Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Major Announcement

Repeat after me, “Finger licken good’

Who knows what famous franchise this phrase is attached to? You all should. Kentucky Fried Chicken better known as KFC has been a family favorite for a very long time. Every week my family enjoyed KFC and till this day we still do.

I recently attended an event and a major announcement was made about KFC. Here’s what was said:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – April 4, 2016 – In a major announcement today, Kentucky Fried Chicken® made a public recommitment to the standards set forth by founder Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952. The changes enable KFC to offer a taste guarantee today in all of its U.S. restaurants called the “Colonel Quality Taste Guarantee.” The announcement was made at an event in New York, led by KFC U.S. President Jason Marker.

“To everyone who grew up with the familiar taste of KFC and has turned away from us in recent years, you can come back again,” said Marker. “KFC is getting back to the way our founder made chicken – The Hard Way – the right way. We’re ensuring every KFC cook understands the Colonel’s once patented process that helped make KFC the world’s most famous chicken.” The changes – which the company is calling “Re-Colonelization” affect every one of the more than 4,200 U.S. KFC locations and include: Chicken Mastery Certification – The food in every KFC restaurant is cooked by real cooks, freshly prepared in store every day. To help ensure consistent training across the country, managers and cooks underwent re-certification in KFC’s “Chicken Mastery” program, retraining them in the 25- minute process for prepping and cooking Original Recipe chicken. The process starts with quality chicken raised on U.S. farms, which is hand breaded and seasoned with the Colonel’s Secret Recipe of 11 herbs and spices and then pressure fried.

Colonel Quality Taste Guarantee – KFC stands behind the changes it has made, and to show its commitment to doing things The Hard Way has instituted the “Colonel Quality Taste Guarantee,” which promises customers will be satisfied or the restaurant will remake the portion of their the meal they didn’t love.

KFC kicked off its Re-Colonelization initiative by hosting 43 rallies across the country, with more than 97 percent of its restaurant general managers, followed by a national training event in each and every restaurant in the country – all in an effort to retrain every single KFC employee on cooking the world’s best chicken.

“This wasn’t a media stunt where our restaurants closed for a few hours. Over the past six months we have invested more than 100,000 hours retraining more than 20,000 employees in cooking and serving Kentucky Fried Chicken the way the Colonel intended,” said Marker. “And today is the day we’re ready to welcome you back.”

This is not the first step in KFC’s turnaround, which started in earnest last year with significant reinvestments in updated restaurants, increased marketing spend and new equipment. Specifically, KFC has updated kitchens with state-of-the-art equipment in 98 percent of its restaurants, set a bold goal of remodeling 3,000 restaurants over the next three years, and launched its new advertising campaign featuring a reintroduction of the Colonel.

Re-Colonelization continues KFC’s journey to becoming no. 1 on taste by the end of 2017.

I do appreciate KFC still being around and continuing to keep everyone coming back for more. I do wish they would bring back the Chicken Littles, those were so good. I do miss those but as long as there’s chicken and biscuits I’m good.

I enjoyed attending the event and learning how the chicken is made with Chef Bob Das and actress @RachelDratch. I might not have the secret tripe but seeing the process was fine for me. The best part was being served lunch. The chicken just kept coming. I also enjoyed taking a picture with the original suit that Colonel Sanders wore. Grease stains and everything it was the real deal.