and they were absolutely demolished by Japanese car manufacturers who reduced cost and increased quality by increasing efficiency.
@@ayandas874 marketing and established name
Yup....it’s caused by the parasites of the modern world. Accountants
I'm old school. I have been telling everyone for years that the recipe was different back when I was a kid and no one knows what I'm talking about. Lol
I agree it changed when they got rid of the amazing egg bread that we all lined up for everyday 😃
Yes that is true very true.
You are correct. It's do different
I agree, the fries are not the same. I remember them being big thick fries.
I’ve always thought that everyone thought I was mad for going on about it ..👊🏻
I saw a clip of an interview of an elderly woman who worked for KFC in the early days and she mentioned Tellicherry Pepper and Summer Savory. When I tried it, those two reminded me of the flavors I tasted as a kid in the 60's-70's.
Tellicherry Pepper is black pepper grown in Tellicherry India. Now grown in other areas of South India. And really I still remember the original flavour of that pepper in the chicken in Kentucky Fried chicken in Germany in the 70's
Colonel also said his mother thought him to use pepper and savoury on the chicken. I read somewhere
tellicherry pepper is just black pepper grown in that particular area in india. i don't think it is much different from peppers grown elsewhere
summer savory is always a Canadian herb. USA back in the 40s was dominated by the perennial winter savory which was bitter and more subtle.
So that is why the Colonel always visited Canada so often in the 70s and 80s. He wanted to obtain a reliable source of the Annual Sweet Summer Savory.
@stardust9072 yes, I have tried both. You can get same peppers from Pakistan also. So any pepper from a hot country would taste similar
Loved the video as it brought back memories. I am 76 and back in the 70's I had a friend who owned KFC restaurants. She and her husband acquired their first KFC from the Colonel in the 60's. At that time he did not charge for a franchise. You simply bought your restaurant and paid him "on you honor" 5 cents/chicken. He then showed or told you exactly how to prepare the chicken his way in these pressure cookers. They sold that restaurant and bought three more in another city still not paying a franchise to the Colonel. She also said the Colonel sent you a packet of the spices that you added to your flour etc. She, herself, made the cole slaw which she signed away her life that she would tell no one the recipe (and she never did). When Hublein took over they charged back then $100,000/franchise and you had to pay them 10 cents per chicken but NOT on your honor anymore. Hublein also had a totally different set up to fry the chicken which as I remember were like steam fryers. The Colonel did not like this chicken and he did sue Hublein, the outcome of which was Hublein promised to the Colonel to make better chicken though she never relayed what exactly that was. My friend thought the world of the Colonel and attended his conventions every year. She had many stories to tell all of which were complimentary to the Colonel. I myself if I want KFC I go to the restaurant and buy it! But! I am going to say without a doubt today's KFC is NOT anything much like the old KFC of the 60's and 70's. The taste is similar but texture and chicken are altogether different. The old KFC was "greasy" and just fingerlickin good! I think it's in the preparation and cooking method now used as compared to the old way along with different frying oils.
The Colonel was a man of honor and not a money grubber. He was thankful for his success and treated others as he wanted to be treated.
Carol Kalmer Kalmer, thank you for sharing. I live in Toronto, Canada and enjoyed KFC up until the time Colonel Sanders passed away (1980). As Glen mentioned after Col. Sanders sold KFC USA the new owners changed the recipe in America. So when Col. Sanders took his recipe and moved to Ontario we were lucky to still have the original recipe....that would change after his death and KFC USA took over Canadian operations.
The chicken recipe is not the only thing that has changed at KFC the gravy, salads and fries are not the same. I'm 50 years old and have noticed changes to all the popular fast foods over the years. Original recipes are no longer and portion sizes have decreased in order to save money. I got off the junk food band wagon over a decade now. It was a fun ride.
You are right about the gravy etc. The gravy and mashed potatoes (as I recall from my friend) were two of the things Hublein had to promise the Colonel they would change as she said they tasted like paper! And her stories of the Colonel were always touching. He did love his chicken .........done right!!!
"Okay. That's good." Is Jule's version of flipping over the table with a positive review and I love it. 🤣
For real
This is like phase 1 of the marvel cinematic universe ending.
We're in the Endgame now!
Phase 1 was coka cola
Glen just needs the Infinity Oveglove to snap the Colonel back to life to find out the true answer.
Now it's time to divine the secrets of Finn's Hot Sauce.
Hahaha jus like sooper movie!!! Ahahaha
The thing about the Colonel is that he never tried to copy anyone else's recipe. He created his own, and so should we. Borrow from what you like, sure, but make it your own. I don't have a pressure cooker so I use the buttermilk 8 hour soak. It makes the chicken as tender and juicy as a pressure fryer, but without having to use one.
So if you want the real ORIGINAL Kentucky Fried Chicken, you have to go to Britain or Ireland.
Way to go, corporate America. Take an excellent product & make it mediocre.
Moral of the story: no matter how much money they offer you, don't sell your business to any corporations, or you'll just watch it fall.
@@Jeffffrey0902 But it's not falling from the shareholder's perspective, and to a corporation, the _only_ thing that matters is the shareholders.
Compromise, compromise, compromise, until nothing is left anymore, but hey profits, am I right?
Funny enough I had KFC last night....
@@TheTheofrei Also probably why I remember KFC being really good a long time ago, but the last time I had it, probably back in 2013 or 2014 I was like "this is really bleh now" and have never had the urge to go back. And that was after a camping trip, usually when things taste extra good because you've been eating bland camp food for the last few days. If I had a pressure fryer, I'd track down some of that spice mix and make my own at home. Honestly these days, if I want the best meal, I go to the store, get a nice rib steak for $12 or $15, season it the way I like, grill it the way I like, and put my favourite bbq sauce on it (from Superstore in Canada - even though I'm not in Canada any more I make sure I always have some of that bbq sauce on hand) - it's relatively cheap, quick, and the best! Rarely do I find a steak in a restaurant that can even compare, and it's always more $$ for less satisfaction. Pretty hard to compare a rib steak made the way you like it to chicken in a bucket from a fast food joint that costs more!
my dad managed 3 KFC's in North Bay throughout the '70s and early '80s and met the good Colonel himself. This brought back lots of memories for me.. Thanks, guys!
well what's the recipe then
We do a weeklong camping fishing trip to Martin river for the past 20 years and we have a tradition sice that fist trip when we are heading home we stop at the KFC on Algonquin and eat while driving back to toronto. Literally been eating at the same place for 20 years except for one time I was talked into getting Harvey's about 5 years ago.
KFC in Jamaica is known to be the best hands down. They use the older recipe and anyone who has eaten it will tell you. It is terrific.
Same for Barbados.
Also one of the largest in the world
Di one inna morant bay or kingston or both?
@@rastareptilerescue all a Dem 🥰
FACTS!
I cooked KFC 60 years ago almost everyday for two years and it is not the same as it is today. It was much better back then.
I also worked at KFC in the 80s but by then they probably changed the recipe already. Do you know the recipe?
Aptly named... but I read it as "The End of KFC". They might as well shut their doors now Glen.
Wait, i was expecting a video about how to make something that tasted similar to KFC that could be made at home, I wasn’t expecting my guy to need to hide peoples identities to keep them safe from the KFCIA
lol
Nowadays conspiracy theories are true and corporate espionage is commonplace. Wouldnt surprise me at retaliation at all.
I had a book on how to duplicate restaurant food at home. KFC's 17 herbs and spices is salt pepper MSG
LMAO
There’s chefs out there that can eat something blind and know exactly what’s in it. Times has changed, restaurants stop hiding their secrets because there’s chefs like Nguyen that is half blind that heighten her ability to taste everything in the dish.
This explains why the KFC of my youth tastes nothing like the KFC of today. todays is not nearly as good.
The smell isn't even good anymore; it is bad enough kfc is the only restaurant in my town the seagulls do not hang around, they won't even hang out down wind of it.
CHICKENS are bred and raised differently today, as well. Maybe start with free range chicken?
Why does everything get worse over time?
@@darleschickens7106 In the corporate world there are always "idea men" who will reduce cost by reducing quality. They will get their bonuses from those cost savings and the products will degrade. The public will still buy the product simply because they remember the the original that made the company excel in the first place. For a company that has been around as long as KFC there are very few customers living to who remember the original taste and smell. The new customers just taste and smell crap.
@@darleschickens7106 because we all buy it still, so it is our own fault. if no one bought it then they would .......
A. go out of business
B. fix the rubbish and make things great again to have any hope to sell
Unfortunately we are mostly selfish and lazy humans and slow to work out we are in control but it takes all of us to work together.......ha ha ha good luck with that, just stick to crap chicken.
I'm in Canada and I remember KFC being like food from the gods until sometime in the 80s/90s. Something changed after that. Now, I sometimes crave KFC, but when I get it, I'm often disappointed. I realized that I'm craving the old recipe.
Yeah, mid 80's was the beginning of the decline here in Canada. I remember the good stuff too.
"back when we could still family gather"
Ah, yes. The before times.
B.C.
Before Covid
We still family gather 🤷🏻♂️
correction, before the "end" times!
Why would you not gather with your family?
The silver lining of him not giving the exact ingredients, is that you can tweak the recipe to your specific pallet. So the Colonel's chicken to your taste, not too shabby. If tweaking recipes aren't your thing, premade seasonings are available. Thank you Glen, for your work and sharing as much as you could legally :)
Thank you Glen for the series of videos, this is truly priceless. Now with the premix seasonings the possibilities are endless almost like Bubba Gumps but with the KFC flavor. Imagine KFC fries, KFC deep fried turkey, KFC game hens, KFC potato chips, KFC fish and chips, KFC deep fried shrimp, KFC gizzards.
Thank you ! You obviously spent many hours researching and preparing for this video! We all appreciate it.
I don't know how anyone could be so callous and criticize what you did . I mean the tremendous amount of work that it took to go through recipes to purchase a fryer to get your spices to speak to your contacts that in itself is such a dedication to this show . those jerks that said that you're product was a fail should really not watch it anymore. I really congratulate the both of you . you are an amazing team and I love to watch you. thank you for all of your dedication
Ive made this over 100 times now. The only thing that needs measuring is 1350gm salt to the 12kg bag of flour I use. Everything else you can do by eye, and it just tastes awesome!
Abouy 1/2 cup cracked, 1/4 ground each of the two peppers. 1/2 cup ginger powder, 1/4 cup allspice, 1/2 cup msg and 1/4 cup each of the herbs.
Blessings thankful 🙏🏼✨
Do you use a pressure cooker? If so, what brand/model?
Try adding a whisper of star anise, it goes next level.
Around 40 years ago I worked in a local KFC for a few months. There was a soaking period for the chicken before coating it in the pre-bagged spice/flour mixture. The "brine", or whatever it was, also came in a pre-mixed bag. I'm assuming it was some dehydrated form of milk and egg because it was white but probably also salt and/or more MSG. What made me remember this was watching you only getting the chicken wet before the dredge. I believe it was a 10 or 15 minute soaking before coating the chicken.
Also as I'm sure you know, the machine used to cook the chicken, which we referred to as Big Bertha, was able to cook huge amounts of chicken for each "drop". This meant that we would prep many racks of chicken, which took some time, before dropping. Typically there could be 30 minutes or more of wait time between chicken being coated and cooked. That could also translate to the reason for a different texture.
Note:
This has nothing to do with the cooking process but I just felt the need to mention. KFC has always swindled the consumers. The chicken always came pre-cut and they are the only company I know of who managed to get 9 pieces out of 1 chicken. They cut the breasts into 3 pieces. 2 "breasts" and 1 "center breast". The 2 breasts are basically rib meat only and the center breast was a huge chunk of white meat with only the cartilage. You had to ask for it specifically and would rarely be given more than 1 per bucket.
Are you sure you're not thinking of the Extra Crispy? We marinated the extra crispy (which only had salt and pepper), but we didn't marinated the original recipe.
@@johntracy7795 yeah both were marinated. I think there were 2 different bags though for the 2 styles. Definitely different coating bags too.
It seems likely to me that as well as everyone else, KFC could very well have changed how they do things.
I remember when KFC first came to our local area in the 60s. The breasts were so small we would say they came from pigeons.
I can't believe I just watched 10 videos about trying to recreate the original KFC recipe, and it turns out to be the southern fried chicken you can find in a snackbox from any chipper in Dublin. That is absolutely hilarious.
Great videos mate. Cheers!
What is recipe. Thanks
Read comments of people who worked there in 70's...80's
@@nixodian : Why would Tomas know the recipe? He doesn't make it, he just buys it.
Sorry I'm so dense, What is O G ?
@@robertakerman3570 Old Guy, Old Style, Original, Authentic, Old School
I didn't realize when I found your channel a few weeks back that some Canadian was going to deliver me with the real recipe of the Colonel; who was featured on History Channels the food that built America. God bless you Glenn, and may God Bless Canada 🇨🇦
We at canada corp love u bruh!!
In the UK, the man that set up KFC was Harry Latham in 1965. Harry was very good friends with the Colonel. In 1988, Harry set up a new chain of fast food take aways in the South West (mostly Bristol region) called miss millies, with the blessing of the Colonel. I learnt the recipe from Harry in the mid nineties while working for miss millies and this is what he told me;
2 cups all purpose white flour
2 tsp table salt
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
4 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp celery salt
2 Tbsp garlic salt
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp dry mustard powder
3 Tbsp white pepper
1 Tbsp ground ginger
Just mix all together.
I use this recipe at home and it pretty much tastes the same. The consistency isn't exact as I don't have the pressure fryers they use in the restaurant, but deep frying works.
This is the exact recipe given by Claudia Sanders nephew to Chicago Tribune in 2016. So you're saying Miss Millies used that exact same recipe?
@@douglasadcock549 No, miss mollies used a different but similar recipe. I said I learnt it from Harry as I worked for him. Others learnt of it too. No idea what miss millies use these days but I can tell you that UK KFCs don't use the original recipe anymore, today it's far too salty.
Yes! I’ve used that blend and to me it tastes very much like the KFC original recipe I remember from the 1980s-early 2000s (USA). I’ve enjoyed making it as I can’t have the restaurant version anymore since developing severe gluten sensitivity. Only tricky thing was the ratio of flour to seasoning. First time it came out too salty/overseasoned
Hi Glen. I recently went to my local fish & chip shop and, for once, saw fried chicken and decided to give it a whirl I didn't fancy fish. Having seen this series previously, after eating it and realising it was far, far better than KFC I got chatting to the owner about how good it was and while explaining how they cook it he brought out a bag - it was plain white but it was the Strong Blend mix.
They cook it at 180C for about 10 minutes, without pressure, then finish it off under heat lamps used to keep the red meat hot.
I thought you'd find this interesting as even over here in the UK the mix is better than actual KFC chicken.
They used that grace strong blend ?
So Glen had to go across the pond to find a Kentucky recipe.
For a small, local US band, I had to get an unauthorized New Zealand release with the only copies for sale in Germany.
All the best punk rock ends up in Germany.
this fact is embarrassing to me as an american.
This is like when the BBC finds old missing episodes of Dr. Who in Australia or Kenya or wherever.
@@SneakySolidSnake totally, shows how corporations unilaterally ruined everything good for more money
There’s dedication and stick-to-it-ness...and then there’s Glen And Friends. :) Seriously solid food detective work!
I worked for KFC in new Zealand in the 70s. It was cooked in hydrogenated cottonseed oil. A tin of the spices was added to 10kg of flour. We never knew what was in it. But the 11 herbs and spices wasn't the main thing, it was the method that was important. Milk and egg mixture, then into the sifted flour mixture, into the oil at 400 degrees, pressure cook for 10 minutes
15lbs per sq inch 250 degrees
How much did the tin of spices weigh?
In 1971 i was asst. manager to Church's Chicken in Miami, also was a cook for KFC in 1980. Both systems marinated the chicken before cooking, they called processing.
The 'secret' large bag of salts, colorings and chemicals were added at the start of a 24 hour processing period in a large stainless steel vat of water and ice,
in a 38 degree room with 200 birds. The batter was was important in the flavors and crunch, but the processing accounted for 30% to 40% of the color,
flavor and juiciness. I still hold Church's chicken above KFC as they use a larger bird and is more flavorful.
All the pepper makes sense, knew a kfc manager once who told me when the ran out of the flour mixture, they just mixed flour with lots of salt and pepper.......lots of pepper!
I worked at a KFC when I was a kid. I remember that the chicken came in very fresh and on ice. Before the chicken was breaded, it was put in a metal basket and immersed in a water filled sink. The water was circulating and the temperature was regulated... to approximately body temp, I would say. This chicken was brought up to cooking temp and while it was only water, I think it worked to make the chicken not dry out while cooking. I have done this when making chicken at home and it does make a difference.
Wow thats a tip. TY
So boil-cook 1st?
@@vespeneprotoss4346 no.. its a salt-less brine, essentially, in tepid water
I was a KFC cook also c1971. The partially frozen chicken was placed in a bin of room temp water to defrost as I recall.
thanks! Some great info in this video and especially the comments!
Called up karl yesterday top fella he arranged to meet me today and I got his blend. I have to say his blend is the nicest I have ever tasted on chicken it's kfc and better. Got a photo with him and he was singing your high praises Glen he has been getting emails from all over the world.
hello, i live in Canada , where can i get a bag of that blend please
Informative video! In the 80's, my dad worked as a chef for the Pacific restaurant in Toronto on Dundas near the AGO so he knew a lot of restaurant vendors and suppliers and one of the most favourite things he cooked for our family was fried chicken using a fried chicken mix that tasted like KFC. I remember the mixture was sold by a Chinese supplier and was packaged in a clear bag with green or red label printing and it was insanely delicious and maybe 90-95% compared to the KFC recipe. Sadly, the supplier closed their business in the early 2000s so its impossible to find that mixture again.
the secret ingredient is love ! my mom worked at KFC in California when i was a kid , she also knows the secret but has told me she wont give it to me until she is on her deathbed , lol .
KFC changing recipe is a reason I rarely eat it. The quality is not consistent.
This is true.
I wish they’d go out of business
And now in my area its almost 40 bucks a bucket...no way
Colonel Blanders recipe
Yeah food at KFC is pretty inconsistent now
I taste sage in KFC, which I don't see in any of the supposed leaks. So it's nice to see it here!
agreed! and it's probably dalmatian sage.
At this point anything you make at home will be better than what you get at a KFC. I used to enjoy fast food in the 60’s, when you could taste it and it wouldn’t kill ya. Thank you! ☺️💛
I worked in KFC .the pressure fryer was called the henny penny ,chicken was cooked for 30 mins. The wet mix was powdered egg and milk ,you just added water to it.the spices came sealed in a bag and you added it to the flour. This was in a shop in dublin Ireland in the 1986.
KFC uses a couple different manufacturers for their pressure cookers - though Henny Penny is the most common.
30mins seems too long u believe 14mins @ 155 degrees c
This amounts to "I'd love to give you the exact recipe, but I'd get sued... So I can't say it."
Well that helpd us alot he he hee
Or he'll get someone else sued.
Here before MatPat watches it
I just saw Food Theory just released a video on KFC today. I wonder how fast he had that x99 spice mix couriered over to his house once Glen talked about it.
Is that the douche bag with the annoying ADD videos?
That's just a theory
Mats timing isn’t suspicious at all lul. But the audacity to call it “I cracked kfcs recipe” on mats channel while pretty much 99% of the research was done by others. That’s shameful
@@jennytrinh2986 Except - he's pretty much open about that fact in the video. As in stating and reiterating the fact multiple times open. It's not like he's trying to pass off other people's work as his own. It's basically just a taste test of proposed recipes with their own contribution added to the closest one at the end. I'm fine with it.
When Glen initially used the term 'mythology' in reference to the original recipe's history, I thought that seemed pretentious and overly dramatic. However, after watching the video, I caught a glimpse of how fascinating the history of KFC's original recipe actually is. Thanks for such an interesting video!
Two things mean we will never, ever have the exact copy. First, our personal tastes have changed. Second, our food sources are not exactly what they were then. Even the exact recipe, made precisely, will not taste the same batch to batch, person to person, and year to year. Some years, one herb or spice can be stronger, or weaker, made so by so many factors. At the same time, how you perceive taste is affected by so many things. Thank you for doing this series. It has been very educational. But, at the end of it all, you've given us workable methods, and a goal. That goal can be achieved to varying degrees, but, in the end, it's fried chicken. It's food, and, to me, if it is the same every time, it looses its interest. Put together the components, call the family to the table, and enjoy it. Wash up, and repeat. Thank you for all the time and effort spent on this project.
Yep, average temperature, atmospheric, water, and soil composition, conditions of manufacture, shipping & storage, humidity & atmospheric pressure when the spices & flour are ground/milled, differences in types of grinders & the materials used effecting particle size, consistency & geometry, natural genetic variation & mutation with selective breeding, feeding/fertilising over time in agriculture & horticulture, equipment used to manufacture & process. - Without even accounting for the subjective factors you mentioned.
It's easy to really underestimate just how many steps happen between source production & processing before it gets to them, and that all those things have a very real impact. Nothing is ever exactly the same & authenticity is a constantly moving target. That col sanders himself used different methods (& undoubtedly wasn't precise to the atom of his spice ratios either) shows this is the case. Formula is one thing, taste is another. Formula is a guideline, taste will take you to where you'll be happiest, and it won't be the same thing every time.
also colonel sanders himself didnt know the exact recipe cause he didnt measure it
Well then it is exact because the taste of KFC changes from visit to visit, so it's just like going to KFC. LOL
Smokers tell me their taste buds change when they smoke or if they quit smoking our taste buds change when we get older too,so that could be why some things don't taste the same as they used to
@@SonicBoomC98 lol true
As an US American I will try to figure out how to give you 80,000,000 thumbs up votes.
Try Dominion Systems?
I was extremely ill in hospital, in Torquay, England, & was having difficulty eating. They sent around a lady to persuade me to eat & it turned out to be Colonel Sanders' granddaughter!
@mark florida End of 2016.
@mark florida She was a lovely lady. Beautifull & full of character.
You ate Colonel Sanders Grand Daughter????.
@@gb5uq Nah, couldn't find a plate big enough. Had to resort to sending an assistant to the nearest KFC. I had completely stopped eating & just could not face the hospital food. Everything tasted so artificial & processed that it made me feel nauseous.
Dude, Fawlty Towers!
You should read The book about Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendys. Colonel Sanders came to him way before KFC or Wendys was ever started. Dave had a little Burger shop, but wasn't doing that well. Sanders came in one day and told him he had a recipe for fried chicken that he would give him and show him how to make as long as dave signed a contract to buy all of his chickens from him at 3 cents a piece.. From then on, Dave had a line waiting out of door every day. The lawyers then Bought out Sanders cheap and tripled the francizes in a year. Very good book!
I worked at a KFC in Sydney, Australia in the late 80s and by then there was no coarse pepper in the spice mix. That bag of slices was a uniformly fine ground mixture. Funny you say the biggest ingredient was salt. We used two bags for each batch of breading. One bag of salt, about a kilo, and another bag of spices, much smaller. They went into a vat of flour and made me sneeze so much I used to tell my friends that the secret herbs and spices were just salt and pepper.
I worked at one in Aus when I was younger and remember adding a dry egg and milk mixture to the breading as well
Can you narrow down how much smaller? It might help us get the ratio of spice to salt :)
@@viper1431 back in my day it was like probably close to 1/3 maybe up to 1/2
Yeah, sometime in the 90's, KFC corp swapped from using egg/milk to just adding in egg+milk powder to the flour. Sander's original patent had 1 cups of low-fat milk to 1 egg. As for the pepper, I think you're right about no coarse pepper ... here is a picture from about 10 years ago. 1) I don't see anything course, 2) I don't see any herbs (unless it's a fine powder): i.imgur.com/XTLoCHI.jpg
Incredible. I’ve lived within a couple of kilometres of the Grace’s restaurant that’s now closed in Dublin for 8+years and regretfully never visited. Knowing the backstory I’m now so disappointed I didn’t! Great end to the series, Glen.
Being a vegetarian I just want to taste kfc taste in my panner. Thank you, Glen bhai
I wonder what it's like with paneer, would be pretty delicious I'd have to imagine.
They made a vegan KFC in the UK! It's definitely worth trying one of these spice mixes on a few things if you can.
I’ve given versions of the original mix Glen came up with to people, and they just add it to everything these days, they say it completely changes the flavour of whatever it’s added to and makes it better. Apparently mashed potato is amazing with it in it too.
Try it on quarn "chicken" pieces
@@MrRedeyedJedi they actually use the vegan fillets in kfc
Greetings from Greece. Summer savory and coriander seeds are crucial ingredients to make delicious gyros! Especially summer savory is something between oregano and thyme that is perfect for pork! Thanks for all your effort!
what about the winter cousin of savory?
I really wanted reach through the screen and snag a piece of that chicken. Looks delicious. Thanks for your efforts on these videos. They’ve been very interesting.
This has been my favorite series on youtube. Its a blend of cooking show meets forensic investigation. Traveling to the original site where the recipe began and running down leads to catch the elusive recipe was wonderful. I'm so very sorry to see it come to an end. Not only do we get to follow this mystery. We can get a shot at making it or continue the investigation. Some people today claim to know the identity of the Zodiac killer. Others refute that because they have seen all the evidence that points to the Zodiac to be another person. I do know that Popeye's fried chicken also has a cult following if you ever care to turn your forensic team to investigate that recipe. Thank you for this series.
I've been saying for some time the Original Recipe Kentucky Fried they serve today doesn't taste anything like it used to!
Maybe its our taste buds that change over time but the product tastes exactly the same? I say that because its the same with many popular food products
we ate as kids that taste different.
@@westnblu While that's probably part of it, pretty much every big company in America has been reducing quality/quantity while increasing price for a few decades now.
I first ate it in 1968, and it was different and better. The two men John Brown and Jack Massey the Col. sold it to, used his recipe and made it his way, from 1964 until they resold it in the early '70's. That's when the quality dropped and the recipe changed, the Col. said bad things about the gravy and was taken to court.
Corporate KFC destroyed the KFC brand with its greediness. Now, when I see a KFC, I don’t associate it with the KFCs of the past.
@@bobbiusshadow6985 Remember how good it use to smell when u pulled up to the parking lot?
I knew that the recipe had changed from when I first tried it in the late 70s here in New Zealand. I only eat it now once a year hoping to recapture that deliciousness but it has never been the same. Thank you for this video. I don't know if they sell those mixes here but I will order it online if they don't
Same. The New Zealand recipe is bland and vitually tastelss compared to what it used to be, like the batter was watreed down or something - but, I had some last night from a KFC in Dunedin - and guess what - its different again - much more taste and flavour! I think the owner of that KFC franchise is using a different mix. I think the owner of that KFC likes his own product.
In a commercial many many years ago, in the USA, Harland Sanders was describing the secret ingredients. He started with "Milk, eggs, savory..." then he waxed whimsical, with "...a shoelace..." And of course from then on it was humoresque. But he clearly said "savory".
KFC Recipe (Many Thanks Glen )
Dry Ingredients:
28g (1oz) white pepper (Use a precise gram scale)
9g Ground black pepper
9g Coarse black pepper
9g Cracked black pepper
7g (.25oz) sage
7g (.25oz) coriander
7g (.25oz) ground ginger
3.5g (.125oz) clove
3.5g (.125oz) allspice (Apparently England calls out allspice and Canada calls out savory)
3.5g (.125oz) savory (So technically just pick one either savory or allspice not both)
1.8g (.0625oz) marjoram
1.8g (.0625oz) thyme
25g MSG
340g (12oz) salt ( Add salt directly to the spice mix after grinding spices, then simply mix in)
(7g cayenne could be added and I think it gives just a hue of red however it is not called out in the original ingredients)
No Brine
This recipe works fine with no brining but then must be pressure fried. 330'F for 9-10 min as usual I use a 6 quart Presto 60% filled with Canola oil. (7 pieces at a time) word of advice is get the lid on fast ! cause it builds steam instantly and the 9-10 min is timed as soon as you get the weight on. Through a wet towel over steam when you release the pressure and do not wait till it has totally steamed off as you will over cook the chicken. Push the lock button down with a fork when the steam has mostly subsided and rotate the lid off, this takes about 1 min. I have done this many many times
Egg wash
1 egg to 1 cup of milk
Dry Coating
Mix together 20g spice to 100g flour. (Cake and Pastry flour preferred)
Add 1 TSP of Citric Acid to the flour and spice and mix in.
Method:
Place all ingredients except salt in a spice grinder; grind and shake to combine.
Add salt to mix and shake to combine.
Preheat pressure fryer to 330ºF.
Mix together 20g spice to 100g flour. (Cake and Pastry flour preferred)
Prepare an egg wash of 1 egg to 1 cup of milk.
Dip chicken in egg wash, then dredge in flour spice mix.
Deep fry until golden brown and cooked through.
How’d you deduce the measurements??
Thank you🫶
I've discovered these videos quite late, and will have to watch what came before. I love the stories about what happened behind the scenes at KFC. Not sure if you've heard about the story of KFC in Japan, or if you have talked about it earlier, but it's interesting that KFC has become a traditional food - there's a tradition that families will buy and eat a bucket of KFC on Christmas Eve. It's gotten so popular that you have to reserve your bucket a month in advance, and a long line of people waiting to pick theirs up develops outside the restaurants late afternoon every Christmas Eve.
So funny, in my area of new England we get Chinese on new years eve!
Most places in Japan are a shoebox, so having an oven to do turkey on Christmas is a luxury. Instead of roast turkey, we get a bucket meal of chicken :P
@@michaelmurdoch2087well that and both christmas as a holiday and turkeys really aren’t a thing in japan.
This is TRUE! My Kids are World Travelers with Great Jobs. They have verified that KFC on Christmas Eve IS a REAL TRADITION in many Japanese Households!
My kids just mentioned this during a Christmas meal the other day. I Japan, the bars are so small...that when they travel with their group of 10 friends...they take over the bar! Same with eating out at restaurants in Japan...@@michaelmurdoch2087
I used to work at Kentucky Fried Chicken in the mid '70's. What I miss most is the old style BBQ they used to make with the chicken that didn't sell. Mmmmm
Nothing taste the same anymore,,, not the same quality ingredients
I just watched the whole series today for the first time and now I really want some fried chicken 😂 I'm glad you tried frying it like most of us would be doing at home without the pressure frier. I'm also happy that three years later, you can now buy Grace's mix in the US, probably as a direct result of your video 😉 Thanks for the time and effort, it was interesting to watch the journey.
The Grace's looks the way I remember it with the reddish color and visible specks of spices.
If you go to their website, you can buy the graces blend in the US now
When I worked at KFC in the late 70’s we didn’t close the pressure fryer lid right away. We let it brown for 1.5 minutes then close the lid and fry for around 14 more minutes I think. We also had BIG fryers and would load the cage with 36 pieces at once which is 4 chickens.
BIG difference from the dude above that said 1 min open on high + 8min closed on low.
@@realcygnus It might have taken longer for more pieces of chicken.
@@novelist99 Indeed. Still, some variation.
I worked for KFC when John Y Brown was the President of KFC.I went to KFC school. You need to use popcorn salt in the flour so it won't drop down to the bottom of the mixing bowl.
Back in the day, I used to cook Kentucky Fried Chicken at the Gino's burger place in Fairfax Virginia. Normally it was cooked in big pressure cookers with the shortening preheated to 350 Fahrenheit. The method was to bread the chicken put it in the pot and close the top. Heat on high until it started venting steam, then cook for 9 minutes with the flame on low, and dump the pot into a strainer tablewhen it was done. Total cooking time was 12 minutes plus or minus a little. When we had a rush on the chicken we would "Highball" cook it which meant we would put it in the pot and leave the flame turned up to high and the total cooking time was reduced to around 6 minutes. It actually resulted in a superior looking and tasting product but was a bit dangerous since if the vent were to clog it would have exploded. We were on about the 15th pot of "Highballed" chicken one Saturday when a regional manager decided to drop in for a visit. He saw how good the chicken looked and tasted it and then wanted to know how we had improved on it. Our manager said to show him and we did. He was impressed but told us we shouldn't do it due to the dangers of potentially having a pot explode. Several years later they started cooking chicken with the big Henny Penny fry machines which replicated our method with a big margin of safety that we never had.
Up next to 7 Corners? I grew up there.
White flour 200 gm
Corn flour 50 gm.
1 egg white.
1/2 cup buttermilk.
Salt - ground in spice grinder for better coverage 36g.
MSG - (Ajji no Motto) - 2g
Fine White Pepper 6g
Cracked Black pepper, Coarse and Fine black peppers - 2g combined total
Savoury 1.5g
ground Coriander 1.5g
powder Ginger 1.2g
powder Thyme 1.0g
sage .5g
marjoram .25g
what is the taste?
Better than KFC
how much flour to the mix?
@@jjld7140 White flour 200 gm
Corn flour 50 gm.
@@maya1787 Marjoram 25 grams?? Don't you see it often?
I live in Ireland and I had no idea of this story about Pat Grace. I have to go try that chicken now!
Me too. Where is it?
I made the coleslaw when i worked there. Cabbage, carots, big jug jfg mayo and malted vinegar. That was it. No sugar, no nothing else. I made huge batches using 20 or so cabbages, full gallon of malted vinegar and restaurant size mayo and about 2 bags of full length carrots run thru chipper. Easy to reduce down recipe.
This is an interesting series. As a 29 year old, I remember KFC used to be better, but idk if that was just my child brain being less picky. The last 2 or 3 times I've tried KFC, it was absolute horse shit. Greasy and little to no flavor.
I agree I loved it growing up but I quit eating it 10 plus years ago it is crap now here in north west Louisiana anyway it literally will make me sick to my stomach
What’s bad is Popeyes here is going down hill fast and most churches chickens have closed they are awful awful awful I don’t eat any of them anymore
@@proking5044 Exactly, between 12 to 15 years ago I had to stop eating at KFC. They changed the recipe. I'm allergic to garlic. The KFC near me in New York confirmed it's got garlic in it now. I found out the hard way and spent the day in the er because if it. Haven't eaten there since.
They mostly changed the oil, they went with soy bean oil because it is "healthier"
I completely agree with you. It used to be good and it's now just grease and salt. I am 50 years old. It used to be REALLY good. Extra crispy is now just extra crappy.
I feel like I just read the last chapter of a wonderful adventure story. It's been great fun, but I'm also a little sad that it's over. Thank you both for your hard work and bullheadedness to complete this project.
I have a Marion Kay plant here locally in Southern Indiana and have been using their spices and spice blends since I was a little girl. If you get a chance give them a try. The only difference I make is I do soak my chicken overnight in buttermilk, and the ratio of chicken seasoning to flour is a bit more than the spice blend calls for. After breading, I let the chicken sit for a bit before frying. No pressure fryer here, but my very large electric skillet gets a work out everytime. lol
You can now buy Grace’s Perfect Blend in the USA from Sapidum Foods
My mom worked at Marion Kay in the 60's and early 70's. We had a lot of pictures with her and Colonel Sanders.
After he sold KFC, Sanders opened Claudia Sander's Chicken Restaurant. Marion Kay made the entire spice mix.
My first job as a teenager was at 16 @KFC about 55 years ago and one small thing I saw in this video that was different was that after the chicken has been dipped and floured, it would sit in a chilled high boy chest for an hour or two, allowing the herbs and spices to flavor the chicken. It was then added to the oven chests which I believe added to its crispyness. Not eaten immediately.
"Does it really matter? No" This after years of uncovering secrets, late night meetings with former KFC executives, managers, owners and employees. And countless cooking attempts with dozens of variations..
So what you're telling me is 3 of the spices are just different ways of cracking or grinding pepper?
Textures are also important in KFC. The coarse cracked peppercorn gives an intense burst of flavor and the finely ground ones disperse the flavor throughout the other ingrediends for uniformity. Colonel Sanders was pretty wiley and very dedicated to working out the mix.
@@jamesellsworth9673 but what is the difference between coarse black pepper and cracked black pepper?
@Trapped Within the System White pepper is just the inside center part of the black peppercorn, without the dried fruit layer. When used apart from black pepper it has a pretty distinct taste but when used together with black pepper, it doesn't.
@@denoum coarse black pepper is fresh ground on coarse setting..... and cracked is taking the whole corn and crushing it with a cleaver or heavy pot making very coarse.
@@johnorton6372 but thats the same thing, does the cracked pepper have to be finely ground?
I used all those spices and herbs years ago but it was when I ran out of white flour and only had besan flour on hand mixed the two together and then coated my chicken nuggets while I was cooking my husband arrived home from work and thought I had gone to KFC to buy dinner it was never just the herbs and spices but also the flour that was used. Since then I have been making my own at home.
Thanks for sharing the earliest version of the Colonel’s original recipe! It had been altered multiple times that we don't know which version is the original! I think, I would mix 1 tablespoon of each spice/herb to 3 cups of flour should be fine. There's no need to be so precise in the measurements!
Yup. Great job Glenn. You get a solid A on the whole series. Really amazing you found the recipe from Carl and a Canadian. It's amazing. No one else on the internet has done this. Not a fail at all!!!! This is the recipe. I was off by only 1- paprika. No paprika. Yes. It's 95% what I remember KFC to be in the 1970s and 1980s. I think there are some spices I like that I would add to make it even better, but I do believe this is KFC or as close as possible. I prefer it with more white pepper than black. But anyone making this a few times will eventually get it to their liking. I've made 60 versions and I was only off by paprika. And I didn't go off any internet recipes. I tried over 30 spices. Sage is the only one I didn't love. And paprika was the only one I'm a little sad to see go. But I can see now it's better without it. The more I make it though the more nauseated I get every time I eat it. I think it's a recipe that needs tweaking to come out the way I like it.
Whats your spice list and measurements?
@@dorian345 whats your email? Can send it to you.
@@Ben-bs4od dorian345@gmail.com thank you!
What are the actual ingredients and spices that is the closest?
Hallo ben, Can you share the recipe? thanks before
When I worked there during the 80’s, I remember the browned bits from the chicken fryer were used for the gravy.
So what's the next adventure....... This one's been great.
Burger King smoky flavor. And no, it's not as simple as grilling over an open flame.
Grace's Strong Blend is available in the US now so I finally got around to trying that along with your cooking method from video #9. It might be the best fried chicken we've ever had. My husband liked it better than what his grandma used to make. Thank you for all your work on this series!
I knew it had savory! I came across a KFC recipe online about a dozen years ago and judging from the smell I wasn’t too sure about it, but the second I added the savory I was like, “This is it! This is the smell I recall from my childhood.”
Not surprised it didn’t have garlic. Garlic burns really easily and gets bitter.
I read a paper where any food containing garlic or onions is required by the FDA to list it, I guess due to some people being allergic. I found a paper put out by KFC to the FDA saying that it had onion and garlic powder. They admitted they were in it, but after that they said "and other spices". I think the insiders from KFC gave Glen some bogus information. Who knows, Glen might be getting paid by KFC to give out disinformation too.
Spot on observation about garlic. Garlic tends to make the crust brown too fast.
@@captainamerica9028 it is very possible onion, garlic and even celery are in the form of salt in a small amount. Not contributing to the total of herbs and spices.
one question about the ingredients that I'd like your comment on. It seems that the 2-4th ingredients (black pepper) seem all to be derivatives on each other ie same ingredient in slightly different forms. Do you think that it might simply represent the results of incomplete grinding of pepper corns? ie some cracked, some coarse and some fine grind. The fourth, which you list as white pepper is truly different, much more powerful and likely to give an after taste. Lots of people mention "Tellicherry Pepper Corns".... which I understand to be just "longer on the bush" pepper corns.... bigger pepper corns. Hard to believe that a difference in component grind would merit 3 ingredients in the secret recipe! Take care.... you guys are doing a great job! Doug
Thanks for doing the KFC series, it's been really interesting. I had a 5kg bag of perfect blend delivered this morning and just tried it on a couple of small thighs., went with the healthy option and used an air fryer and it was really good. It was so close to kfc that I am tempted to dig out and dust off the old deep fryer to see how much closer it is when deep fried lol. I will try a double dip and air fry later on to see what difference that makes to it.
@Blac Nerd It's actually overseas and not in the US. Go look up Grace's Perfect Blend. They sell the seasoning bags there.
You can now buy Grace’s Perfect Blend in the USA from Sapidum Foods
You can now buy Grace’s Perfect Blend in the USA from Sapidum Foods
@flamesfan, yayyy! Thank you for the update friend! Not all heroes wear capes. :)
I actually met Colonel Sanders once, and have a photo of us, as well as a personal autographed pic of him. He used to go to all new kfc store openings, a long, long, long time ago (in the late 60's or early 70's)!
The white pepper is, I think, the most essential ingredient. Without it, no spice blend will taste like KFC.
What a day to be Irish, when lockdown eases I'll have to go look for a place that uses Grace's blend
Please let me know if you find a place
Texas Fried Chicken in Glasnevin uses Karl's Blend.
Thanks for all the work you did on this, can’t wait to see what your next big project will be! :)
When I was a teenager in the early 80's I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken one of the few girls that was a cook. And I do know it was 1 lb box of salt shifted into 50 lb bag of flour. Now the seasoning came in a packet it was about 2 cups. And it looked, tasted, and smelled the same as the green powdered McCormick's poultry seasoning that my mother bought in the supermarket. Breaded and cooked in a big pressure cooker or the smaller Henny Penny pressure cooker.
I honestly do Dustin's spice mix from your last video that I brine the night before into a double crispy batter and my family and friends go completely nuts over it. More KFC than KFC is right.
That looks like how KFC looked back in the 80's here in Puerto Rico.
Good job!
I use to eat at the "KFC" in San Jose "Rio Preada".. right next to San Jose Fire dept. Fire house..
I copied the details on the recipe and where to get the mixes... just in case KFC freaks out. :D I really appreciate you going as far as you could. KFC has a real track record of taking people to court. Can you do Popeyes spicy blend next? LOL (please don't reach through the screen and smack me.) I am sure you are chickened out at this point.
oh, KFC will freak out alright, this is the first time anyone came close to their recipe.
Ground Coriander Seed definitely belongs in there. I discovered this while following that famous published recipe and smelling the spices as I pulled them out. I grabbed the Coriander Seed but didn't find it on that recipe, but the smell totally said KFC especially with the Pepper. I don't do breaded, deep fried in the quest for a low carb, low fat alternative. So I just make a rub of the spices and Air Fry or Oven Bake it on a rack, it's not KFC per say but mimics the flavor finally thanks to the Coriander Seed.
I own a bag of Kentucky Fried Chicken. And I can smell the smell of ginger and white pepper very clearly ... There is no red color in the mixture, meaning that the mixture does not contain paprika or hot sauce at all.
what can i substitute instead of coriander seed
Can you please post your air fryer recipe along w the spices you used? Thank you
@@obaidali6864 have you trie guajillo chili?
even in small amounts it smell honey-like when cooked.
Here in KFC Canada, the Original Recipe always smell luxuriously sweet peppery