"Kentucky Fried Chicken" news and stories

Everybody likes free chicken.

And anyone who walked through the doors of KFC Monday got one free piece of grilled chicken in the chain's third "UNFry Day" promotion. KFC is touting the grilled chicken as a healthier alternative to its fried varieties and has launched a Web site for its "Grilled Nation" of "UNfried" chicken eaters.

The previous promotions proved so popular, restaurants ran out of chicken and had to provide rain checks. This time, things seemed to be moving in an orderly fashion.

Slashfood hit the busy lunch hour in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., where diners lined up -- sometimes up to 20 deep -- for free chicken.

KFC Chicken Photo: Sikachu!/flickr

A former Wall Street executive has plucked himself a new career trying to unlock Col. Harland Sander's fried-chicken secret.

Ron Douglas, a former finance director at J.P. Morgan, has been experimenting in the kitchen over the last few years in an attempt to crack KFC's world-famous Original Recipe, the New York Post reports. With his sixth attempt, Douglas thinks he's finally done it.

"Nobody knows what those 11 herbs and spices are, Douglas told the paper. "But if you taste my chicken, you would find the flavor very similar to KFC."

Do you have what it takes to be the next Colonel Sanders?

KFC is searching for a new face for its Kentucky Grilled Chicken (KGC) food line. The fast-food chain is calling for video submissions on its MySpace page through July 7, 2009, in an "Ultimate KGC Fan" contest.

The chicken chain wants entrants to make submissions saying why they should be the new face of the grilled chicken product, which was unveiled in April.

At stake is a lifetime supply of Kentucky Grilled Chicken, which company officials value at $13,000. Semifinalists will be selected on July 25 and the public will have the chance to weigh in on Aug. 1.

The contest comes after KFC came under fire for a botched free Kentucky Grilled Chicken giveaway. Stores ran out of the chicken and diners had to settle for a rain check in May after Oprah Winfrey gave away coupons for a free sample of the new grilled chicken.

But company officials said it was still a win. "The critical thing for us was to get people to eat the chicken, whatever it took," KFC President Roger Eaton told the Associated Press.

Do you remember those Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials from all those years back? You know, the ones that touted the Colonel's secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. Turns out, that blend is such a secret that when the company (now simply known as KFC) realized that the combination of vaults and locks might be a little vulnerable, they hired a security company to beef up the level of protect, and used an armored guard to move the recipe from one location to another. That's one special spice blend. The video of the transfer is after the jump.

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Well, not really.

However, in an effort to woo back customers who have denied the fried for health reasons, the fast food fried chicken joint will start adding grilled chicken to their stores. The chicken will be called Kentucky Grilled Chicken (so it is KGC), but the company will continue to serve its namesake, fried chicken. The new grilled chicken has been and is currently being tested in Indianapolis, Colorado Springs, San Diego, Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, Fla., and Austin, Texas, with plans for the full national rollout in early January 2009.

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