Since the 1940s, people worldwide have been wondering about KFC’s secret recipe for its finger-lickin’ good chicken. One can attempt to recreate the recipe but unless you’ve worked as a kitchen staff at the fast food chain restaurant, you probably wouldn’t come close to replicating the mouth-watering flavour.
Founder Colonel Harland Sanders, famously known as Colonel Sanders, never once shared the secrets publicly and the “Original Recipe” of 11 herbs and spices by the franchise creator remained a mystery for over 8 decades until very recently.
It appears that the cat’s out of the bag. Ladbible recently reported that KFC’s top-secret chicken recipe has been allegedly leaked by an unexpected source: Colonel Sander’s family member. More specifically, his nephew Joe Ledington was the one behind the leak. Apparently, the information was released to the public back in 2016 and has been spreading around ever since.
According to Ladbile, the Colonel’s nephew revealed to a local news outlet that the “Original Recipe” of 11 herbs and spices was actually hidden in a family scrapbook and not in a safe vault (as some might assume). It was reported that the original list of ingredients was written at the back of the last will and testament of his late aunt, Claudia, Harland’s (second) wife.
The list titled “11 Spices — Mix With 2 Cups White Fl” is written as follows:
- 2/3 teaspoon (TS) of salt
- 1/2 TS of thyme
- 1/2 TS of basil
- 1/3 TS of oregano
- 1 TS of celery salt
- 1 TS of black pepper
- 1 TS of dried mustard
- 4 TS of paprika
- 2 TS of garlic salt
- 1 TS of ground ginger
- 3 TS of white pepper
“That is the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so secretive. It could be; I don’t know for sure,” said Joe Ledington. He further explained that the secret main ingredient was white pepper saying that “nobody (in the 1950s) knew what white pepper was. Nobody knew how to use it.”
However, after the news broke out that the recipe has been leaked, KFC responded saying that the list of ingredients is not authentic. According to their statement, the original 1940 handwritten recipe is actually being kept in a locked digital safe with 24-hour surveillance.
