This week while KFC was hawking chicken sunscreen, a reporter from the Chicago Tribune stumbled upon the fried chicken giant’s 80-year-old top-secret family recipe — by accident.
It all started out as a standard travel story. In an interview with Joe Ledington (Colonel Sanders’s nephew), the Tribune’s Jay Jones was handed a family scrapbook where lo and behold: he found a precisely measured recipe that contained 11 herbs and spices.
And while this could very well be the greatest inadvertent food scoops in food media history, a lot can change in 80 years. To rephrase: the Colonel isn’t the only source for finger-lickin’ good chicken. Advancements: there’ve been a few.
So skip the secrets altogether for these tastier fried bird recipes.
Nashville-Style Hot Chicken
This bird bites back thanks to six tablespoons of cayenne pepper. The result is a melt-your-face-off spice blend that won’t disappoint in heat or crispy crunch. Get the full recipe at Bon Appetit
Korean Fried Chicken Wings
This recipe is a perfect game-day side, but let’s be real: it’s craveable enough to have any day of the week. The spicy ginger-soy glaze comes with a good kick, but the subtlety is balanced by a touch of honey. You can’t get that complexity with a bucket meal. Get the full recipe at Food52
Southern Fried Chicken
If you can’t quit KFC, you’ll wanna try this similar recipe. Not only will it produce a crispier batch of bird, it’ll take you further in the juicy department, because this one is all about technique. Read: a better buttermilk brine and also the fact that you fry the chicken in hot fat and finish it off in the oven. Get the full recipe at Serious Eats
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