Why People Are Refusing To Use KFC's Gravy

Do we really want to know how the sausage is made? And by sausage, we mean anything that you can get off a fast food menu. A viral TikTok video showing an employee making Chick-fil-A's lemonade over the summer caused people to swear off the drink after they saw how much sugar went into it. (Those people apparently didn't realize how much sugar goes into regular lemonade.) 

Now, we have a behind-the-scenes look at a KFC kitchen in the UK, where an employee showed us how to make the fried-chicken chain's signature gravy. The video, posted to TikTok, shows the gravy's base ingredient is a dark brown sludge of chicken bits that comes off the filters at the bottom of the deep fryer. "This is not (poop emoji), it's called crackling," TikTok user @cheddar4.7 put in text over their video. The employee adds water, flour, and spices, and then heats it all up and strains it to create the sturdy brown gravy KFC customers are so familiar with.

The TikTok video, posted September 29, has been viewed more than 590,000 times and has received thousands of comments. Several commenters were put off KFC's gravy for life. "I wish I never saw this," @aishiekay said.

Other commenters wondered why anyone was shocked by KFC's gravy-making. If the video showed anything, they said, it was that KFC gravy is homemade. "It's nice to know actual chicken/chicken bits go into it rather than just some artificially flavoured instant gravy," a TikTok user said. Another user added, "None of the product is wasted here, it's pretty cool actually." The person who started the whole controversy even came to KFC's defense. When one commenter said they would never have KFC's gravy again, the video's creator responded, "It's actually made in a clean way. I still have it so why shouldn't you?"

KFC's gravy-making process has been exposed before. A former KFC worker told the same story on Quora more than a year ago. He said the gravy left him traumatized. "That gravy is anything but gravy. It's horrid. I just pray you never have to see the sludge (from the fryers) I handled during the morning shifts." Back in 2017, another former employee referred to KFC's gravy made with cracklings as the "good gravy," compared to the powdered gravy employees made when no fryer sludge was available (via Unilad).

So the secret to KFC's gravy has been known for a while. We just need to get someone to give up those 11 herbs and spices.