# Which national fast-food chain has the best basic Fried Chicken? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927 "2012-01-18T20:14:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/41 "2012-01-19T17:00:25Z")
KFC’s grilled chicken got written up in my nutrition newsletter has the healthiest fast food chicken. Just FYI. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/42 "2012-01-19T17:12:26Z")
Hoping not to disrupt the thread with this sidetrack, but if you look (looked) carefully at the scenes shot in Fort Knox in [Goldfinger (1964)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/) you can see one of the earliest stand-alone KFC joints. Not too long before that KFC was just a franchised product served at local restaurants. I remember the first one in Nashville but I have forgotten the name of the place where it was served as a marquee item. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/43 "2012-01-19T17:15:24Z")
Popeyes, hands down. You know how folks say “everything tastes like chicken”? I do believe that they’re referring to church’s. Just bland as all get out. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/44 "2012-01-19T17:39:32Z")
Not to hijack the thread (or at least, not too much), is there a fast food chain that makes terrible fried chicken but you strangely like it? Perhaps even addicted to? See, we’ve got a local chain restaraunt called Boat n’ Net. They do burgers, fried fish, and fried chicken. The general consensus all over town is that the chicken in particular is pretty bad. Terribly unhealthy. I swear, a quarter of the overall weight is grease. And yet I don’t know anybody that doesn’t agree is a big guilty pleasure. Anybody else experience this odd phenomenon? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/45 "2012-01-19T17:46:55Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Hoping not to disrupt the thread with this sidetrack, but if you look (looked) carefully at the scenes shot in Fort Knox in [Goldfinger (1964)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/) you can see one of the earliest stand-alone KFC joints. Not too long before that KFC was just a franchised product served at local restaurants. I remember the first one in Nashville but I have forgotten the name of the place where it was served as a marquee item. Here’s some support for my memory of things: [KFC - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Fried_Chicken) ---
**Author:** ![jerseymule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jerseymule/32/3155_2.png) [@jerseymule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerseymule)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/46 "2012-01-19T19:07:57Z")
Popeye’s spicy is the best chicken, and their biscuits are great! They don’t need to be buttered because they contain a buttery flavored substance all through. And the beans and rice side dish is excellent. I used to like Kentucky Fried Chicken original recipe, but for many years the so-called original tastes nothing like it used to, now very bland. And the Extra Crispy never had anything great in the flavor department. KFC does have the most tasty coleslaw of any chicken place. I really dislike the blandness of Churches. It looks like fried chicken but maybe because the pieces are too big, tastes blah. A lot of people from my job eat it on Tuesdays when they have a special for real cheap. In St. Louis MO there’s a chain called Lee’s that has some pretty good chicken. They also sell broccoli pasta salad and baked beans as some of the available side dishes. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/47 "2012-01-19T19:41:46Z")
> [@Barking\_Dog](#): > > Not to hijack the thread (or at least, not too much), is there a fast food chain that makes terrible fried chicken but you strangely like it? Perhaps even addicted to? See, we’ve got a local chain restaraunt called Boat n’ Net. They do burgers, fried fish, and fried chicken. The general consensus all over town is that the chicken in particular is pretty bad. Terribly unhealthy. I swear, a quarter of the overall weight is grease. And yet I don’t know anybody that doesn’t agree is a big guilty pleasure. > > Anybody else experience this odd phenomenon? In San Antonio, you spell “Boat 'n Net”, [Bill Miller](http://www.billmillerbbq.com/). 😉 Flavorless fried chicken, yet bizarrely addictive for all the salt you need to put on it to make it palatable. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/48 "2012-01-19T19:49:41Z")
There are still Roy Rogers restaurants somewhere?? I thought they had folded years ago. Used to really like their roast beef sandwiches. (I picked Popeyes…best fast food fried chicken in our area, IMHO) -XT ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/49 "2012-01-19T19:52:39Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > In San Antonio, you spell “Boat 'n Net”, [Bill Miller](http://www.billmillerbbq.com/). 😉 > > Flavorless fried chicken, yet bizarrely addictive for all the salt you need to put on it to make it palatable. 😃 hmm You know, I don’t think I’ve had chicken from Bill Miller. I’ve had turkey, and brisket of course. Think I’ll give a try tomorrow then. For science, of course. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/50 "2012-01-19T23:53:08Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Ooh! Which Ingles, please? Wingles, in West Asheville? Pingles, on Patton Ave? Ningles, in North Asheville? Swingles, out on Swannanoa River Road? Or antoher one? Long Shoals road? Does that sound right? It is near 26… there has been a lot of development in that area in the last couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/51 "2012-01-20T00:02:50Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > There are still Roy Rogers restaurants somewhere?? I thought they had folded years ago. Used to really like their roast beef sandwiches. > > (I picked Popeyes…best fast food fried chicken in our area, IMHO) > > -XT My father and I were driving through Maryland several years ago and it was lunchtime. He spotted a stand-alone Roy Rogers and insisted we eat there. It wasn’t bad, and I can see how the variety of choices could appeal to a family. That said, most of the Roy Rogers I’ve seen since (and all of the ones I’ve eaten at) were in rest stops on toll roads like the PA Turnpike and the NY Thruway. Since when did Albuquerque have a Popeyes? I remember KFC and Church’s, as well as Grandy’s, which was my favorite of the three. And if Roy Rogers counts for this poll, Grandy’s should as well. It’s in just as many states and has more locations. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/52 "2012-01-20T01:27:29Z")
As a side note, I also love me some [Zaxby’s](http://www.zaxbys.com/), which is located primarily in the Southeast and Texas. They do chicken fingers, to order, and they’re absolutely delicious. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/53 "2012-01-20T02:26:33Z")
Of the truly NATIONAL chains in the poll, I’d say KFC, if only because I’m not as familiar with Popeye’s. Many have pointed out that Roy Rogers is a (very small) regional. Bojangles is also regional - pretty much southeast US only (though they have made it as far north as Pennsylvania. Chik-fil-A is ALMOST national (at 39 states), but I don’t think I can count a restaurant where I can’t get a drumstick. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/54 "2012-01-20T04:16:03Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > What Chicago do you live in where Pulaski and Western intersect? 🙂 Oops! I meant Pulaski and **Lawrence**. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/55 "2012-01-20T04:29:13Z")
KFC and Popeyes are the only two I’ve had from that list, and Popeyes wins by a looong shot. Popeyes has a lot more delicious cajuny goodness, and their potatoes and gravy are much more flavorful with a thicker texture–KFC’s taters are pretty much half milk, and the gravy sucks. Plus Popeyes dips their biscuits in frying oil or a pot of butter or something. yummmm ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/56 "2012-01-20T15:40:14Z")
We need a poll from people who’ve had both KFC and Popeyes. I bet Popeyes wins 80/20 in that one! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/57 "2012-01-20T15:53:42Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Hoping not to disrupt the thread with this sidetrack, but if you look (looked) carefully at the scenes shot in Fort Knox in [Goldfinger (1964)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/) you can see one of the earliest stand-alone KFC joints. Not too long before that\*\* KFC was just a franchised product served at local restaurants.\*\* I remember the first one in Nashville but I have forgotten the name of the place where it was served as a marquee item. Not that I’m any oracle of Kentucky Fried Chicken knowledge, but I’ve never heard this before. I just looked up Col. Sanders history on the [KFC website](http://www.kfc.com/about/history.asp) and it seems to support what you’re saying — > [@](#): > > 1952 > The Colonel begins actively franchising his chicken business by traveling from town to town and **cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners and employees**. > [@](#): > > 1955 > An interstate highway is built to bypass Corbin, Kentucky. Sanders sells the service station on the same day that he receives his first social security check for $105. After paying debts owed, he is virtually broke. **He decides to go on the road to sell his Secret Recipe to restaurants.** Yet this is included immediately thereafter: > [@](#): > > 1960 > The Colonel’s hard work on the road begins to pay off and there are 190 KFC franchisees and 400 franchise units in the U.S. and Canada. Would a “franchise unit” be a restaurant licensed to sell the product, but not be a stand-alone Kentucky Fried Chicken? Anyway, I’ll just throw in that I’ve: • Been to the Corbin, Ky., location of the first KFC • Eaten numerous times at Claudia Sanders Dinnerhouse in Shelbyville, Ky., named for the Colonel’s wife. • Met the colonel in person at the state fair • Seen his grave Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. • Met and talked to former Gov. John Y. Brown, who bought and owned the company, several times Gee I’m practically famous myself! I’ll take that Popeye chicken any day, though. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/58 "2012-01-20T16:18:03Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Popeye’s. > > It’s not even close. I heartily agree…and I like the Louisiana cuisine theme of the rest of their offerings, too. Jambalaya, catfish, red beans and rice…love that stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/59 "2012-01-20T16:26:53Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Hoping not to disrupt the thread with this sidetrack, but if you look (looked) carefully at the scenes shot in Fort Knox in [Goldfinger (1964)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/) you can see one of the earliest stand-alone KFC joints. Not too long before that KFC was just a franchised product served at local restaurants. I remember the first one in Nashville but I have forgotten the name of the place where it was served as a marquee item. As a kid growing up in Atlanta, I remember when Davis Brothers Cafeteria started serving Kentucky Fried Chicken long before I ever saw a free-standing KFC. Popeye’s still beats it by a long chalk! ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927/60 "2012-01-20T16:37:48Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Not that I’m any oracle of Kentucky Fried Chicken knowledge, but I’ve never heard this before. I just looked up Col. Sanders history on the [KFC website](http://www.kfc.com/about/history.asp) and it seems to support what you’re saying — > > Would a “franchise unit” be a restaurant licensed to sell the product, but not be a stand-alone Kentucky Fried Chicken? > > I’ll take that Popeye chicken any day, though. 😃 As I have said above, I prefer Popeye’s also. The homage to KFC is more for the history value of fried chicken places and how much is owed to the Colonel for the idea. The “franchise unit” idea I was trying to describe (in Nashville anyway) was where a regular local restaurant (I’ll do some digging to see if I can identify the one here that I saw first) would feature as a menu item “Kentucky Fried Chicken” using Sanders’ recipe. There would be a sign in the window or on the marquee advertising that they had the authority to claim it was honest-to-by-God “Kentucky Fried Chicken” as opposed to some other recipe. At least by the time _Goldfinger_’s Kentucky scenes were filmed, there were stand-alone KFC places. The transition had to have happened before 1964, but exactly when the first KFC joint opened is still a bit of a mystery to me. 🙂 If we go by the timeline at the site you linked to, then > [@](#): > > 1952 > The Colonel begins actively franchising his chicken business by traveling from town to town and cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners and employees. > > The Colonel awards Pete Harman of Salt Lake City with the first KFC franchise. A handshake agreement stipulates a payment of a nickel to Sanders for each chicken sold. > > 1955 > An interstate highway is built to bypass Corbin, Kentucky. Sanders sells the service station on the same day that he receives his first social security check for $105. After paying debts owed, he is virtually broke. He decides to go on the road to sell his Secret Recipe to restaurants. > > 1957 > Kentucky Fried Chicken first sold in buckets > > 1960 > The Colonel’s hard work on the road begins to pay off and there are 190 KFC franchisees and 400 franchise units in the U.S. and Canada. > > 1964 > Kentucky Fried Chicken has more than 600 franchised outlets in the United States, Canada and the first overseas outlet, in England. > > Sanders sells his interest in the U.S. company for $2 million to a group of investors headed by John Y. Brown Jr., future governor of Kentucky. The Colonel remains a public spokesman for the company. I’ll continue trying to find the restaurant I remember being a KFC franchise in the early 60’s, but this article at [The Nashville Scene](http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/failed-fortunes/Content?oid=1184805) includes > [@](#): > > …And to understand Minnie Pearl’s, you have to know a bit about Kentucky Fried Chicken. > > In the 1930s, an eccentric man named “Colonel” Harlan Sanders began selling fried chicken out of the back of his gas station in Corbin, Ky. Two decades later, he began to franchise his secret chicken recipe of 11 herbs and spices. By 1963, the Colonel’s chicken was being sold at over 500 locations, most of which were sit-down restaurants that featured it on the menu. > > However, Sanders didn’t do too much to standardize his operation, advertise it, expand it, or squeeze profits out of it. In 1963, a Nashville businessman named Jack Massey and a Louisville lawyer named John Y. Brown Jr. talked Sanders into selling them his business for $2 million. Massey and Brown moved Kentucky Fried Chicken’s headquarters to Nashville. And after spending a few months studying the business, they began standardizing KFC locations, adding new franchises, and spending a lot of money on advertising. > > At first, the new owners of the company didn’t get along with franchisees that had grown used to the Colonel. But those restaurant owners who stayed with the company, signed new contracts, built new outlets, and acquired stock options eventually would have cause to be very happy about the new program. > > In 1966 and 1967, KFC opened about 300 new outlets. In 1968, it opened about 600. Its earnings—$800,000 in 1965—grew to $12.1 million four years later. Massey and Brown—neither of whom had ever taken a business course in their lives—had revolutionized the restaurant business. By that time, some of KFC’s franchisees had become millionaires. One was Dave Thomas, who would later go on to start a hamburger chain called Wendy’s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-national-fast-food-chain-has-the-best-basic-fried-chicken/609927.md?page=4)