49 Fun Facts About Fried Chicken

Which part of a chicken wing is sold as a 'drumette'?

A drumette is the meaty upper segment of a chicken wing, next to the shoulder; the middle section is the flat or wingette, and the tip is usually discarded.

Southern fried chicken traces its origins to European deep-frying and the palm-oil-fried chicken of which region?

West African cooks battered and fried chicken in palm oil with their own seasonings, techniques enslaved people brought to the American South.

In which decade was the expression "fried chicken" first recorded?

The phrase 'fried chicken' is first recorded in American English in the 1830s; it became a regular feature of American cookbooks in the 1860s and 1870s.

Which fat is traditionally used to fry Southern fried chicken?

Lard is the traditional frying fat for Southern fried chicken; corn, peanut, canola and soybean oils are common substitutes, and a buttermilk soak is often used first to tenderise the meat.

Which cut of a fried chicken contains the most fat per 100 grams?

Wings, being mostly skin and batter over very little meat, carry the most fat per 100 grams of any fried chicken piece; breast is the leanest cut.

Which Virginia town bills itself as the "Fried Chicken Capital of the World"?

Gordonsville, Virginia, calls itself the Fried Chicken Capital of the World: in the 19th century local Black women sold fried chicken through train windows at its rail junction.

Which Ohio town gives its name to a style of fried chicken created by Serbian immigrants?

Barberton chicken is served with hot sauce, vinegar slaw and fries in the same restaurants that have made it since the 1930s.

How many herbs and spices are in KFC's Original Recipe, according to its marketing?

KFC advertises 11 herbs and spices; Sanders said they included salt and pepper and the rest 'stand on everybody's shelf', and the written recipe was locked in a vault in Louisville.

In which state is North Corbin, where Colonel Sanders first sold fried chicken from a filling station?

Kentucky's North Corbin station came rent-free from Shell in 1930, and he first served travellers at his own dining table.

In which state was Colonel Sanders actually born?

Indiana, near Henryville, in 1890; he was cooking for his siblings by the age of seven after his father died.

What cooking method did Sanders patent for his chicken, which cooked it faster than a skillet?

He finalised the method in July 1940 at age 50; the Broaster Company later marketed the same idea as broasting.

Sanders received his honorary colonel's commission in 1935 from which governor?

Governor Ruby Laffoon made Sanders a Kentucky colonel in 1935; Governor Lawrence Wetherby recommissioned him in 1950, after which he adopted the goatee, string tie and white suit.

Where did the first franchise of Sanders' chicken recipe open in 1952?

The first franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952 at one of the city's biggest restaurants; the owner's sign painter Don Anderson coined the name Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Which franchisee introduced KFC's bucket in 1957 and trademarked "It's finger lickin' good"?

Pete Harman, the Salt Lake franchisee, launched the bucket in 1957, 14 pieces of chicken, five bread rolls and a pint of gravy, and registered 'It's finger lickin' good'.

For how much did Sanders sell his chicken company to John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack Massey in 1964?

Sanders sold the company for $2 million in 1964 plus a lifetime salary, keeping the Canadian operations; Brown and Massey sold it on to Heublein in 1971 for $285 million.

Sanders publicly described KFC's later gravy as "sludge" with a "wallpaper taste", prompting what?

Heublein lost the 1975 case; Sanders had also been known to push disappointing food onto the floor during surprise restaurant visits.

In what year did Kentucky Fried Chicken officially adopt the shorter name KFC?

1991's change was, its US president admitted, meant to distance the chain from the unhealthy connotations of the word fried.

Which company bought KFC from R. J. Reynolds in 1986 and later spun it off into Yum! Brands?

PepsiCo already owned Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, and the three chains still share a parent in Yum! Brands.

KFC opened its first outlet in China in November 1987, in which city?

KFC's first Chinese outlet opened beside Tiananmen Square in Beijing's Qianmen district in November 1987, the first Western fast-food chain in the country.

In Japan, KFC is famously eaten on which holiday, thanks to a long-running 1974 advertising campaign?

Christmas KFC took off with the 1974 'Kentucky for Christmas' campaign, after Takeshi Okawara, manager of Japan's first store, had sold party barrels as a stand-in for turkey.

Fans of which Japanese baseball team threw a Colonel Sanders statue in a river in 1985?

The Curse of the Colonel held that the Tigers would not win the Japan Series again until the statue was recovered; it was pulled from the Dotonbori canal in 2009.

Popeyes opened in 1972 in a suburb of which city?

Al Copeland opened Popeyes in Arabi, a suburb of New Orleans, in 1972; his first attempt, Chicken on the Run, had failed within months before he relaunched it as Popeyes Mighty Good Chicken.

Founder Al Copeland claimed Popeyes was named after which character?

Copeland said the name came from Detective Popeye Doyle in The French Connection, released the year before; the chain nonetheless licensed the cartoon sailor as its mascot for years.

Which owner of Tim Hortons and a big burger chain bought Popeyes for $1.8 billion in 2017?

Restaurant Brands International, owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons, paid $1.8 billion, or $79 a share, for Popeyes in 2017.

Why are all Chick-fil-A restaurants closed on Sundays?

Founder Truett Cathy's belief in honouring the Sabbath closes every store; the devout Southern Baptist said it honoured God, and stores also shut on Christmas Day and Thanksgiving.

Where did the first dedicated Chick-fil-A restaurant open in 1967?

A shopping mall food court in Atlanta, at Greenbriar Mall; before that the sandwich had been licensed to more than 50 outlets, including Waffle House and the Astrodome's concession stands.

Which animals hold the misspelled "Eat Mor Chikin" signs in Chick-fil-A's advertising?

Holstein cows have carried the misspelled signs since The Richards Group created the 'Eat Mor Chikin' campaign in 1995, the joke being that cows want people eating chicken instead of beef.

Nashville hot chicken is traditionally served on top of what?

Nashville hot chicken is brushed with a cayenne-and-lard paste after frying and served on slices of white bread with pickle chips, which soak up the spicy fat.

According to legend, hot chicken was invented when Thornton Prince's girlfriend did what?

Prince liked it so much he and his brothers opened the Bar-B-Que Chicken Shack in the 1930s; his great-niece still runs Prince's today.

Which conflict's aftermath introduced deep-fried chicken to South Korea via the US military?

Fried chicken reached Korea with the US troops stationed there after the Korean War; it took off in the 1970s once cooking oil was widely available, and chimaek pairs it with beer.

In which city did Yun Jonggye create yangnyeom chicken in 1982?

Yun Jonggye created yangnyeom chicken in Daegu in 1982 after noticing customers scraping their palates on the hard crust, softening it with a sweet-spicy glaze.

What does the Japanese word karaage literally mean?

Karaage is written with the characters for Tang China and deep-frying, so 'Chinese deep-fry'; the kara can also be written as 'empty', which is why it is often read as frying without batter.

Which Japanese prefecture, home to the cities of Usa and Nakatsu, is the heartland of chicken karaage?

Oita Prefecture in Kyushu is karaage country: Usa claims the dish's postwar origin and neighbouring Nakatsu calls itself the 'karaage capital', with dozens of specialist shops.

Buffalo wings are usually said to have been invented in 1964 at which bar?

Teressa Bellissimo of Buffalo's Anchor Bar is usually credited with frying wings, then a throwaway cut, as a late-night snack in 1964 and tossing them in hot sauce.

Besides vinegar-based cayenne hot sauce, what is the other main ingredient of classic Buffalo wing sauce?

Melted butter goes in with the hot sauce; the wings are served with celery and carrot sticks and a blue cheese or ranch dip.

The soul food version of chicken and waffles took off after which restaurant opened in Harlem in 1938?

Wells Supper Club, opened in Harlem in 1938, served fried chicken and waffles to jazz musicians arriving between dinner and breakfast; the older Pennsylvania Dutch version uses stewed chicken and gravy.

Which Cornell University professor developed the chicken nugget in the 1950s?

Robert C. Baker called them Chicken Crispies and published the work without a patent, decades before McDonald's McNuggets.

Which Texas town claims to be the birthplace of chicken-fried steak?

The dish is usually credited to German and Austrian immigrants adapting Wiener schnitzel, and Lamesa holds an annual celebration.

Which Filipino chain, famous for Chickenjoy chicken, began as an ice cream parlour in 1975?

Jollibee began as Tony Tan Caktiong's Magnolia ice cream parlour in Quezon City in 1975; hot meals outsold the ice cream and the shop became a fast-food chain in 1978.

Raising Cane's is named after what?

The first restaurant, nicknamed the Mothership, opened by the north gate of LSU in 1996, and yellow Labs still serve as mascots.

Church's Chicken was founded in 1952 across the street from which landmark?

George W. Church Sr., a retired chicken-incubator salesman, opened Church's Fried Chicken To-Go in 1952 across the street from the Alamo in San Antonio.

Which New Hampshire restaurant is credited with inventing chicken tenders in 1974?

The Puritan Backroom in Manchester is credited with the first chicken tenders in 1974, when Charlie Pappas marinated trimmed-off breast scraps in pineapple juice and fried them.

Which fast food chain was the first major one to sell a grilled chicken sandwich, in 1990?

Burger King's BK Broiler, launched in 1990, was the first grilled chicken sandwich from a major chain; Chick-fil-A's fried original dates to 1964.

Which chicken wing chain was founded in Garland, Texas, in 1994?

Wingstop was founded in Garland, Texas, in 1994 by Antonio Swad, who had started Pizza Patrón eight years earlier, and Bernadette Fiaschetti; it began franchising in 1997.

Chicken Kiev is a pounded chicken fillet rolled around what before being breaded and fried?

Cold butter melts inside; cut into it and the butter runs out, which is why some restaurants warn diners before the first bite.

Which 1736 English cookbook by Nathan Bailey mentions fried chicken as 'a marinade of chickens'?

Nathan Bailey's Dictionarium Domesticum, a 1736 household dictionary, includes 'a marinade of chickens', an early English fried-chicken recipe; Hannah Glasse printed a similar one in 1747.

Fried chicken earned the Southern nickname 'gospel bird' from being served on which day?

Chicken became the South's 'gospel bird' because a bird was killed for Sunday dinner after church, the week's one big meal, when the preacher might come to eat.

Why does dipping chicken in buttermilk before frying help tenderise the meat?

Marination or a buttermilk dip usually precedes the flour dredge; the flour then browns with the chicken's juices into a flavourful crust.

What replaced the bread in KFC's 2010 Double Down sandwich?

KFC's Double Down, launched across the US in April 2010, sandwiched bacon, cheese and sauce between two fried chicken fillets instead of a bun.