Many news organizations are reporting that KFC will soon offer grilled chicken. From the CBC article:
Kentucky Fried Chicken customers will be greeted eventually by lighted “Now Grilling” signs, starting in coming weeks in select cities in the United States …Storefront signs will be altered to promote the new product — called Kentucky Grilled Chicken. Even the brand’s ubiquitous chicken buckets will get a makeover, though they will still feature the iconic founder Sanders … Doug Hasselo, KFC’s chief food innovation officer, says “This is transformational for our brand.”
No, not transformational. More like complete and utter nonsense, totally ignoring what KFC’s founder would have wanted.
One of the many autobiographies I own is that of Col. Harland Sanders. If alive today, the Col. would have completely pissed, and would have simply removed control of the organization’s “innovation” from Hasselo. Here’s why he would have been pissed, in the Kentucky Colonel’s own words:
Well, every greasy spoon restaurant in the country has fried chicken on its menu and most of them call it Southern fried chicken. It’s fried in the same French fryer as they fry fish, shrimp, and everything else. Well, I didn’t want my chicken to be in that category. So I called mine Kentucky Fried Chciken, way back from its very inception when I first started frying chicken in the state of Kentucky … In the Southeast, we usually season our food more highly than the people in the Midwest or the West. Also, folks in the big cities usually liked thier food cooked in one way, while people in the country another way. But it didn’t seem to make no difference where people came from, they liked my Kentucky Fried Chicken just the way it was … Since then, we have seen this fact demonstrated in many parts of the world where Kentucky Fried franchises have been opened – thirty-three countries in all.
Why do I say the Col. would remove Doug Hasselo from the organization? Again, I’ll let the Col. explain:
Many times I’ve been accused of being a perfectionist. Maybe I am. But I do know how chicken should be fried, and if it’s goona be fried usin’ my special recipe, then it’s got to be done right. I don’t want nobody foolin’ around with his own ideas. [emphasis mine] If he had my franchise then he had to do it my way.
One time Mildred called me on the phone from Newport News, Virginia, to tell me there was a franchisee that wasn’t fryin’ chicken with my equipment. Someone come along and sold him on another type cooker.
At the time I was in Roanoke, so I drove up there, and sure enough there was this inferior equipment. There was also a pile of chicken left over from the night before and it was a horrible mess.
Well, I got there just after daylight. Wasn’t any business in the restaurant, so I backed up my car to the platform, raised the trunk lid, and went through the kitchen.
“Where’s the chicken-frying department?” I asked the first man I see.
“Over there,” he jerked his thumb.
There was the cooker. There was the pile of chicken left over from the night before. So I crawled under the counter and started handin’ the cookers over to my man. He carried them out and put them in the back of the car. Then we got the barrel of spice that I sent him. We took everything that had to do with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Then I got into the front part of the restaurant and find the manager in there smokin’ a cigarette.
“Where’s the owner?” I asked.
“Not here yet.'”
“When he comes, tell him he’s out of the chicken business as far as Kentucky Fried Chicken is concerned. I’ve pulled his cookers, his spices, everything he’s got, and he won’t represent me anymore.”
The Col. physically shut down this franchise, and others like it, for fairly minor infractions against what he founded KFC on.
And then there’s Doug Hasselo, KFC’s “chief food innovation officer”, changing products and storefront signs.
Doug Hasselo, KFC’s “chief food innovation officer.” Chief what? Chief of, “If the Col. were alive today, he’d throw me out on my ass, with my grills not too far behind.”
I guess I’d better get over to a real KFC and get some real, honest, original recipe before these dad-gummed kids run the place right into the ground.
Does kinda take the sport of it.
I completely agree that you shouldn’t mess with the Colonel’s recipe. But honestly, I haven’t eaten at a KFC in years, even though there is one less than a mile from my house, because it’s just soooo bad for you. (And frankly, if I’m going to splurge on a high fat meal, I’ll opt for something tastier). With the popularity of things like the “Baconator” I’m not worried that KFC will stop selling their original recipe. But I do like the idea of getting a bucket of grilled or roasted chicken on the go, especially if they use the same spices that KFC is known for.
I want the ‘good old original’, just like the Colonel intended! LOVE the coating. That special flavor is what makes it unique! Think some people are going a little ‘nutso’ with the healthy eating issues. Just like with everything else…moderation is the key!