Kentucky Grilled Chicken... Popeye's is sounding better every day.

From the AP:

In a culinary gambit backed by buckets of big money, KFC is hoping to replicate its founder's recipe for success with the national introduction of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.




Get it, buckets of money, like chicken.


This week's rollout is KFC's most ambitious attempt to win over health-conscious customers as the chain known worldwide for fried chicken tries to reinvigorate lackluster U.S. sales.

"It's going to get people who haven't eaten KFC for a long time to come back into our restaurants," said KFC President Roger Eaton. "It's going to get people who have never eaten KFC to come into our restaurants."

I'm sure that the grilled chicken and veggie crowd are going to look forward to sharing dining space with guys named Skeeter and the average red-state voter. Hey, great idea, they could come up with a KGC "Famous Bowl" which could consist of the grilled chicken, soy gravy, tofu and alfalfa sprouts. There's a winner. I'm sure Skeeter would sign right up.

KFC's slow-grilled chicken drew strong reviews from the lunchtime crowd Monday at a KFC restaurant in Louisville, the chain's hometown. Eddie Collard proclaimed grilled better than fried.

"I think the colonel would be happy," Collard said of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders.

Like its predecessor, Kentucky Grilled Chicken has its own secret recipe. The original copy of the recipe — a blend of six herbs and spices — will be kept in an electronic safe at company headquarters. It will sit alongside Sanders' handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices coating the chain's Original Recipe fried chicken.

The difference is in the nutritional numbers.



I like the line about how the Colonel would be happy with the new recipe for the grilled chicken. Personally, I think he is rolling over in his grave, rotisserie style. IT'S CALLED KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN.

Mike Ash, who ate a grilled chicken lunch at the Louisville KFC, remembered the rotisserie chicken as "mushy and bland." He liked the new grilled offering, having picked it to the bone.

He said he might be more apt to pick up a bucket of chicken on his way home, though he predicted he might still "fall off the wagon every now and then" and choose the fried option.

The grilled chicken will cost the same as Original Recipe chicken. KFC will offer customers a free piece of grilled chicken on April 27.

But the push for grilled chicken doesn't mean KFC is abandoning its roots, Eaton said. The chain is testing new fried chicken products, and remains committed to its core product.

"It would be incredibly arrogant to think we could create a product that could supersede Original Recipe chicken," Eaton said. "But this product is easily good enough to sit alongside it."

Hey, KFC big-wigs, here is some market research for you. The reason that people like myself stop by KFC for a bucket of fried chicken is because frying chicken at home is a pain in the ass. Any moron can grill chicken. Hell, my son can grill chicken and he's not yet three. Even better, I think that Colonel Sanders, the dead guy, could probably grill chicken.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this experiment falling to the way-side like the Fruit Cup offering at Wendy's and fast-food chains offering granola bars instead of fries. Follow the Hardee's example, I would eat the grilled chicken, after they fry it.