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50 free KFC trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Kentucky Fried Chicken started at a Shell filling station in North Corbin, Kentucky, where a 40-year-old Harland Sanders fed travelers from his own dining table. The recipe he finalized in 1940 is still locked in a vault, the bucket a Utah franchisee dreamed up in 1957 is still the logo, and the company he sold for $2 million in 1964 now trails only McDonald's in worldwide sales. These 50 questions cover the Colonel's early life and his feud with the company that bought him out, the secret recipe and the people who claim to have cracked it, the corporate owners from Heublein to Yum! Brands, the menu around the world, the advertising (including the FCK apology), Christmas dinner in Japan and the cursed baseball statue in Osaka. Easy questions cover the slogans and the bucket; harder ones ask about franchise fees, frying temperatures and naming-rights deals. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a food round.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Where did the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise open in 1952?
South Salt Lake, Utah
Sanders franchised his recipe to his friend Pete Harman, who ran one of the city's largest restaurants.
Q 02Sanders' Original Recipe famously calls for how many herbs and spices?
11
Sanders said the list included salt and pepper and that the rest "stand on everybody's shelf".
Q 03The name "Kentucky Fried Chicken" was coined by a man in which trade?
Sign painter
Don Anderson was hired by franchisee Pete Harman, who wanted a name that sounded exotic and Southern to his customers.
Q 04The original 1957 "bucket meal" held how many pieces of chicken?
14
It came with five bread rolls and a pint of gravy, all packed in a cardboard bucket.
Q 05Sanders sold Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1964 for how much?
$2 million
The deal included a lifetime salary and a job as the company's quality controller and living trademark.
Q 06John Y. Brown Jr., who led the 1964 buyout, went on to hold which office?
Governor of Kentucky
Brown was a 29-year-old lawyer when he bought the company with venture capitalist Jack C. Massey.
Q 07Which Connecticut food and drinks company bought the chain in 1971?
Heublein
Heublein paid $285 million, more than 140 times what Sanders had received seven years earlier.
Q 08In 1982, the chain's then-owner was swallowed by which tobacco giant?
R. J. Reynolds
Reynolds held the chain for only four years before selling it on to pay down debt from buying Nabisco.
Q 09Which soft-drink giant bought the chain in 1986, pairing it with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell?
PepsiCo
The announced price was $850 million; the actual sale that October closed at $840 million.
Q 10KFC's first outlet in China, the first by any Western chain, opened in 1987 in which city?
Beijing
China has since become the company's single largest market, bigger than the United States.
Q 11Tricon Global Restaurants, the 1997 spin-off, was renamed Yum! Brands in which year?
2002
The company had already used YUM as its stock ticker since the 1997 spin-off.
Q 12When the chain adopted its initials in 1991, which word was it trying to play down?
Fried
KFC U.S. president Kyle Craig admitted the move was meant to distance the brand from unhealthy connotations.
Q 13In the United States, each chicken is now divided into how many pieces?
8
Markets that still follow the Colonel's original system, such as the UK, use nine cuts including a keel.
Q 14The chicken is pressure fried in oil at roughly what temperature?
Q 21Which comedian launched the rotating celebrity-Colonel ad campaign in May 2015?
Darrell Hammond
The campaign came as Chick-fil-A had overtaken the chain as the leading chicken seller in the United States.
Q 22Which singer performed the 1972 jingle "Get a bucket of chicken, have a barrel of fun"?
Barry Manilow
It was a Leo Burnett campaign; by 1976 the chain was one of the largest advertisers in the United States.
Q 23Which future fast-food founder turned the bucket into a revolving roadside sign in 1962?
Dave Thomas
Thomas was a franchisee in Columbus, Ohio, before he opened the first Wendy's in 1969.
185 °C
It fries for seven to ten minutes depending on the country, then rests for five before going into the warming oven.
Q 15Company policy is to throw out cooked chicken unsold after how long?
90 minutes
The frying oil itself varies by region, from sunflower and soybean to rapeseed and palm.
Q 16Which spice company is the chain's largest supplier of seasonings and marinades?
McCormick
The same firm finishes the secret blend after another supplier has mixed the first half.
Q 17Which firm produces the first half of the secret blend before a second firm finishes it?
Griffith Laboratories
A signed copy of the recipe sits in a vault at headquarters beside 11 vials of the ingredients.
Q 18In 2016, which newspaper cooked a recipe found in a Sanders family scrapbook?
Chicago Tribune
The handwritten page came from Joe Ledington, a nephew of the Colonel by marriage, who had mixed spices for him as a boy.
Q 19Which country rebranded its outlets back to "Kentucky Fried Chicken" in 2019?
Australia
Departing CEO Andrea Zahumensky later named the bucket, the three stripes and the full name as the brand's luckiest assets.
Q 20Who became the first woman to play Colonel Sanders in the US ads, in 2018?
Reba McEntire
She followed a rotating cast of comedians and actors that included Norm Macdonald, Jim Gaffigan, George Hamilton and Rob Riggle.
Q 24After a 2018 UK chicken shortage, the apology ads rearranged the initials to spell what?
FCK
Hundreds of British restaurants closed temporarily after the switch to a new delivery partner went wrong.
Q 25Which logistics company's mismanagement caused the 2018 British chicken shortage?
DHL
The UK is the chain's largest market in Europe, which made the closures front-page news.
Q 26Under what name were the chain's Russian restaurants rebranded after 2022?
Rostic's
Before the war the chain had over 1,000 outlets in Russia, more than any other Western fast food brand.
Q 27The Krusher/Krushem range launched in 2009 is what kind of product?
Frozen beverages
They come with "real bits" of Kit Kat, Oreo or strawberry shortcake and are sold in over 2,000 outlets.
Q 28Which local soft drink do Peruvian outlets sell alongside the chicken?
Inca Kola
Peru is also one of the few markets where tres leches cake appears on the dessert menu.
Q 29In Greece and Bulgaria, what is served in place of French fries?
Potato wedges
Rice-based sides dominate in much of Asia and the Pacific, and several Eastern European outlets also sell beer.
Q 30What replaces the bun in the Double Down sandwich?
Two fried chicken fillets
Between them sit bacon, cheese and sauce; halal markets swap the bacon for smoked chicken, turkey bacon or hash browns.