50 Fun Facts About KFC

Where did the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise open in 1952?

Sanders franchised his recipe to his friend Pete Harman, who ran one of the city's largest restaurants.

Sanders' Original Recipe famously calls for how many herbs and spices?

Sanders said the list included salt and pepper and that the rest "stand on everybody's shelf".

The name "Kentucky Fried Chicken" was coined by a man in which trade?

Don Anderson was hired by franchisee Pete Harman, who wanted a name that sounded exotic and Southern to his customers.

The original 1957 "bucket meal" held how many pieces of chicken?

It came with five bread rolls and a pint of gravy, all packed in a cardboard bucket.

Sanders sold Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1964 for how much?

The deal included a lifetime salary and a job as the company's quality controller and living trademark.

John Y. Brown Jr., who led the 1964 buyout, went on to hold which office?

Brown was a 29-year-old lawyer when he bought the company with venture capitalist Jack C. Massey.

Which Connecticut food and drinks company bought the chain in 1971?

Heublein paid $285 million, more than 140 times what Sanders had received seven years earlier.

In 1982, the chain's then-owner was swallowed by which tobacco giant?

Reynolds held the chain for only four years before selling it on to pay down debt from buying Nabisco.

Which soft-drink giant bought the chain in 1986, pairing it with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell?

The announced price was $850 million; the actual sale that October closed at $840 million.

KFC's first outlet in China, the first by any Western chain, opened in 1987 in which city?

China has since become the company's single largest market, bigger than the United States.

Tricon Global Restaurants, the 1997 spin-off, was renamed Yum! Brands in which year?

The company had already used YUM as its stock ticker since the 1997 spin-off.

When the chain adopted its initials in 1991, which word was it trying to play down?

KFC U.S. president Kyle Craig admitted the move was meant to distance the brand from unhealthy connotations.

In the United States, each chicken is now divided into how many pieces?

Markets that still follow the Colonel's original system, such as the UK, use nine cuts including a keel.

The chicken is pressure fried in oil at roughly what temperature?

It fries for seven to ten minutes depending on the country, then rests for five before going into the warming oven.

Company policy is to throw out cooked chicken unsold after how long?

The frying oil itself varies by region, from sunflower and soybean to rapeseed and palm.

Which spice company is the chain's largest supplier of seasonings and marinades?

The same firm finishes the secret blend after another supplier has mixed the first half.

Which firm produces the first half of the secret blend before a second firm finishes it?

A signed copy of the recipe sits in a vault at headquarters beside 11 vials of the ingredients.

In 2016, which newspaper cooked a recipe found in a Sanders family scrapbook?

The handwritten page came from Joe Ledington, a nephew of the Colonel by marriage, who had mixed spices for him as a boy.

Which country rebranded its outlets back to "Kentucky Fried Chicken" in 2019?

Departing CEO Andrea Zahumensky later named the bucket, the three stripes and the full name as the brand's luckiest assets.

Who became the first woman to play Colonel Sanders in the US ads, in 2018?

She followed a rotating cast of comedians and actors that included Norm Macdonald, Jim Gaffigan, George Hamilton and Rob Riggle.

Which comedian launched the rotating celebrity-Colonel ad campaign in May 2015?

The campaign came as Chick-fil-A had overtaken the chain as the leading chicken seller in the United States.

Which singer performed the 1972 jingle "Get a bucket of chicken, have a barrel of fun"?

It was a Leo Burnett campaign; by 1976 the chain was one of the largest advertisers in the United States.

Which future fast-food founder turned the bucket into a revolving roadside sign in 1962?

Thomas was a franchisee in Columbus, Ohio, before he opened the first Wendy's in 1969.

After a 2018 UK chicken shortage, the apology ads rearranged the initials to spell what?

Hundreds of British restaurants closed temporarily after the switch to a new delivery partner went wrong.

Which logistics company's mismanagement caused the 2018 British chicken shortage?

The UK is the chain's largest market in Europe, which made the closures front-page news.

Under what name were the chain's Russian restaurants rebranded after 2022?

Before the war the chain had over 1,000 outlets in Russia, more than any other Western fast food brand.

The Krusher/Krushem range launched in 2009 is what kind of product?

They come with "real bits" of Kit Kat, Oreo or strawberry shortcake and are sold in over 2,000 outlets.

Which local soft drink do Peruvian outlets sell alongside the chicken?

Peru is also one of the few markets where tres leches cake appears on the dessert menu.

In Greece and Bulgaria, what is served in place of French fries?

Rice-based sides dominate in much of Asia and the Pacific, and several Eastern European outlets also sell beer.

What replaces the bun in the Double Down sandwich?

Between them sit bacon, cheese and sauce; halal markets swap the bacon for smoked chicken, turkey bacon or hash browns.

The Double Down was announced in a 2010 press release timed to which day?

It was real, and went on sale nationally on April 12, 2010, after test markets in Omaha and Providence.

Japan's "Kentucky for Christmas" campaign went nationwide in which year?

Christmas Eve sales now account for nearly five percent of the Japanese business's annual revenue.

The Japanese Christmas tradition began with "party barrels" sold as a substitute for what?

Takeshi Okawara, manager of the first restaurant in Japan, began the promotion in 1970 when Christmas had few local traditions.

KFC Japan began as a joint venture with which Japanese conglomerate?

The partner took majority control of the business in 2007 in a deal worth ¥14.83 billion.

The first test store in Japan opened in March 1970 at which event?

The first proper store followed in suburban Nagoya that November and struggled until the chain moved into city centres.

The "Curse of the Colonel" legend blames a statue thrown in a river on fans of which team?

The statue went into the water during a 1985 title celebration; the club did not win another Japan Series until 2023.

One of the Colonel's white suits sold at auction in 2013 for roughly how much?

The buyer, the president of KFC Japan, put the suit on immediately after winning the bid in Dallas.

Harland Sanders was born in 1890 in which state?

He grew up on a farm near Henryville and learned to cook at seven after his father died.

After lying about his age to enlist at 16, Sanders served as an Army wagoner where?

He earned the Cuban Pacification Medal and was honourably discharged within months.

Who first made Sanders an honorary Kentucky Colonel, in 1935?

He was re-commissioned in 1950 by his friend Lawrence Wetherby and only then grew the goatee and started dressing the part.

Which food critic put Sanders Court and Café in his 1939 guide Adventures in Good Eating?

The entry praised "sizzling steaks, fried chicken, country ham, hot biscuits" with lunch from half a dollar.

In 1930 Sanders started serving meals at a service station leased from which oil company?

He got the station rent-free in exchange for a cut of sales and at first fed customers in his own living quarters.

Which new interstate bypassed Corbin and pushed Sanders into franchising full-time?

At 65 he was left with his savings and $105 a month from Social Security, and often slept in his car between sales calls.

Sanders kept the operations in which country out of his 1964 sale?

He moved to Mississauga, Ontario, in 1965 to oversee those franchises and lived there until his death.

Sanders said the reformulated gravy tasted like what, prompting a 1975 libel suit?

The company sued him and lost; two years earlier he had sued them over misuse of his image in ads.

Sanders' later Shelbyville restaurant, "The Colonel's Lady", was named for whom?

It still operates as the Claudia Sanders Dinner House, the only non-KFC restaurant licensed to serve the Original Recipe.

How old was Sanders when he died in December 1980?

He was diagnosed with leukemia that June, kept appearing in his white suit until a month before his death, and was buried in it.

The KFC Yum! Center arena, opened in 2010, is the home court of which basketball program?

With 22,090 seats it is the largest arena in the US built primarily for basketball.

The first British outlet opened on 1 May 1965 in which Lancashire town?

The Fishergate restaurant is still trading and was the chain's entry point into Europe.

Early franchisees paid Sanders what fee for every chicken they sold?

The fee later rose to a nickel, in return for the recipe and the right to use his name and likeness.