I remember many decades ago the first time our family enjoyed Harland Sanders wonderful Kentucky Fried Chicken aka KFC.  The taste and texture of the pressure fried chicken would get your taste buds to tingling from the eleven (11) herbs and spices used as claimed by the Colonel.  It definitely was "finger licking good" as advertised. 

However, over the years I have noticed that the KFC chicken doesn't have the seasoning pop that it once had; definitely much more greasy and the breaded skin doesn't want to adhere to the chicken.  You rarely see any type of seasoning mix present within and on the breaded skin and to my taste buds, the chicken is bland to taste with very little flavor.  On a positive note, the chicken is tender, but nevertheless tasteless in my humble opinion!  My last purchase of the KFC 8 piece meal/deal definitely planted the seed for this short story!

I guess the reason I still purchase KFC is solely the convenience and will no doubt go back to purchasing BoJangles chicken versus KFC.  We now have a local Popeye's place, however my bride cannot handle much spice aka heat such as cayenne pepper since her stroke of fourteen years ago which I have cut way back on cayenne pepper in many of my recipes.

Those of us that were raised on home grown chickens running around the yard and in the chicken coops with a variable yard diet, know what fried chicken cooked in a cast iron skillet with hog lard should taste like instead of the monophagous pellet feed diet fed to production raised chickens with who knows what is in the feed and water mix to render four pound chickens to market in about 48 days!

I am definitely not alone in my assessment of what has happened to the taste of the KFC and a Google search will reveal many who feel the same way that I do.

WHY THE CHANGE

Many foods and food industries have gotten a bad rap with Big Brother and its cronies attempting to tell us what is good for our health which can be a good thing if there is sufficient evidence to back up such claims!  Butter and Lard got bad reviews from the Health Food critics, however over the decades their findings have been very flawed.  Advertising of food products has taken on a whole new meaning with the end goal of selling that product, most of the time at a very high price.  Labels on food packaging, etc., are mere words in print with very little scientific data to back up their claims. 

Such advertising has existed for centuries; e.g., Carter's Little Liver Pills, Crazy Water Crystals, Snake Oil, Listerine, etc.

I realize I am now rambling, but that is my usual MO, modus operandi.

10 Of THE MOST MISLEADING FOOD LABELS

1. Multigrain or 12 Grains
2. Grass-fed
3. No Added Sugar
4. Gluten-free
5. High-Protein
6. Cage-free & Pasteur Centered
7. Vegetarian Fed Eggs
8. Trans fat-free
9. All Natural
10. Organic

NO FDA ENFORCEMENT

The FDA has no policy or formal definition for the Natural food label.

Many manufacturers have gotten onto the political correctness bandwagon by changing the package labels; e.g., Uncle Ben's rice and Aunt Jemima pancake mix.  Remember the fuss when they removed the Colonel from the KFC billboards and advertising?

PSYCHOLOGICAL BIAS

Cooking is something that I enjoy doing and will experiment in the kitchen and try different recipes, whereby modifying and adapting existing recipes to my own liking and taste.  Taste is very subjective and what I like, another might not like and I will try and make a parallel with a term called psychological bias, of which there probably isn't a cure.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BIAS.  Simply stated, "Humans harbor biases.  These prejudices influence what we hear, taste, feel, etc.  In other words, if you EXPECT something to be better than another - it will!  This phenomena or Psychological bias has been tested and proven by many double blind tests of all types to fully document and support this phenomena" and is relative to our sense of taste as well!

FOR EXAMPLE:  Back in the early 1970s, I believed that Coca Cola in the short small glass bottles (6.5 oz.) was much more flavorful aka potent and stronger tasting that the Coca Cola in the larger 12 and 16 oz. bottles and got a chance to try a "blind test" at Blackwelders Restaurant in Ansonville, NC.  The owner Mr. Blackwelder; can't remember his first name, offered to do a so called blind test using the small bottle and large bottle of the Coca Cola and delivered a Styrofoam cup with a sample of each to myself, Brother Allen Porter and cousin Johnny Ray Coley (now deceased) and marked on the bottom of the Styrofoam cup whether the Coca Cola was from the small or large bottle.  After the test was completed, I had chosen the larger Coca Cola as being the strongest tasting and the results varied between all three of us.  In my mind, the smaller bottle of Coca Cola was the strongest causing you to burp aka belch more and had more intense flavor; grin if you must!

I am definitely not immune to psychological bias, however I don't think the taste of the current KFC is influenced by my psychological bias which I know sounds paradoxical or oxymoron. 

HERBS AND SPICES

In 1983, William Poundstone conducted laboratory research into the coating mix, as described in his book Big Secrets available on Amazon, and claimed that a sample he examined contained only flour, salt, monosodium glutamate and black pepper.  KFC maintains that it still adheres to Sanders' original 1940 recipe and if that is the truth, which I definitely don't believe, the quantity of the herbs and spices used has probably been reduced to a very small fraction of the amount originally used, since the herb seasoning mix was shipped to the stores in packets and was added to the flour breader.

I am inclined to believe the above test conducted by William Poundstone as I definitely cannot taste much seasoning at all in the KFC or visualize any seasonings present, especially at the KFC facility here in Wadesboro, NC.

There are many knock-off recipes for the KFC herbs and spices via the internet and my own house seasoning mix called Wild Bill's Meat Rub will knock the socks off the current KFC taste wise.  BTW, "It is a poor frog that want croak on his own pond."

Below is one sample of various herbs and spices you will find on the internet for KFC seasoning mix:

KFC ORIGINAL RECIPE?

2 cups white flour ( I will use all-purpose)
2/3 Ts Salt
1/2 Ts Thyme
1/2 Ts Basil
1/3 Ts Oregano
1 Ts Celery salt
1 Ts Black pepper
1 Ts Dried mustard
4 Ts Paprika
2 Ts Garlic salt
1 Ts Ground ginger 
3 Ts White pepper

As soon as I get back to 100 percent from an open left inguinal hernia operation/repair, I plan to mix a test batch of the above seasoning mix and deep fry a chicken and do some serious tasting/evaluation with the family.  I do know that my own oven baked chicken and brined deep fried chicken with my Wild Bill's Meat Rub is far superior taste wise than the current KFC available here in Wadesboro, NC.

I will later post a few pixs to this page with test results.

PORTER'S BRINED DEEP FRIED CHICKEN

Melt in your mouth tender, flavorful and not greasy!  Check out the crust aka bark on the chicken.

KFC cannot hold a candle to the above chicken prepared by yours truly.  As stated earlier, I purchased KFC as a matter of convenience.  Cleaning a deep fryer and storing the cooking oil is a hassle to say the least, however quality in, equals quality out!

Above brined deep fried chicken from my archived pixs taken on 03-14-13

Can you say "beautimous" out loud?

In summary, many large corporations over the decades have cut corners to keep the stock holders dividends intact, but in the long run, such cuts will normally come home to haunt them.  It is the consumer that dictates the long term success or failure of a product and not some fancy advertising on steroids!  As eluded to earlier, many fast food chains have attempted to get on the Healthy Food Bandwagon, changing their menu to keep potential sales high and KFC might be one example.  Most of the time, production cost is the determining factor for such changes!

I often use a saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" in other words, "leave well enough alone."

Remember what happened to Coca Cola when they came out with the NEW Formula Coca Cola on April 23, 1985 which was a day that will live in marketing infamy, spawning consumer angst the likes of what no business has ever seen.

I give God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, the Praise, Honor and Glory in all things!

Merry Christmas to all and remember, "Jesus is the reason for the season."

Web page created by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 12-19-2020.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please take this moment to accept him by Faith into your Life, whereby Salvation will be attained.   

Ephesians 2:8 - 2:9 8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Open this link about faith in the King James Bible.