KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast-food restaurant based in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the second-largest food chain (as measured by sales), following McDonald’s, which has 22,621 locations worldwide in more than 150 nations as of the end of 2019. This chain belongs to a part of Yum! Brands is a restaurant chain that manages both the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains.
KFC was established in 1890 by Colonel Harland Sanders (1890-1980), an entrepreneur who started selling fried chickens from his restaurant on the road in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders saw the potential of franchising restaurants as a concept, and the first “Kentucky Fried Chicken” franchise was launched in Utah in 1952.
KFC has become a household name in the fast-food sector and diversified markets by contesting the dominance of hamburgers. By using his name as “Colonel Sanders,” Harland became a prominent figure in American historical culture. His image is still widely used in KFC advertisements to this day. But KFC’s rapid growth overcame the ageing Sanders, and he decided to sell it to an investor group headed by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964.
KFC was among the first American fast-food chains to expand internationally, opening locations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Jamaica in the late 1960s. Through the 1970s and into the 1980s, it had uneven fortunes in the United States due to several corporate ownership changes with no or little knowledge of the restaurant business.
In the 1970s, KFC was acquired by the distributor of spirits Heublein and later acquired by R. J. Reynolds tobacco and food conglomerate. The company later transferred KFC to PepsiCo. KFC expanded internationally, but in 1987, it was the only Western food chain to open its doors in China. It has since expanded quickly in China, now the company’s biggest market. PepsiCo separated its restaurant division in the form of Tricon Global Restaurants, which changed its name later to Yum! Brands.
KFC’s signature product is a pressure-fried chicken piece, spiced with Sanders’s signature recipe consisting of “11 spices and herbs”. The ingredients of the recipe are secret to the trade. The more significant portions of fried chicken are served in cardboard “bucket,” which has been a standard feature of KFC since its first introduction by franchisor Pete Harman in 1957.
Since the beginning of 1990, KFC has expanded its menu to include chicken-related products, such as chicken fillet wraps and sandwiches, as well as salads and other side meals like French fries, coleslaw and other side dishes. Desserts and soft drinks. PepsiCo usually supplies the latter. KFC is famous for its catchy slogans such as “It’s Finger Lickin Good! “, “Nobody does chicken like KFC,” and “So good.”