Here's What Really Goes Into KFC's Mashed Potatoes

KFC made headlines when it announced that it would leave Kentucky for new headquarters in Texas, next door to its Yum! Brands cousin, Pizza Hut. But, a few years ago, KFC blew up across social media after an employee TikTok reel showed how the chicken chain's mashed potatoes were concocted. Many KFC fans felt betrayed by the fact that employees simply mix prepackaged instant potatoes with hot water to make the popular side dish.

Potato flakes aren't just a great way to thicken devilled egg filling; they are also a shortcut to a creamy, belly-warming accompaniment to dinner. There are folks who would malign all bagged mashed potatoes as "fake" potatoes, but this simply isn't true. In their purest form, potato flakes, instant mashed, or however else they might be named, simply consist of real potatoes that are boiled, mashed, and dehydrated into flakes. Adding water only reconstitutes them. Plenty of food service outlets use flake potatoes, so KFC is far from alone. And yet, there may still be cause for a closer look into KFC spuds.

One of the major mashed potato cooking mistakes is not seasoning your spuds, and in the case of KFC, salt, dried butter, and other flavor enhancers have been added... along with other additives and fillers in abundance. It's probably unrealistic to think that KFC employees are peeling, boiling, and hand-mashing as many pounds of potatoes as a busy drive-thru will require in a day, but you might be surprised to see how many ingredients are in this potato mix.

KFC isn't necessarily taking an easy way out by utilizing potato flakes on its menu; in fact, it's doing exactly what other fast food and fast casual restaurants do all the time. As mentioned, making potatoes edible from fresh veggies is a laborious task that can involve many steps. What KFC fans might pause to consider, however, is that KFC's instant potatoes have a whole lot of unseen ingredients, including multiple hydrogenated oils, artificial colors and flavors, and sulfites. To say that they are highly processed is an understatement. While a container of Bob's Red Mill potato flakes contains one ingredient (dehydrated potatoes), the KFC 'taters are laden with dozens. While there are no trans fats in KFC's mashed potatoes, hydrogenated oils alone are a food additive associated with potential health issues related to unstable blood sugar and increased risk of coronary disease. 

In conclusion, customers may have been right to be concerned about KFC's potatoes, but not for the reason that sparked the initial social media outrage. Use of instant potatoes isn't necessarily a red flag, but the contents of KFC's instant potatoes — which isn't information that might be immediately obvious to a consumer unless they go looking for nutritional details — might be, depending on your personal convictions about food additives. As always, an informed consumer is a happier and healthier consumer. TikTok outrage doesn't always have a basis in empirical data, but sometimes the real story can contain just as much cause for concern.