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from the store-with-Mrs.-Field's-cookie-recipe dept.
The Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain, now a division of Yum! Brands and rebranded KFC, has long used the proprietary nature of its seasoning blend, purportedly containing "eleven herbs and spices," as a selling point.
A Chicago Tribune travel reporter was assigned to visit and write about the Harland Sanders Cafe and Museum. A member of the family of the founder of the chain showed the reporter a deceased aunt's photo album and her will, on the back of which the following recipe had been written:
11 Spices – Mix With 2 Cups White Fl.
1) 2/3 Ts Salt
2) 1/2 Ts Thyme
3) 1/2 Ts Basil
4) 1/3 Ts Origino (sic) [sic]
5) 1 Ts Celery Salt
6) 1 Ts Black Pepper
7) 1 Ts Dried Mustard
8) 4 Ts Paprika
9) 2 Ts Garlic Salt
10) 1 Ts Ground Ginger
11) 3 Ts White Pepper
Reporters prepared some chicken using breading made with the recipe. However, the flavour differed from that of the chicken served at KFC. When MSG was sprinkled on the chicken, the flavour became similar to KFC's chicken. A KFC spokesperson confirmed to the Tribune that the company uses MSG.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @04:13AM
Some ingredients that recipes tell you to add to the mixes causes the crust to blacken. I know paprika is one. Not sure if its a variety issues or what.
My parents when through a phase of experimenting with a wide variety of ingredients, techniques and recipes. Early on we owned a takeaway that served chicken and many people preferred our "dry coating" version to the greasy KFC one. (a pure flour mix without the double coating) They also thought the flavor was identical to KFC.
The truth is that most of the ingredients are bullshit and do VERY little to the flavor. At best some effect color and a small amount of texture. There IS a difference, but it is so subtle as to be irrelevant.
The main flavor ingredients are: Pepper, Salt and MSG.
People will disagree but I will call bullshit as we have done the experiments. There is a lot of emotional mythos around this stuff.
The "secret" ingredient in KFC is the pressure fryer they use to really bake in that oil. (Experiment: take some KFC batter in your fingers and squeeze hard - now try not to feel ill) Its not something easily replicated at home and inadvisable as pressure fryers can be very dangerous. You can get great, less greasy results without it.
Having your oil below 185 will always be a bad thing with this sort of cooking - most noticeably greasiness. A common mistake is to have too little oil with too much chicken which causes the temp to drop too low and never recover. Or not let the chicken reach room temp before breading and frying. You can also use a dutch oven or cast iron skillet to aid with heat loss.
We had a commercial, purpose built deep fryer so it was never a problem.
And if you want really juicy chicken you have to use fresh chicken. :)