KFC Trivia
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50 free KFC trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Kentucky Fried Chicken started at a Shell filling station in North Corbin, Kentucky, where a 40-year-old Harland Sanders fed travelers from his own dining table. The recipe he finalized in 1940 is still locked in a vault, the bucket a Utah franchisee dreamed up in 1957 is still the logo, and the company he sold for $2 million in 1964 now trails only McDonald's in worldwide sales. These 50 questions cover the Colonel's early life and his feud with the company that bought him out, the secret recipe and the people who claim to have cracked it, the corporate owners from Heublein to Yum! Brands, the menu around the world, the advertising (including the FCK apology), Christmas dinner in Japan and the cursed baseball statue in Osaka. Easy questions cover the slogans and the bucket; harder ones ask about franchise fees, frying temperatures and naming-rights deals. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a food round.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened in 1952 at Pete Harman's café in which state?
Utah
Utah restaurateur Pete Harman added the chicken to his menu, and by the time Sanders passed back through town, customers were lining up to order it.
Q 02Sanders' Original Recipe famously calls for how many herbs and spices?
11
11 herbs and spices, kept as a trade secret rather than patented, since a patent would have to publish the recipe and would eventually expire.
Q 03The name "Kentucky Fried Chicken" was coined by a man in which trade?
Sign painter
A sign painter lettering Pete Harman's café windows came up with it, agreeing that the name Kentucky carried an image of Southern hospitality.
Q 04What kind of game did KFC release on Steam in 2019?
Dating simulator
Dating simulator I Love You, Colonel Sanders! cast players as a culinary student who must survive school, and might end up as the Colonel's business partner.
Q 05Sanders sold Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1964 for how much?
$2 million
$2 million bought Sanders out of the American business, but a lifetime salary kept him on as the chain's ambassador, still appearing in its commercials.
Q 06John Y. Brown Jr., who led the 1964 buyout, went on to hold which office?
Governor of Kentucky
Governor of Kentucky from 1979 to 1983, Brown later went back to chicken, teaming up with country star Kenny Rogers on a restaurant chain.
Q 07Which Connecticut food and drinks company bought the chain in 1971?
Heublein
Heublein watched the chain slump through the 1970s, then put Michael Miles, the ad man behind its campaigns, in charge to pull it out.
Q 08Which tobacco giant took over the chain's parent company in the early 1980s?
R. J. Reynolds
R. J. Reynolds sold the chain in 1986 to pay down debt from buying Nabisco and to concentrate on its tobacco and packaged food business.
Q 09Which soft-drink giant bought the chain in 1986, pairing it with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell?
PepsiCo
PepsiCo then had to persuade the chain's franchisees to stop selling Coca-Cola products and switch to Pepsi drinks.
Q 10KFC's first outlet in China, the first by any Western chain, opened in 1987 in which city?
Beijing
Beijing's outlet stood across the road from Tiananmen Square, and the chain went on to fill its China menus with Chinese fare such as rice dishes.
Q 11Parent company Tricon took its 2002 name, Yum Brands, from what?
Its stock ticker
Its stock ticker had read YUM on the New York Stock Exchange since the 1997 spin-off, so the corporate name simply caught up with the trading floor.
Q 12When the chain adopted its initials in 1991, which word was it trying to play down?
Fried
Fried had become a turn-off for health-conscious diners, who were moving to grilled and broiled chicken, so the chain led with its initials instead.
Q 13In 2020, which footwear brand sold a KFC shoe covered in a fried chicken print?
Crocs
Crocs unveiled the fried-chicken clogs at New York Fashion Week, and the pairs sold came with charms made to look and smell like drumsticks.
Q 21Which Saturday Night Live alum became the first celebrity Colonel in KFC's 2015 ad revival?
Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond wore the white suit for only a few months before Norm Macdonald replaced him, a swap KFC said was meant to poke fun at itself for bringing the Colonel back.
Q 22Before his own 1970s hits, which singer performed the KFC jingle "Get a bucket of chicken, have a barrel of fun"?
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow paid his dues in advertising, singing McDonald's spots and writing the State Farm and Band-Aid jingles before Mandy made him a star.
Q 23Which future fast-food founder, then a KFC franchisee, turned the bucket into a revolving roadside sign?
Dave Thomas
Q 14To fry chicken faster in 1939, Harland Sanders modified which kitchen device?
Pressure cooker
Pressure cooker sets were sold for steaming vegetables; Sanders modified one to fry under pressure, turning out golden chicken in about eight minutes.
Q 15KFC's 2020 gaming console had a built-in chamber designed to do what?
Keep chicken warm
Keep chicken warm using the console's own waste heat, that is; KFC even offered Sony and Microsoft tips on how to engineer a chicken chamber.
Q 16A KFC executive in 2013 named which spice company as the chain's biggest supplier of seasonings and marinades?
McCormick
McCormick is also reported to finish the secret blend after another firm mixes the first half, so that no supplier ever handles the complete recipe.
Q 17Long before his chicken fame, Harland Sanders worked in which profession until a brawl with his own client ended it?
Law
Law was something Sanders had studied by correspondence course, and he practised in Little Rock until he and a client came to blows inside the courtroom.
Q 18A 2016 newspaper test of a Sanders family scrapbook recipe matched KFC's taste only after adding which ingredient?
MSG
MSG, sprinkled on by a reporter, made the test batch virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, and a KFC spokesperson confirmed the chain uses it in Original Recipe.
Q 19In 2025, KFC announced it was moving its US headquarters out of Kentucky to which state?
Texas
Texas, specifically Plano near Dallas, got the head office, and about 100 corporate staff were given six months to follow the brand out of the state in its name.
Q 20Who became the first woman to play Colonel Sanders in KFC's US ads, in 2018?
Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire wore a fringed, glittering take on the white suit and sang in the ads, which launched the chain's Smoky Mountain BBQ chicken.
Dave Thomas took over struggling Columbus outlets, slashed the menu and put up the spinning bucket, then sold his stake and opened the first Wendy's in 1969.
Q 24After a 2018 UK chicken shortage, the apology ads rearranged the initials to spell what?
FCK
FCK appeared on an empty bucket in full-page British newspaper ads, above an apology admitting that a chicken restaurant without any chicken is not ideal.
Q 25Britain's 2018 KFC chicken shortage began days after the chain handed its deliveries to which logistics company?
DHL
DHL blamed operational issues for late and incomplete deliveries, and at the worst point more than half of the chain's 900 British outlets were shut.
Q 26Rostic's, the brand that replaced KFC's restaurants in 2023, serves customers in which country?
Russia
Russia had more than 1,000 KFC outlets when the invasion of Ukraine began; the chain pulled out, and the first outlet rebranded as Rostic's opened in central Moscow in April 2023.
Q 27KFC's Krusher range, sold as Krushem in some markets, is what kind of product?
Frozen beverages
Frozen beverages, ice-blended and pitched at teenagers, gave the chain something to sell between mealtimes rather than another side for chicken.
Q 28By 2015, which younger Southern rival had taken KFC's crown as America's top-selling chicken chain?
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A pulled ahead on US sales with a menu built around boneless chicken sandwiches, and KFC's response was to bring Colonel Sanders back to television.
Q 29Harland Sanders once ran a steamboat ferry linking Kentucky to the opposite bank of which river?
Ohio River
Ohio River crossings earned Sanders a small fortune, a rare win in a run of jobs that included streetcar conductor, railroad fireman and insurance salesman.
Q 30What replaces the bun in the Double Down sandwich?
Two fried chicken fillets
Two fried chicken fillets hold bacon, cheese and sauce, yet at 540 calories it came in a little lighter than a fried chicken club sandwich from McDonald's.