KFC fan exposes 'secret seasonings' after spotting them on pack of Lays crisps

A KFC-lover reckons he’s cracked the ‘secret’ blend of herbs and spices on the famous fried chicken.

As fans of the fast-food chain will know, the company prides itself on its signature recipe of 11 herbs and spices, which has remained top secret for decades.

The recipe was of course created by Colonel Sanders - whose real name was Harland David Sanders - and has seen countless folks try to recreate it themselves over the years.

However, in 2016 a relative of the late Colonel Sanders leaked what’s believed to be the secret recipe - although this has now been thrown into question by a new discovery.

Joe Ledington, the nephew of the iconic Colonel, found a piece of paper with a handwritten recipe on it in a family scrapbook and shared it with a reporter from the Chicago Tribune.

Letting the cat out of the bag, Ledington explained: "That is the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so secretive."

Chicago Tribune

But then he was quick to add: "It could be; I don't know for sure."

So, what exactly are the 11 herbs and spices?

Well, the recipe lists four tablespoons of paprika, three tablespoons of white pepper and two tablespoons of garlic salt.

Dubbing one spice the star player of the lot, Ledington said: "The main ingredient is white pepper. I call that the secret ingredient. Nobody (in the 1950s) knew what white pepper was. Nobody knew how to use it."

The other ingredients include several herbs including thyme, basil and oregano, as well as three separate kinds of salt in them - garlic, regular and celery.

Dried mustard and pepper account for the slightly spicy kick, working together with the more unexpected ingredient, ground ginger.

More recently, an eagle-eyed KFC-fan reckons they may have uncovered some of the ingredients of the secret recipe after checking out the back of a packet of KFC-flavoured Lays and it appears to differ to what Ledington shared.

In a post on Reddit, the person wrote: “The KFC Lays chips reveal some of KFCs chicken seasonings.”

They shared a photo of the ingredients of the crisps, which has ‘KFC original seasoning’ with a list of spices next to it.

Which spices? Well - it’s black pepper powder, white pepper powder, ginger powder, coriander powder and nutmeg powder.

But not everyone was convinced, with one Reddit user suggesting this could be a whole other recipe for ‘KFC Original Seasoning’ rather than the ‘Original Recipe’.

Someone else commented: “This is an absolute red herring and I love it.”