The Real Reason It's So Difficult To Make Authentic KFC At Home

What's the real reason it's so difficult to make authentic KFC at home? For decades, KFC has tantalized taste buds with their one-of-a-kind chicken recipe. Over the years, we've sought out the perfect ways to hack the recipe and create the ultimate copycat chicken at home, with varying degrees of success. 

Additionally, when an alleged official KFC chicken recipe leaked, home cooks tired to recreate the instructions, but the result just didn't measure up to the KFC original (via Rock Recipes). The finger lickin' chicken we've come to know and love presents a few hurdles for even the most daring of home chefs, and one particular challenge lies in the fried chicken's coating.

Cook Jessica Nguyen recently posted a video tutorial on their Instagram page explaining the best way to master this notorious chicken recipe. After a ton of research, Ngyuen tackled the recipe and found that without a deep fryer and digital instant read thermometer, we don't have a good shot of perfectly copying the recipe. They added that KFC creates such a solid product thanks to their industrial equipment that uniformly cooks the food.

While we can end up with a product that tastes incredibly like KFC chicken, getting the right final product takes some time and experimentation. For starters, according to Yahoo! Lifestyle, the chain uses milk and egg powder instead of fresh milk and eggs to achieve their trademark batter's consistency. Additionally, while you can brine your chicken in a bowl for hours, KFC also has access to pressure fryers; these tenderize the chicken as it cooks, resulting in a much quicker product. Once you get past these points, make sure to super blitz your herbs and spices into a fine powder for the optimal amount of chicken coverage when you make your batter.

While the KFC chicken recipe continues to maintain its elusive reputation, don't assume it's completely impossible to master at home. After consulting Nguyen's advice, you too can try your hand at this iconic recipe and at least end up with a delicious fried chicken platter worthy of any occasion. Give this technique a shot and start your journey towards whipping up the ultimate fried chicken that could give the colonel a run for his money.