--- title: How KFC Chicken is made description: In a new interview, KFC defended its cooking practices and claimed that fast food is “misunderstood.” canonical: https://time.com/4837014/kfc-reveals-how-chicken-cooked/ author: Food Wine article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-28T16:50:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:58.273Z og:title: KFC Explains How its Chicken Is Cooked og:description: KFC defended its cooking practices and claimed that fast food is 'misunderstood' og:url: https://time.com/4837014/kfc-reveals-how-chicken-cooked/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7caa9cf86187a6/6988d3b4e76ad2583462e21f/kentucky-fried-chicken.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: KFC Recipe Challenge og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: KFC Explains How its Chicken Is Cooked twitter:description: KFC defended its cooking practices and claimed that fast food is 'misunderstood' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7caa9cf86187a6/6988d3b4e76ad2583462e21f/kentucky-fried-chicken.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # KFC Explains How its Chicken Is Cooked > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Elizabeth Sherman / Food and Wine](https://time.com/author/food-wine/) ## Elizabeth Sherman / Food and Wine Jun 28, 2017 4:50 PM UTC  We didn't taste much of a difference between Kentucky Fried Chicken, right, and the fried chicken, left, on wire rack, we made in our test kitchen using a recipe that may - or may not - be Colonel Sanders' secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. We didn't taste much of a difference between Kentucky Fried Chicken, right, and the fried chicken, left, on wire rack, we made in our test kitchen using a recipe that may - or may not - be Colonel Sanders' secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune—Getty Images by [Elizabeth Sherman / Food and Wine](https://time.com/author/food-wine/) ## Elizabeth Sherman / Food and Wine Jun 28, 2017 4:50 PM UTC In a new interview with [News.com.au](http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/what-really-happens-in-the-kitchen-at-kfc/news-story/afd3f8d79bc0e4e1e15a932cec31936d?utm%5Fcontent=SocialFlow&utm%5Fcampaign=EditorialSF&utm%5Fsource=News.com.au&utm%5Fmedium=Facebook), [KFC](http://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/secrets/real-colonel-sanders-hated-everything-kfc-became) defends its cooking practices. The new managing director for the chain’s South Pacific region told the Australian newspaper that fast food is “misunderstood.” Her comments come just after Cancer Council Australia called for fast food chains to start labeling their products with health ratings. “There’s a perception that, because it’s fast food, it’s going to arrive pre-cooked and then it gets thrown in a fryer and then served up,” Lawson told the newspaper. “The art of cooking that goes on is something that gets misunderstood.” Lawson took writer Dana McCauley behind the scenes, where she gave her a detailed break down of how KFC’s [chicken](http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/chicken) is fried. First, the fillets, which apparently come out the refrigerator fresh, are dunked in a bucket of cold water. “We dip it in there because it just helps the flour adhere to the chicken,” Lawson explains. Then the fillets are covered in the breading mix, and then loaded onto a rack that is lowered into a vat of hot oil. “The secret is the spice mix — our own people don’t know the recipe,” she says. Lawson hopes that her explanation will help dispel the myth KFC’s food comes to its kitchens frozen or pre-fried. Recently, fast food chains have been taking steps to make their food at least _seem_ healthier: [McDonald’s](http://www.foodandwine.com/news/mcdonalds-official-big-mac-merch-surprisingly-stylish) recently announced they’ll be switching to [fresh beef](http://www.foodandwine.com/news/fresh-beef-adding-whole-minute-quarter-pounder-wait-times-mcdonalds) in their burgers, while several other chicken producers and fast food chains, including KFC, have vowed to stop using [antibiotics](http://www.foodandwine.com/news/burger-king-to-end-use-of-antibiotics-in-chickens) in their chicken supply. While it might be a relief to hear that KFC fires their chicken by hand, that doesn’t exactly mean it’s healthy: The Zinger burger, for instance, which is made with a fried chicken patty, still packs 18 grams of fat. Sure, it’s a good sign that mass-production restaurants are taking a little more care in their preparation. But given the reputation of convenience food chains, forgive us if we still order our bucket of chicken with a heaping side of skepticism. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4837014/kfc-reveals-how-chicken-cooked/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4837014/kfc-reveals-how-chicken-cooked/"},"headline":"KFC Explains How its Chicken Is Cooked","datePublished":"2017-06-28T16:50:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:58.273Z","description":"KFC defended its cooking practices and claimed that fast food is \"misunderstood\"","url":"https://time.com/4837014/kfc-reveals-how-chicken-cooked/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","Cooking","health","Business"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7caa9cf86187a6/6988d3b4e76ad2583462e21f/kentucky-fried-chicken.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Sherman / Food and Wine"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7caa9cf86187a6/6988d3b4e76ad2583462e21f/kentucky-fried-chicken.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"KFC Recipe Challenge","caption":"KFC Recipe Challenge","creditText":"Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4837014/kfc-reveals-how-chicken-cooked/","name":"KFC Explains How its Chicken Is Cooked"}}]}] ```