Kentucky Fried Chicken is part of U.S culture like baseball and apple pie. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and see how this brand has become what it is today.

Kentucky Fried Chicken is the creation of Colonel Harland Sanders when he founded the company in 1952. He had been making his famous fried chicken all the way back to 1930 though. Sanders was selling his famous chicken at a gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky where his area was called the Sanders Court and Caf. In 1953 the Governor of Kentucky Ruby Laffon game the honorary title to Kentucky Colonel to Harland Sanders.

Sanders originally cooked the chicken in an iron skillet and each piece took around 30 minutes. The recipe was changed in 1939 to use a pressure fryer to speed up the preparation time. The Original Recipe that Kentucky Fried Chicken uses today was originated in 1940. The secret recipe is a mix of 11 herbs and spices which make it “finer lickin’ good”. To keep the recipe a secret, portions of the mix are made throughout the United States and the only complete copy of the recipe is kept at the Kentucky Fried Chicken headquarters.

The first Kentucky Fried Chicken was opened in 1952 with the help of Pete Harman. KFC expanded and in the 1960s Kentucky Fried Chicken could be purchased in over 600 locations throughout the United States and Canada. In 1964 Sanders sold the franchise for 2 million dollars and the company has been sold three times since then. The current owner is Pepsi Co and they keep it under their restaurant division Yum Brands.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has a place in American history of its own. Many of the older restaurants are land marks such as the store in Marietta, Georgia with its 56 foot tall chicken to show you the way.

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