KFC facts for kids
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Genre | Fast food restaurant |
| Founded |
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| Founder | |
| Headquarters | 1441 Gardiner Lane Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. Dallas, Texas, U.S. (global) |
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Number of locations
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30,000 (2024) |
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Area served
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Worldwide (145 countries) |
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Key people
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Scott Mezvinsky (CEO) |
| Products |
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| Revenue | US$2.83 billion (2023) |
| Parent | Yum! Brands |
KFC, short for Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a popular American fast food chain. It is famous for its delicious fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. KFC's main office is in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the second-largest restaurant chain in the world, right after McDonald's.
As of April 2024, KFC has over 30,000 restaurants in 150 countries around the globe. The company is part of Yum! Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
KFC was started by Colonel Harland Sanders (1890–1980). He was an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. This was during the Great Depression, a time when many people faced financial hardship. Sanders saw a great idea in restaurant franchising. This means letting other people open restaurants using his recipes and brand.
The first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952. KFC helped make chicken popular in the fast-food world. It offered something different from the usual hamburgers. Harland Sanders became a well-known figure by calling himself "Colonel Sanders". His image is still used in KFC ads today. However, the company grew so fast that it became too much for the aging Sanders to manage. He sold it to a group of investors in 1964.
KFC was one of the first American fast-food chains to open restaurants in other countries. By the mid-1960s, it had locations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Jamaica. The company changed owners several times in the 1970s and 1980s. Despite these changes, KFC continued to grow overseas. In 1987, it became the first Western restaurant chain to open in China. China is now KFC's biggest market. Eventually, PepsiCo, which owned KFC at the time, created a new company for its restaurants called Yum! Brands.
KFC's main product is pressure-fried chicken pieces. These are seasoned with Colonel Sanders' secret "11 herbs and spices". The exact recipe is a trade secret. Large servings of fried chicken come in a cardboard "bucket". This bucket has been a famous part of the chain since 1957. Since the early 1990s, KFC has added more items to its menu. These include chicken fillet sandwiches, wraps, salads, and side dishes. Popular sides are french fries and coleslaw. They also offer desserts and soft drinks. KFC is known for its slogans like "It's Finger Lickin' Good!" and "So good".
Contents
KFC's Story
How it Started: Sanders Court & Café
Harland Sanders was born in 1890. He grew up on a farm in Indiana. When he was five, his father passed away. His mother had to work, so Harland, as the oldest, took care of his younger siblings. When he was seven, his mother taught him how to cook. After leaving home at 13, Sanders tried many different jobs.
In 1930, Sanders started working at a Shell gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky. Here, he began selling food to travelers. He cooked recipes he learned as a child, like fried chicken, steaks, and country ham. After four years, he bought a bigger gas station across the road. He expanded his dining area to six tables. By 1936, his restaurant was so successful that he was given the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel. In 1937, he made his restaurant even bigger and added a motel. He called it Sanders Court & Café.
Sanders was not happy that it took 35 minutes to cook his chicken in a frying pan. He did not want to deep fry it because he thought it made the chicken less tasty. If he cooked chicken ahead of time, some would go to waste. In 1939, the first commercial pressure cookers came out. Sanders bought one and changed it into a pressure fryer. This new method cooked chicken much faster, like deep frying, but Sanders believed it kept the good taste of pan-fried chicken.
The "Original Recipe" and Franchising
In July 1940, Sanders perfected his famous "Original Recipe" of 11 herbs and spices. He never told anyone the full recipe. He only said it included salt and pepper and that the rest were "on everybody's shelf". In 1950, he was again named a Kentucky Colonel. After this, Sanders started dressing the part. He grew a goatee, wore a black coat (later a white suit), and a string tie. He began calling himself "the Colonel".
In 1952, Sanders shared his recipe with his friend Pete Harman in South Salt Lake, Utah. Harman owned one of the biggest restaurants in the city. Sanders' own restaurant mostly served travelers. When a new highway was planned that would bypass his place, Sanders sold his properties. He then traveled around the US to offer his recipe to other restaurant owners. These independent restaurants would pay him a small fee for each chicken they sold. In return, they could use his recipe, name, and picture to promote their food.
A sign painter named Don Anderson, hired by Harman, came up with the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken". For Harman, adding KFC helped his restaurant stand out. Chicken from Kentucky sounded special and brought to mind Southern hospitality. Harman also created the slogan "It's finger lickin' good". This became a very famous company slogan. In 1957, he also introduced the "bucket meal". This included 14 pieces of chicken, five bread rolls, and gravy in a cardboard bucket. Serving meals in a paper bucket became a key part of KFC's identity.
By 1963, there were 600 KFC restaurants. This made it the largest fast food business in the United States. KFC made chicken popular in the fast food industry. It offered a new choice beyond the common hamburger.
In 1964, KFC began offering franchises outside the US. The first British KFC restaurant opened in Preston, England, on May 1, 1965. It is still open today.
Selling the Company and Growing Worldwide
In 1964, Sanders sold KFC to a group of investors for US$2 million. This was about US$17 million in 2020 money. The deal included a lifetime salary for Sanders. He also agreed to be the company's quality controller. By 1970, the chain had grown to 3,000 restaurants in 48 countries. In 1971, the company was sold again to Heublein, a food and drinks company.
Colonel Sanders passed away in 1980. His work promoting KFC made him a very important figure in American culture. By the time he died, there were about 6,000 KFC restaurants in 48 countries. They made US$2 billion in sales each year.
In 1986, PepsiCo bought KFC. KFC became part of PepsiCo's restaurant division, along with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. KFC opened its first restaurant in Beijing, China, in November 1987.
In 1991, the company officially changed its name to KFC. This was because "KFC" was already widely used. It also helped distance the chain from the idea of "fried" food being unhealthy. In the early 1990s, KFC launched new popular products. These included spicy "Hot Wings" (1990), popcorn chicken (1992), and the "Zinger" spicy chicken fillet sandwich (1993). By 1994, KFC had over 9,400 restaurants worldwide.
In 1997, PepsiCo separated its restaurant division into a new public company called Tricon Global Restaurants. This company later changed its name to Yum! Brands in 2002.
By 2015, KFC faced challenges and lost some business to other chicken restaurants. The company started a new plan to update its packaging, restaurant look, and uniforms. They also expanded their menu. Starting in May 2015, new US advertisements featured different actors playing Colonel Sanders.
In 2019, KFC in Australia changed its name back to "Kentucky Fried Chicken".
How KFC Works
KFC is part of Yum! Brands, one of the biggest restaurant companies in the world. KFC's main office is in Louisville, Kentucky. It is in a building that looks like the US president's home, often called the "White House". This building holds the main offices and the company's research and development facilities.
Yum! Brands plans to move the KFC headquarters to Plano, Texas, in 2025.
KFC Products
KFC's main product is its pressure fried chicken pieces. These are seasoned with Colonel Harland Sanders' "Original Recipe" of 11 herbs and spices. You can usually buy two or three pieces, or a family-size cardboard bucket with six to 16 pieces. In some countries, like Canada and the UK, each chicken is cut into nine pieces. In the United States, it is cut into eight pieces.
The chicken is breaded by hand at each KFC restaurant. It is coated with wheat flour mixed with seasoning. This takes about two to four minutes. Then, it is pressure fried for seven to 10 minutes in oil at 185 degrees Celsius. After frying, the chicken rests for 5 minutes to cool before being put in a warming oven. KFC makes sure chicken is fresh by throwing it away if it hasn't been sold within 90 minutes. The type of frying oil used can be different in various regions.
Besides its bone-in chicken, KFC also sells chicken burgers. These include the Zinger and the Tower. They also have wraps like "Twisters" and "Boxmasters". Other popular items are crispy chicken strips and hot wings. Popcorn chicken, which are small, bite-sized pieces of fried chicken, is also very popular. In some places, like Australia and Malaysia, chicken nuggets are sold too.
McCormick & Company is a big supplier for KFC. They provide sauces, seasonings, and marinades. They also help KFC create new products.
Most KFC restaurants sell PepsiCo drinks because of a past partnership. However, some countries, like New Zealand and the Philippines, sell drinks from The Coca-Cola Company. In Peru, you can find the local favorite, Inca Kola.
The Krusher/Krushem range of frozen drinks was launched in 2009. These drinks have "real bits" of things like Kit Kat and Oreo. They are available in over 2,000 restaurants. Egg custard tarts are a popular dessert worldwide. Other desserts include ice cream sundaes.
In 2012, KFC started offering a breakfast menu called "KFC AM" in many countries. This menu includes items like pancakes, waffles, and porridge, along with fried chicken.
On August 27, 2019, KFC tested meatless boneless wings and nuggets in Atlanta, Georgia.
In February 2023, KFC in Australia announced that some items would no longer be sold. These included wings, popcorn chicken, and Nashville hot sauce.
The 11 Herbs and Spices
Colonel Sanders' "11 herbs and spices" recipe is one of the most famous trade secrets in the food industry. It is not patented. This is because patents only protect an invention for a short time. Trade secrets, however, can be kept secret forever.
A copy of the recipe, signed by Sanders, is kept in a safe at KFC's headquarters in Louisville. It is stored with 11 small bottles containing the herbs and spices. To keep the recipe secret, half of it is made by one company, Griffith Laboratories. Then, it is given to McCormick, who adds the second half.
In 1999, a couple found some notes that they thought were the secret recipe. These notes were in a house that Colonel Sanders used to own. KFC first tried to stop them from selling the notes. But by 2001, KFC dropped the lawsuit. They said the notes were "nowhere close" to the real recipe.
In 2016, Joe Ledington, a nephew by marriage of Colonel Sanders, said he found a copy of the original recipe. He found it on a handwritten paper in a scrapbook. Staffers from the Chicago Tribune tried cooking with this recipe. They said that after adding the flavor-enhancer MSG, their fried chicken tasted "indistinguishable" from KFC's chicken.
Different Menus Around the World
KFC changes its menu in different countries to fit local tastes. There are over 300 different KFC menu items worldwide. Some places, like the UK and the US, sell grilled chicken. In countries where most people are Islamic, the chicken served is halal. In Asia, people often like spicy foods, like the Zinger chicken burger. In many countries, you can choose a hot and spicy version of the chicken. This spicy coating is also crispier. In Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka, you can find a grilled chicken called "Smoky Red".
KFC's menu in China includes items like rice bowls, noodle dishes, and chicken cooked like Peking duck. Some KFC restaurants in the US sell fried chicken livers and gizzards. A few US locations offer an all-you-can-eat buffet with a limited menu.
Cheaper menu items are sold under the "Streetwise" name in places like Canada and South Africa. Side dishes often include French fries, coleslaw, barbecue baked beans, corn on the cob, mashed potato, bread rolls, and American biscuits. Salads include bean salad and Caesar salad. In some countries, KFC sells onion rings. In many parts of Asia and Africa, rice dishes are often sold as sides. In Greece and Bulgaria, potato wedges are sold instead of French fries.
In some Eastern European countries and Portugal, beer is offered along with soft drinks. In 2023, KFC in the UK and Ireland introduced new 'signature fries'. These fries are coated in herbs and spices to improve their taste.
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Hot wings and fries served in paper buckets
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Hot wings menu set sold in Berlin
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Hot & spicy chicken, colonel rice, coleslaw and nuggets in Malaysia
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Spaghetti and gravy as sold in the Philippines
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KFC century eggs and pork congee sold in China in breakfast hours only
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Cooking Equipment
KFC first used covered cooking pots on a stove to fry chicken. In the 1960s, the recommended model was the "KFC 20-Head Cooker". This was a large machine that cost $16,000. It did not have an oil filter, so filtering had to be done by hand. Sometimes, these pressure fryers would explode, hurting employees.
In 1969, an inventor named Winston L. Shelton created the "Collectramatic" pressurized fryer. This fryer solved the problems KFC had with cooking chicken quickly. The Collectramatic used precise time and temperature controls. It also filtered the cooking oil by itself. Fred Jeffries, a vice president at KFC, said this invention helped the company grow fast.
From 2013 onwards, KFC has been switching to pressure fryers made by Henny Penny. These new fryers can cook more chicken at once. They also have automatic oil filtration and make the oil last longer.
KFC Advertising
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Colonel Sanders was a very important part of KFC's advertising until he died in 1980. Even after his death, Sanders remains a key symbol for the company. Early slogans included "North America's Hospitality Dish" and "We fix Sunday dinner seven nights a week". The "finger lickin' good" slogan was used from 1956. It became one of the most famous slogans of the 20th century.
The first KFC logo came out in 1952. It had the words "Kentucky Fried Chicken" and a picture of the Colonel. In 1962, Dave Thomas (who later founded Wendy's) took Colonel Sanders' bucket and made it into a spinning sign. These signs were put in front of almost every KFC restaurant in America.
Advertising became very important for KFC after Sanders sold the company. In 1966, KFC started advertising on US television. They spent US$4 million. To pay for nationwide ads, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Advertising Co-Op was created. This group helped decide on budgets and campaigns. In 1969, KFC hired its first national advertising agency, Leo Burnett. A famous campaign in 1972 had a jingle called "Get a bucket of chicken, have a barrel of fun". By 1976, KFC was one of the biggest advertisers in the US.
See also
In Spanish: Kentucky Fried Chicken para niños
- Cuisine of the Southern United States
- List of chicken restaurants
- List of fast food restaurant chains
- KFC in China
- KFC in Japan
