FOOD NEWS
The Sad Way KFC Lost Its 'Perfect' Original Gravy Recipe
By Kalea Martin
Unlike the fried chicken KFC offers, the gravy served by the chain today isn't the same as the "finger-lickin' good" gravy that founder Harland Sanders originally came up with.
As business grew, and more and more locations opened, Sanders's gravy recipe proved to be entirely unsustainable for fast food service.
A KFC spokesperson told The New Yorker in 1970, "It involved too much time, it left too much room for human error, and it was too expensive."
Although Sanders personally disliked the new gravy, there was nothing
he could do to change it, as he had already sold the company, only remaining on the board of directors.
Per a self-identified KFC employee on TikTok, the new gravy contains chicken cracklings, which are combined with water and powdered gravy mix, whisked, and heated in a microwave.
Chicken cracklings are typically made from fried chicken fat trimmings, but the TikTok clip shows that KFC's cracklings consist of the debris that falls
to the bottom of the fryer.