Yep. It’s why I largely gave up on KFC. I found new stores where often good for a few months as the recent opening corporate training (and perhaps initial oversite) kept things consistent. But they all inevitably slide to a coin toss at best.
My experience as well. I prefer properly made KFC, but that became too hard to find. I’m more likely to get properly made Popeye’s. Though in truth I don’t eat Popeye’s much anymore, either. My fried chicken consumption these days is mostly down to the occasional fancy (non-fast food) sandwich. But on the rare occasions I crave quick fried chicken on the bone, I’ll hit Popeye’s. I would actually like to try their flounder sandwich, but apparently it’s a seasonal thing and I’ve never hit a Popeye’s when they’re selling them.
One thing I don’t do is actually make fried chicken. Or deep-fried anything, really. I despise the mess.
Never could stand Church’s - the few times I’ve had it, it was consistently awful. Like Hungry Man Dinner-style fried chicken.
ETA: Oh, yeah - original. But JohnT has a point about buckets. Extra-crispy did hold up better to all the steam.
I noticed on KFC’s website you can get an 8 piece bucket of “Grilled” Chicken. Has anyone tried it? How does it compare to Original Recipe and Extra Crispy?
KC used to be my favorite. But over time it’s been getting greasier and some of the pieces have a mushy texture. There’s a local grocery chain that has good chicken, I’ve been getting mine from there. It’s not nearly as oily and the meat, while tender, isn’t overly soft.
Perhaps it’s just the local outlets and whoever does the cooking there. When I was in the service some mess halls had great food and some…didn’t. They had the same recipes and ingredients available. Maybe it’s like that for the chicken.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) was the first food my gf remembers getting once she had a driver’s license and car. She’d buy her meal, drive home, and savor it in her bedroom.
We’ve seen Southern Culture On The Skids a few times. She goes nuts when they do 8 Piece Box.
I haven’t had KFC in a long time. We don’t have one close enough to make it a regular thing. I chose Original, but I’m sure you will all gasp at this…I take the skin off. I don’t like eating chicken skin. So it doesn’t really matter to me if it’s original or extra crispy. I like the coating, but not the skin.
Board Decorum prevents me from discussing the Abomination that is Extra Crispy. Love me some Original, but it’s too far away and unless they got a ridiculous deal, a poor value.
To me, the whole point of fried chicken of any kind – whether it be with a coating or just fried naked like a proper Buffalo wing – is the fried skin. If I don’t want fried skin, I don’t understand the point of getting fried chicken.
So, I’m generally about the crispy, so I will take the extra crispy every time. Last time I remember getting original recipe, the coating was mushy, as if it was crispy and just sitting around for like an hour or so. And that’s my memory of most of the KFC original recipes I’ve ever had. I’ll take Popeye’s any day over KFC, but Popeye’s here, just like KFC to be honest, is wildly inconsistent. There a local place I go to that fries to order and gets it right every time that I’d rather go to if I’m planning a fried chicken dinner.
It still tastes good from the cooking process. I’d rather have fried chicken with the skin removed than some of the ‘lean healthy’ chicken recipes I’ve seen. There are still very good alternatives for non-fried skinless chicken but maybe not as fast food.
OTOH, as many people have noted, the quality isn’t there anymore so it’s just gambling on rigged table to get KFC and expect the quality some of us ancient people remember from way back in the 1900s. Popeye’s is not much better IME. Someone mentioned greasy Pioneer Chicken. My limited experience with them was the opposite, excellent fried chicken, and they offered a bucket of fried “Lizards and Gizzards”, fried giblets that were delicious. But that was in southern CA and nearly 35 years ago (holy crap! 35 years ago!!!). So for any fast food fried chicken it’s probably just a matter of chance what you get.
Not real popular around here so also a dicey proposition for me. I don’t doubt quality versions are available somewhere though. Smoked chicken is excellent also and many barbecue joints have pulled chicken thigh without the skin. I like chicken skin so don’t look at skinless recipes much but I think a roasted skinless chicken can be done right. Probably start with it all wrapped in foil in the oven for a while, then maybe broil it to brown the outside with a coating of additional seasoning.
We had it around here, Ottawa area, for a few years at least. I tried it when it first came out, and decided I preferred the original. Crispy is nice, but it doesn’t replace flavor, and the Original had more of that.
I don’t know if any of the local shops even still offer it.
I should correct myself - it was never offered in Olden Days. It looks like Canada has had it in more recent times as a promo, including earlier this year.
Funny how age does a number on you. In my twenties that description would have made me hungry. Now in my fifties that visualization makes me slightly nauseous. I still like fat in general and disdain lean meat, but I can’t with absolutely dripping fried stuff anymore. It’s so sad. I have become everything I once hated in a human being !
Buy Grace’s Perfect Blend™. It is the original blend of 11 herbs and spices from a recipe The Colonel gave to his British franchisee. I’ve tasted it and it is the closest thing to the original recipe.
Speaking to this, and I think almost everyone is in agreement, is the whole “Well roasted” or “properly prepared”.
There’s such a world of poorly prepared food, of which I find for some reason, rotisserie chicken is the worst at times, where they can simultaneously be soggy on the exterior (sitting too long, in a plastic clamshell) which being bone dry from overcooking in the interior, while ALSO salty as a salt lick.
Fried chicken has a multitude of ways it can go wrong as well, but rarely have I had quite so many wrongs in a single dish as I have with rotisserie.
But the only fried chicken I’ve purchased recently (not counting sometime relatives or work bought and I ate on site) has been Chester’s, and that’s because it’s relatively decent, and occasionally I’ll get a fresh cooked batch when I’m grocery shopping (it’s at the Deli/Hot food area of my local Kroger). And it’s closer to Extra Crispy than Original in terms of texture.
!