KFC Marinates Fried Chicken In These 3 Super Salty Ingredients

For decades, home cooks around the world — us included — have tried to replicate the finger lickin' taste of KFC and never really come close. The iconic blend of herbs and spices may be a big ol' secret (more about that later), but there are three ingredients featured in the fast food chain's marinade that are anything but. In fact, they are listed in black and white on KFC's full nutrition guide. They are salt, sodium phosphate, and MSG. KFC's original recipe, extra crispy, Kentucky grilled, and spicy crispy chicken are all soaked in a brine made up of the trio, though the spicy chicken's mix has added extras, including garlic powder, spices, and spice extractives. There's also the less tasty-sounding calcium silicate, along with mono- and diglycerides.

Chances are you know a bit more about MSG than sodium phosphate, and while the two play similar roles in the fast food industry, they are quite different. MSG is a flavor enhancer, and while sodium phosphate does that job too, it also improves the texture of KFC's chicken by helping retain moisture and can extend its shelf life. Sodium phosphate is also used in a range of processed and baked goods as a leavening agent, a thickener, and a stabilizer. When paired with salt and MSG, the resulting brine does more than just inject salty flavor into KFC's chicken (though that's definitely part of the process); it also plumps up the chicken and helps it last longer.

You can buy food-grade sodium phosphate if you fancy having a go at replicating KFC's salty marinade at home. That's easier said than done, however, as there are no measurements listed on the nutrition guide or details of how long to marinate the meat. Experts agree that getting this crucial stage wrong is a common fried chicken mistake, but there's another consideration to bear in mind with this salty brine. Processed and fast foods lean heavily on salt and related products for flavor, texture, and shelf life, which of course increases the amount of sodium we eat. Using low-sodium salt or slipping more acidic ingredients like capers into a homemade marinade could enhance the taste while trimming back our intake.

Of course, it's not just KFC's marinade that uses salt. The breading also contains it, as well as MSG and — in the cases of extra crispy and spicy crispy chicken — tricalcium phosphate, another food additive. People have been trying to recreate the delicious taste of KFC's coating for a long time, but excitement reached fever pitch in 2016, when a Chicago Tribune reporter photographed a hand-written list in the possession of the real Colonel Sanders' nephew; said list apparently outlined the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices at the heart of KFC's fried chicken. 

It included salt, basil, and thyme, but the blend was notably dominated by paprika and white pepper, the latter a relatively uncommon ingredient in the 1950s. Still, there's room for doubt. In a statement to the New York Times, KFC's parent company, Yum! Brands, said that "Many people have made these claims over the years and no one has been accurate — this one isn't either."