You know that heated shame you get when you accidentally text the person you’re shit-talking, “Nancy’s being such a troll,” instead of the nice thing you were going to say to your other friend about one of your friends? You can’t put it back in the box after you take it out, though. Uncle of Colonel Harland Sanders’ nephew Joe Ledington must be feeling a little bit like that right now.
Ledington’s uncle is the Colonel, as in the man who invented KFC’s original fried chicken recipe. You could call it marketing, but KFC has made a big deal out of how closely guarded the recipe is, even going so far as to sue a couple who claimed to have found a handwritten copy of it.
Ledington, 67, spoke with Chicago Tribune writer Jay Jones about the newly restored Harland Sanders Cafe and Museum in Corbin, Kentucky. Ledington brought along a family scrapbook and leafed through it, remembering his uncle.
Then he got to his aunt’s last will and testament, and shit got really crazy.
Jones noticed handwriting on the back page of the will that appeared to be a recipe. He inquired of Ledington if this was the recipe.
KFC's secret recipe revealed? Tribune shown family scrapbook with 11 herbs and spices https://t.co/k0ieLSbcPI pic.twitter.com/gg3NygwFqN
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) August 19, 2016
“Those are the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so mysterious,” Ledington explained. (He would later retract his statement.)
The recipe was written as follows in the document:
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 oregano 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
Jones followed up with Yum! Brands, KFC’s parent company, to confirm the recipe’s authenticity. They didn’t confirm or deny anything, only saying, “Over the years, many people have claimed to have discovered or figured out the secret recipe, but no one has ever been right.”
OK, then.
“Many people have made these claims over the years, and no one has been accurate — this one isn’t either,” a spokesperson later told the New York Times.
Naturally, the Tribune test kitchen tried the recipe and compared it to the original. “How did you find it? That’s really good. In fact, tasters agreed that the test kitchen’s fried chicken was superior to the Colonel’s, “Joe Gray wrote And when the test kitchen added MSG to that blend of 11 herbs and spices, they had an exact match. This implies that the handwritten recipe on Ledington’s aunt’s will isn’t “accurate,” but it’s close.
So, try it for yourself, or… do what I would do and go for some KFC fried chicken at the drive-through. It’s much simpler.
