# Secret recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-recipe-of-kentucky-fried-chicken-kfc/1217>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 12, 2000, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-recipe-of-kentucky-fried-chicken-kfc/1217 "2000-04-12T09:14:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ament69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@Ament69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ament69)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-recipe-of-kentucky-fried-chicken-kfc/1217/1 "2000-04-12T09:14:00Z")

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I was wondering what the eleven secret herbs and spices on Kentucky Fried Chicken’s (KFC)chicken are?

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-recipe-of-kentucky-fried-chicken-kfc/1217/2 "2000-04-12T14:20:00Z")

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## Is this in response to one of Cecil’s columns?

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-recipe-of-kentucky-fried-chicken-kfc/1217/3 "2000-04-12T15:43:00Z")

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With a little bit of imagination, this could relate to several of Cecil’s columnns!

[How did salt and pepper become the standard table spices?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_051.html)

[Can salt substitute kill you? (17-Dec-1999)](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991217.html)

OK, this one’s a stretch of the imagination; also it’s a mailbag item, not a column.

[Who is the General Tso of “General Tso’s chicken” fame? (27-Dec-1999)](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgentso.html)

To answer the OP, [this article](http://detnews.com/1999/food/0422/lead/lead.htm) claims that the Recipe Detective was able to emulate the Colonel’s recipe.

> [@](#):
>
> That’s when the Recipe Detective met the Colonel, as in Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
> 
> ```
> It was right after Pitzer had included the recipe for the Colonel’s battered chicken in one of her newsletters. She had come up with something very similar to his “11 secret herbs and spices,” but it wasn’t quite right.
> 
> “I was doing a radio show with WFAA in Dallas and the station hooked me up with the Colonel on the air. He said, ‘You don’t need 11 secret herbs and spices, I saw your recipe in the paper, and you can find one package of food in the supermarket that will do the whole thing. Come back next week and tell me what it is.’ “
> 
> “I tried everything in the supermarket that came in a package, and it turned out to be Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix. I added tomato-flavored Lipton Cup of Soup for color and Sanders said, ‘My, you certainly are a detective, aren’t you?’” and that’s how Pitzer got her name, the Recipe Detective.
> 
> ```

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**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-recipe-of-kentucky-fried-chicken-kfc/1217/4 "2000-04-12T16:22:00Z")

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This has been addressed before in General Questions, I believe. I’m moving it there.  
Jill