There are many theories about what makes KFC's signature fried-chicken menu item so "finger lickin' good" — from the chain's blend of herbs and spices to the chicken it uses and the breading technique it's perfected. One of the biggest reasons KFC's chicken is legendary is that it's cooked in commercial pressure fryers, according to The Takeout.The method cooks the chicken quickly, creating a crisp crust while keeping the meat juicy.KFC's website says founder Colonel Harland Sanders spent nine years perfecting his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, along with the cooking technique the chain still uses today.KFC PLANS TO TEST A NEW PROTOTYPE CALLED OPEN HOUSEThe fast-food giant says its chicken is made "the hard way," with each piece hand-breaded and freshly prepared."Our chicken isn't made the fast way or the easy way," according to KFC.KFC's fried chicken is made with a famously secret blend of 11 herbs and spices — but the real secret, many say, is the cooking method.
(Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune via Getty Images)A 2020 episode of Food Network's "Unwrapped" said the original handwritten Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe — the chain shortened its name to KFC in 1991 — is so secret that it's "locked in a vault along with vials containing samples of all 11 herbs and spices."The restaurant goes so far as to mix half of the spices in one place and the other half somewhere else, with a third party blending them together, a narrator on the show revealed.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTERIn 2016, the Chicago Tribune reported that Sanders' nephew, Joe Ledington, showed a reporter what he claimed was the original recipe from a family scrapbook during a visit to the Harland Sanders Café and Museum.KFC disputed the claim, saying, "Many people have made these claims over the years and no one has been accurate — this one isn't either."KFC uses the same method for frying its chicken that Colonel Harland Sanders pioneered in the 1940s, according to t...