Food Theory: I SOLVED KFC's Secret Recipe! (KFC Chicken)

Food theory: whenever MatPat wants something to eat from a fast food chain, he makes a food theory video

theory: everytime the recipe gets correctly leaked they slightly change it and acts like its a lie and everyone belives them just because it tastes slightly different from the old leaked reciple

Okay, but all theories set aside and their correctness or not, it is honestly just a blast seeing Steph and Matt together. They are just absolutely adorable, and it's nice to see a serious internet relationship that's not filled with toxicity. It genuinely puts a smile on my face watching them be so happy together and it's truly what makes videos like this so special. Love you guys

stuff like this makes me wonder how many lists matpat is on

I bought the 99X a few months back when I first saw this episode. actual cooked it today (oncamera). Its is so close I no longer worry about buying KFC. You must do double spice from recommended and 50% more salt. I also cook it 20 minutes covered after it is browned on both sides flipping once. This gives it the texture that KFC has with its pressure cook method. You will never get it exact without the pressure cooker but the spice is correct.

I’m not surprised the citric acid made the 99-X taste more similar to KFC. Citrus is such a great chicken additive that definitely improves the flavor especially when fried/baked.

Solution: Get people who are allergic to a single spice and find 11 different spices that people are allergic to. Boom theory done xD

As someone who’s favourite seasoning is pepper I can’t imagine not being allowed to have pepper at home. I literally buy pepper by the pound and go through it in a month or two tops. I wanna know what happened with pepper to cause this. The curiosity is immense.

Actually on the fruit bit, it's not as unlikely as one might think. A bit of citrus zest or juice can add to certain flavor combinations, or help you power through something that is extra greasy.
Did Ollie get any fried Chicken?

Harland Sanders didn't use the pressure fryer for taste, you know. He invented it himself, for speed.

Made some fried chicken recently using the 99-X seasoning and it did taste really close to contemporary KFC. I was pleasantly surprised.

Matpat missed a really good dad joke “we are putting the best con-tenders to the test.”

As a KFC employee, I can confirm that 99x looks right. The proportions are approximately 11kgs flour to 400g seasoning and 400g salt, with 100g of dried milk and egg mix

I absolutely LOVE the little things you notice once you watch a few times, like the "This is just a damned ball of dough with chicken in it." - Colonel Sanders on the new KFC recipe in the shown newspaper. I also liked the "Make chicken and stop getting into fist fights!" Note from Claudia.

There was a whole missed opportunity to say "con-tenders" even though it's on-the-bone fried chicken 😂

Stephanie: "It's almost like people who do analysis on the internet overcompensate things..."
Steph Rolls a nat 20 on her speech check
Matpat suffers from EMOTIONAL DAMAGE.

Im a culinary school graduate and i can confirm a capital T means Tablespoon. also citric acid makes your mouth water. Could make the chicken seem more juicy

So fun fact: here in Brazil (and maybe in other countries in South America, idk), using fruits like lime to spice up chicken is very common, and it is delicious

Update: Matpat has mysteriously disappeared from him home and in his place is a apology note saying he was wrong and a box of KFC. Matpat has never been seen again

a tip when making this: dip the chicken in an egg mixture so that the herbs and spices +the flour stays on the chicken

I don't know if it's normal everywhere else to marinate their chicken with citrus among others, but it is REALLY GOOD, try it sometime, it gives a faint lick of delicious and juicy sweetness to your chicken!! We marinate the chicken a little with a little salt and pepper with citrus (calamansi, specifically) and then we cover it with generally any kind of coating you may want to use after an hour at least of marinating. It's great if you know your ingredients well!

I wanted to point out that there are multiple kinds of paprika, not all of them spicy. I learned this the hard way 😬

99-x is very accurate. Besides using pressure frying, everyone I see trying to reproduce fails to use a milk and egg dip prior to coating. Original recipe spice mixes originally came in two bags, one with the "11 herbs and spices" mixed with the flour, and the other bag which was powdered eggs and powdered milk which you mixed with water. chicken was dunked into egg/milk dip, drained, breaded and fried.

I absolutely love your fashion sense and you are so wholesome. Thank you for making my childhood, keep doing what you're doing and don't let the haters negatively impact you.

We need to invent taste-o-vision for this exact moment

after working in the food industry and supplying the breading to local KFC 's after reciving the wrong breading on one occasion the blowback was instinctanous with the threat of losing the contract to supply them unless the right product was replaced . it was the supplyers fault not ours so we managed to save the contract but found out that the kfc recipe is based on location not the same for everyone

So funny story, my dad works for a food blending company, and early 2000s his company partnered with KFC (I live in Kentucky) and he and the rest of his company had to sign a waiver that stated he and the company would never leak what the Spicy blend was. He told me this later and said that they made the blend, make chicken, and tasted it. But he doesn’t remember what the blends were because he said he forgot. 👀👀 Also love the videos Mat across all channels!!💙

Theories aside, I love the fact that MatPat is wearing a game theory hoodie. It is so incredibly on-brand while being off-brand, and it’s perfect.

This is the first video I’ve watched of Matpat actually doing stuff with his wife, and they’re so cute together like what? This was adorable

I remember a friend of mine from America came over to visit me (I live in Scotland), and their favourite thing to do was to eat at fast food restaurants because they're allergic to soy, and we don't use soy oil over here!
To elaborate, in the UK, we use vegetable oil, sunflower seed oil, or just plain old butter to fry things as its harder to get soy over here.

Stephanie is dressed like a wise mother while matpat is dressed like a nerdy teen :)

I just want to say that, as a mexican fan, I really appreciate the way you say the words "telenovela", "Mario López" and "taquitos" (this one from another episode). Love u guys

Former KFC cook, the 99-X does look like the pack I dump into the flour. It was also a different recipe vs the extra crispy chicken

An update to this could be to ask chatgpt about the secret recipe and try what it comes up with... Great video by the way! Being a vegetarian who has never ever tried fried chicken I'm surprisingly in awe of the results here 😂

Matt is what everyone wants. Respect your fear of pepper. These two are just perfect for one another 😊

Saddest part of this episode (even though it’s great) is watching all them wasted wings being left with meat on them

I feel like Matpat made food theory just so that he can include takeouts as part of their business expenses.

I think you all forgot about a special ingredient that I think many over look just how much impact it can have with just a small amount: Saffron spice and safflower oil, NOT to be confused with Sunflower or a sassafras plant. I want to see you try this and think you might be surprised by your results. also the prep for the chicken is super important. like do you marinate the chicken in a bath of x kind of egg, x kind of milk, and x kind of spices BEFORE you begin even covering it with that flavor explosive breading.. YOU might want to take a look into that. just saying...
Let me know^^ ~ Syiaryia (sigh-R-E-ah)
As always I love your show! I also love how you and her both are light hearted, real, honest, and so wonderful to watch together!!^^ Thank you.

I would love another episode like this or a follow up of some kind. I eat while watching food theory and this has been the best one for that purpose. I dunno, seeing food in a sciencey, exciting setting makes it easier to cook my own food

maybe the 99-x, plus the citric acid, PLUS the tellicherry pepper mentioned at the pressure cooker manufacturer interview wouldve been the perfect combination

I’m questioning they’re results a little because how crazy is it that adding they’re film theory added to the closest recipe just so happened to push it in the right direction. I love seeing Steph and Matpat, but I’m gonna need a third party to test this

I like how Matpat does this channel, it feels more real

Salt, Pepper, Flour. these are the ingredients to make a perfect fried chicken. but Matpat intentionally added an extra ingredient into the concoction. CHEMICAL 99-X. Thus, an almost perfect replica was born!

I have the same reaction every time I hear someone saying paprika, cause it’s spelled the exact same way as Swedish, my native language, but the, with lack for a better word, exaggerated letters are completely different. It’s a lot like Michael, in Swedish Michael is almost pronounced Me-kah-el, with kah being exaggerated

The citrus could also be part of the brine. Buttermilk is fairly acidic, add a little lemon and the chicken is great, moist and tender

We actually went and got the spice after this aired! Thank you so much!
It's the best thing! And I am super snobby about my chicken, and then we add it on to our turkey for the holidays! It is so so good!
I'm not a Clip-Share watching person. But because of the things he's done on Food theory , Game theory and Film theory, he has made me watch or cook a certain way because of all his theories!

You should have let your chicken wait for a bit after making. Im sure KFC one had a while when you were waiting for delivery and probably had to wait a moment. It can change flavour dramatically.

Not sure how I missed this episode! But anyways as you’ve already noticed, it takes very little seasoning to ring the flavor a fried chicken. Do you think you can do an LIVE Food Theory stream as to why that happens?

The problem with any taste test like this is that it ignores a hugely important aspect of taste: psychology. People are going to think that what they're tasting doesn't taste like KFC because they know it's *not* KFC. To do this right, you'd have to put every test subject in a KFC bucket, and serve it as if it actually *is* KFC to unsuspecting customers.

High chance he used a citrus soak for a few hours before brining and breading, it opens the gaps in the meat to allow the seasoning to propagate into the meat easier.

I want a shipment of Steph and Matt's version of Todd's recipe it just sounds good

YUM! Now please please try to figure out the grilled chicken recipe they came out with. It definitely changed over time, but initially it was insanely good!

I've highly enjoyed watching this episode. Another good one matpat!

My need for variety in my diet has gotten me suddenly addicted to this channel

Food Theory: Complains that recipes online dont tell us proportions
Also food theory: Doesn't tell us how much citrus acid and additional 99-x to add

I went on a quest to make it, I never nailed it but got close.
I bought a pressure fryer too man, that's how serious I was, and yes it made a big difference!
from scouring the net, there were a few things in common all of them had that I felt 100% didn't work without them.
Marjoram, celery salt, garlic salt, accent (msg based flavouring) I'm told true msg is better but I couldn't get it anywhere, ground oregano, paprika and onion salt. It obviously had salt and pepper but the ratios were a nightmare when other ingredients were tested/subbed in.
I would almost say powderd tomato soup mix on flavour alone but the colour was way off and couldn't be right.

I think the recipe is the most simplest and common thing but we are making it difficult for ourselves to find...

Fun fact: there’s a video on Clip-Share of the head chef of McDonald’s at the time teaching you how to make the Big Mac at home.

The herbs and spices of modern day taste different than they did back then. Really all of the herbs and spices can have a variation in taste so that means theirs too many factors no matter how you go about it and even the colonels recipe would taste different on a batch to batch basis.

I think there could be a lot of variables with your fried chicken recipes but the main one is that they use a pressure fryer to cook all their chicken and it cooks for a much shorter time and I worked there when I was in high school and I know for a fact that the chicken comes in brine to KFC in a salt or maybe MSG solution in a bag they don't use buttermilk or anything along those lines to dredge the chicken it's all dredged in that liquid that comes in the bag with the chicken and water if it's extra crispy for the second dip in the flour.

Don’t forget to let “the ingredients get to know each-other”

What if we just try to use deduction tactics to figure out what spices would The Colonel have acsses to at the time considering his budget and his location at the time?

For the Chicago Tribune recipe I'd use teaspoons for some of the spices like Paprika, then maybe it'd be closer to the KFC one

I cannot tell you how hard it was for me to watch this video. I absolutely adore fried chicken, and seeing all the pieces they only took a few bites out of made me want to jump through the screen and devour every remaining crumb on their plates. It's still five days until pay day T_T

I've always suspected that something like what Poundstone suggested (though not necessarily exactly that) is the case. That everyone is looking for something that adds up to 11, but there is either fewer or more ingredients and that's why, according to KFC at least, no one has gotten it right. That or they are just lying.

I wonder what would happen if you did use tsp and a skim milk wash with the nephew’s recipe. Usually uppercase T would be tablespoons but if it’s handwritten by an old lady, it could just be a handwriting thing.
They mentioned that it seemed like too much spice for the amount of flour so I’m curious if that’s why.

I would love to see this AGAIN... but with another twist... blindfolds, since the brain tend to be a bit biased sometimes, so do all the flavours, get them randomized and then try them blindfolded :D

The only difference between KFC's original chicken and extra crispy chicken is that they don't fry the extra crispy under pressure, so it ends really crispy like yours.

I never knew they used soybean oil, that’s kinda neat. I’d love a pressure fryer tho.

You guys should do this but with other secret recipes, like the Dr. Pepper recipe (maybe not that since making soda is probably pretty hard, but it’s an example)

The secret with flavor isn't in just the breading, you have to marinate the chicken then bread with spices. The chicken has to have flavor or all your going to get is good fried skin or coating, and plain chicken flavor.

When you said made with love at the beginning, it made me think of an old crochet/knitting joke that basically means when you say something is made with love, you really mean it’s made with a lot of your hair, so Steph saying it was made with his beard hair isn’t that far off

Remember when you suggested that the Krabby Patty secret formula was more or less marketing hype? I get the feeling the “11 herbs and spices” is probably the same deal

I've always wondered what if someone's allergic to one of the ingredients-

Regarding the flavor being lacking from the mom and pop Chicago tribune one, did you guys allow for enough time to let the meat marinate?

MatPat makes normal things like fried chicken into the most intense thing in the world and I love it

I would like to point out that there might be citrus in the recipe. If you don't have buttermilk you can make it by adding 1Tb of vinegar or Lemon juice to regular milk and it creates a buttermilk substitute so they might be on to something.

Matpat three KFC videos at the same time?
I think that’s an addiction 😅

2:03
"Let's stop throwing our bowls around and start cooking!"
literally a few seconds later:
"As we throw our bowls in the ring..."

I think freshness should've been a factor as well. How long the KFC chicken was sitting out, vs. a fresh batch could easily shake up the results.

cant believe that i just watched a video about fried chicken and hat says a lot about your videos to me. keep it up your videos and delivery is entertaining

Lol their surprise about seasonings on the chicken is quite on brand 😂

Is it just me, or would anyone else be interested in what he could come up with about the elven bread from Lord of the Rings?

The 4 ingredients might actually make sense as a marketing tool, like the krabby patty formula.

I get that Game theory's content isn't everyones taste, but they surely are some of the sweetest people we've got here at youtube :D

You folks and GugaFoods are doing great work on this subject ..... Love it !!!!!

Had to try all that fried chicken. MatPat really suffers for his work. (Yes, I'm jealous.)

As a classical food theorist, I can say that Nephews recipe looks exactly like the KFC I had as a child it changed between1989-1992.

I'm a big fan of KFC I couldn't resist a piece of that finger licking crusty chicken, but yeah a 29:05 episode I enjoyed it and I'm rewatching this and I love MatPat talking bout Todd Wilbur I laughed the first time and I kind of giggled rewatching

For some reason, I’ve always thought that the “11 herbs and spices” was just a ploy like Mr.Crabs with the Krabby Patty secret formula

Watching this made me hungry so I literally ordered wings for delivery 🤣🤣🤣

Just how Gordon would say. The less spices you use, it makes you able to understand the flavor better and i do think that they didnt use 120931203 spices fighting vs each other, they kept it simple and let the premium ingridients speak.

You are the only person who I would believe if you told me you discovered Colonel Sander's secret recipe

A fascinating subject even knowing I very likely never try cooking kfc style fried chicken. Although maybe apply it to make those awesome fries they once had.

I bet it's just like one or two special ingredients and that KFC uses the whole 11 spices and herbs to entice people into trying to solve the mystery by buying and eating and testing

Someone: MatPat, how about another KFC theory?
MatPat: Three. Take it or leave it.

Are we going to ignore how cute that ending was??💖💖

God, their kitchen must’ve smelled _incredible_ after this!

Someone should make a movie about all these people trying to recreate the secret recipe and center the story around the family that wins

I am 41 and I worked there at age 12. I have a very refined pallet and I believe that the original had 2 more ingredients.... Starch & Corn flour.