Kentucky Grilled Chicken

[Lee]

From Yahoo:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Would KGC ever have the same ring?

In a culinary gambit backed by buckets of big money, KFC is hoping to replicate its founder's recipe for success with the national introduction of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

This week's rollout is KFC's most ambitious attempt to win over health-conscious customers as the chain known worldwide for fried chicken tries to reinvigorate lackluster U.S. sales.

"It's going to get people who haven't eaten KFC for a long time to come back into our restaurants," said KFC President Roger Eaton. "It's going to get people who have never eaten KFC to come into our restaurants."

Eaton says he spent years as part of the team tinkering with a grilled alternative, and the rollout follows KFC's longest market test ever. It will be backed by a marketing blitz.

Grilled chicken items are staples at some KFC competitors. McDonald's Corp. offers grilled chicken in sandwiches and wraps, and says chicken sales "continue to be extremely good." McDonald's has also recently been emphasizing its new Southern Style Crispy Chicken sandwich, which is fried. Chick-fil-A says its Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich "continues to grow rapidly" as part of a menu offering "balanced choices" for customers.

KFC's slow-grilled chicken drew strong reviews from the lunchtime crowd Monday at a KFC restaurant in Louisville, the chain's hometown. Eddie Collard proclaimed grilled better than fried.

"I think the colonel would be happy," Collard said of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders.

Like its predecessor, Kentucky Grilled Chicken has its own secret recipe. The original copy of the recipe — a blend of six herbs and spices — will be kept in an electronic safe at company headquarters. It will sit alongside Sanders' handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices coating the chain's Original Recipe fried chicken.

The difference is in the nutritional numbers.

KFC says each piece of its grilled chicken has 70 to 180 calories and four to nine grams of fat. By contrast, the Original Recipe items have between 110 and 370 calories and 7 to 21 grams of fat, depending on the piece. The grilled chicken contains from 160 to 440 milligrams of sodium per piece, as opposed to 290 to 1,050 milligrams of sodium per piece of Original Recipe chicken.

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based advocate for nutrition and health, called the grilled introduction a "major step in the right direction."

While applauding the reduction in sodium, Jacobson said the 440 milligrams listed by KFC in a grilled chicken breast still amounts to more than one-fourth the amount that someone middle aged or older should consume daily.

KFC has launched non-fried chicken before, but each prior initiative flopped. In the early 1990s, it introduced a rotisserie-style chicken that fell by the wayside due to equipment problems and long cooking times. A tender roast product followed but lasted only a couple of years.

Eaton said the difference this time is partly in the cooking process. Chicken is cooked on grill racks in custom-designed ovens in a patented process that takes about 20 minutes per batch.

The grilled chicken rollout is offered only at KFC stores in the United States, though Eaton said the product may eventually expand to international markets.

KFC had 5,166 U.S. stores at the end of 2008. All but about 100 franchise stores are selling grilled chicken, the company said. Some stores couldn't fit the oven into their kitchens, and in other cases franchisees opted not to sell the product, the company said.

KFC won't say how much the ovens cost, but Eaton said the company helped franchisees with the expense and would have made such an investment only if it was "incredibly confident about the outcome."

Larry Miller, a restaurant analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said expanding beyond its fried staple offers a huge opportunity for KFC. But perceptions won't be easy to change.

"They still have the credibility barrier to overcome," Miller said. While achievable, "it's tough when your name has 'fried' in the middle."

In late 2008, Yum Brands Chairman and CEO David C. Novak said KFC had been a drag on the company's U.S. performance while sister brands Pizza Hut and Taco Bell had a good year.

Miller said this week that Yum would hit "the trifecta" if it turns around KFC's U.S. sales.

Mike Ash, who ate a grilled chicken lunch at the Louisville KFC, remembered the rotisserie chicken as "mushy and bland." He liked the new grilled offering, having picked it to the bone.

He said he might be more apt to pick up a bucket of chicken on his way home, though he predicted he might still "fall off the wagon every now and then" and choose the fried option.

The grilled chicken will cost the same as Original Recipe chicken. KFC will offer customers a free piece of grilled chicken on April 27.

But the push for grilled chicken doesn't mean KFC is abandoning its roots, Eaton said. The chain is testing new fried chicken products, and remains committed to its core product.

"It would be incredibly arrogant to think we could create a product that could supersede Original Recipe chicken," Eaton said. "But this product is easily good enough to sit alongside it."

[AmpedNow]

I'm not a big fried chicken eater, but about once every 2-3 months, I get a craving for crispy fried chicken, skin and all. And lots of it.

Not to mention I could make a meal out of their buttermilk biscuits and mashed taters and gravy by themselves...

I know exactly where to find it.

KFC rings better than "KGC", too.

As long as they don't replace the crispy chicken buckets with $10 grilled chicken breasts, I guess it's not a big deal.

I just get the feeling that in 20 years, we'll all be eating steamed salmon and rice cakes, whether we want to or not...

And telling our grandchildren about the good ol' days before fried chicken was declared a public health hazard and banned.

"Why, yes! Back then, you could even eat it in public! Beside other people!"

[Hoosier Daddy]

Why not re-brand the whole business as "Colonel Sanders" (similar to 'Bob Evans')? The Colonel's face is one of the most recognized trademarks in America already. Or maybe change the meaning of the letters to "Kentucky's Finest Chicken", allowing the door to open to a variety of fried and grilled chicken products. All relatively easy to do since the framework and the familiarity is already there.

[Scott Reppert]

Why not just get a Popeye's within reasonable driving distance of Morgantown? The highlight of my recent trip to Reston, VA was getting to stop at the Martinsburg Popeye's. I got there right at noon on a Sunday, beat the "late gettin' out of church" crowd and here was my meal:

2 side orders of Cajun Rice
1-Family Size order of onion rings
1-side order of red beans and rice
1-side order of cole slaw
1-Diet Coke

Now keep in mind, this is an "old-school" Popeye's that still has onion RINGS. I passed up six newer Popeye's on the way from Reston to Martinsburg, because I knew that they had the "onion STRAWS"...which suck. Popeye's that have onion RINGS actually batter them and fry them WHEN ORDERED.

It all comes back to John Conrad for President and the "Fry Daddy", now, doesn't it?

[Bob Campbell]

Hey! You forgot the dessert. One large order of diahrrea!

[Force Commander]

As long as they don't replace the crispy chicken buckets with $10 grilled chicken breasts, I guess it's not a big deal.

I don't know if this is nationwide, but my local KFC says extra crispy chicken has been discontinued. I went there about 3 months ago and ordered a 3 piece boneless dinner of chrispy. The low paid worker said to me "I'm sorry sir, we have discontinued extra cripsy, would you like original?" Upon further conversation she told me that KFC itself ordered the discontinuation. Whether that is true or not nationally I don't know but I can't purchase extra crispy here.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Extra Crispy rocked.

[Scott Reppert]

Last time I checked, the Greensburg, PA KFC still had BARBEQUED CHICKEN meals. Not strips. Not "Snackers". Not "boneless wings". Actual barbequed chicken. I don't eat at KFC every week or month, but I go there and pick stuff up for others and I have NEVER seen that anywhere else but Greensburg.

As a real "memory flogger", I can remember that prior to there being a Long John SIlver's in town, the Weston KFC had a fish dinner. It was like Long John's fish fried with KFC original recipe batter on it.

Now, cue Bob with the diarrhea comment...

[Lee]

They better not get rid of Extra Crispy...I'll choke a chicken.

[AmpedNow]

Popeye's is one of the things I miss most about VA... Red beans & rice.

You would think them, and every other fried chicken chain in the country would be all over WV, since it is the unofficial state food.

[Lee]

As much as Kenny Rogers comes to the Huntington Civic Center it's a wonder there's no Kenny Rogers Fried Chicken store IN the Civic Center...

[The Interpreter]

a. Had the grilled chicken today. It was really, really good. Honest.

b. The Weston KFC (the old one before they tore it down and replaced it) had excellent barbecued chicken. The fish place was called H.Salt Fish & Chips, and was a KFC subsidiary. They also owned Zantigo, which had excellent fast food Mexican. Both are long gone.

[Bob Campbell]

If you really love fried chicken, the next time you're near Akron, go to the suburb of Barberton (when I worked in Akron we called it Barbertucky and the northern capitol of WV). There are at least a half dozen fried chicken joints, local, not chains. They have a saying, "If you don't like Barberton chicken, get the cluck out".
Good stuff. Diarrhea and all.

[Arp2]

I'm not a big fried chicken eater, but about once every 2-3 months, I get a craving for crispy fried chicken, skin and all.

Ditto!

I can already tell I'm going to like this, but I have a question: why does this have any sodium, at all?

Something's happened to me...my taste has changed somewhat, and I am now very sensitive to the taste of salt in foods and just about freak out when it's even moderately high. I still eat and love salty snacks, sure, but just about freak out with other foods. For a few years, I've not put salt in or on anything I've cooked, so I know for sure that an herbed-and-spiced chicken breast (or eggs or burgers or anything else) can be absolutely excellent with not one grain of salt and wonder why KFC didn't get that done.

Why not re-brand the whole business as "Colonel Sanders" (similar to 'Bob Evans')? The Colonel's face is one of the most recognized trademarks in America already....All relatively easy to do since the framework and the familiarity is already there.

That's the problem -- that familiarity and recognizability is a huge obstacle. That's why a company will often just create a new brand....rebranding often results not in a change of perception but in the same or a confused perception accompanied by a shrinking in the usage of the brand.

And "Colonel" is hard to spell. Heck, I use my memory of LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes to be able to do it....

Or maybe change the meaning of the letters to "Kentucky's Finest Chicken", allowing the door to open to a variety of fried and grilled chicken products.

Wasn't that tried? I seem to recall seeing a smiling David Novak telling us it now (then) means (meant) "Kitchen-Fresh Chicken!"

[The Interpreter]

Meanwhile, the promotional signs and the website now proudly proclaim:

KENTUCKY GRILLED CHICKEN

Not ashamed of the K anymore, I suppose...

http://www.kfc.com

[Hoosier Daddy]

Wow. That website workover is a marketing company's wet dream.
Video and music.
Trendy, with sort of a Cosby Show theme.
Of course, the multicultural assortment of perfectly sculpted beautiful people enjoying their KFC rounds it out.
Somebody paid Big Bucks for the new paint.

We shall see if the product lives up to its hawking.

[genlock]

Didn't appear to be a re-branding, just intro of a new product.
Like McRib or something.

[Arp2]

Wow. That website workover is a marketing company's wet dream.
Video and music.
Trendy, with sort of a Cosby Show theme.
Of course, the multicultural assortment of perfectly sculpted beautiful people enjoying their KFC rounds it out.

Do you have any idea how many times I've looked at radio station websites and thought, "Your listeners do not look like that! No one in this town looks like that! You can't even get that look here, can you?!"

[genlock]

I may go to Hardee's today and buy one of the big burgers today just because of their new commercial.
The one with Padma Lakshmi eating said burger.
http://gawker.com/5185737/padma-lakshmi ... r-sex-tape

[herdgirl72]

My dad had congestive heart failure and had to be really careful of the sodium in foods, especially in those last couple of months before he died. But he LOVED his KFC. So we went online and looked at their nutrition thingy only to find out that the "healthy" options had more sodium and crap in it than the regular meals.

To which we promptly went out and got him his KFC drums with corn(which had low sodium).
lol!