Why It Pays To Request A ‘Large’ Chicken Piece At KFC [Updated]

If you don’t visit KFC regularly, you’d be forgiven for thinking that its chicken breasts are roughly uniform in size. However, it turns out there’s a surprising amount of variation in the minimum and maximum sizes permitted — and we’ve got the chart to prove it.

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Earlier in the month, we took part in a KFC kitchen tour at one of the company’s flagship NSW stores. During the tour, we were shown every step of the cooking process; from how meat is stored and prepared to the various ways KFC keeps its “secret” herbs and spices out of the hands of suppliers.

See also: In The Belly Of The Beast: How KFC Australia Makes Its Chicken

However, one of the most revealing aspects of the tour was the way KFC vets the size and weight of its chicken pieces. The below table replicates the minimum and maximum weights that are permitted for each type of chicken piece:

As you can see, there’s a pretty big gap between the smallest size and largest size that KFC will accept in the fryer. Depending on how lucky you are, you could receive a thigh piece that weighs as little as 115 grams or as much as 200 grams. Likewise, some drumsticks weigh almost twice as much as others.

The takeaway (cough) lesson here is that you should always request a large piece to get maximum value for money. They might cost the same, but some KFC chicken pieces are definitely bigger than others.

Update: KFC has given us a more detailed explanation of the table and how it approaches the varying weights of chicken:

At KFC we want to give our customers great tasting food and we have developed our cooking processes so we can achieve this. We source our chicken fresh from the best Australian producers and, like any chicken available in a supermarket, no two chickens served are the same size.
 
Given there is a range of sizes we have cooking guidelines to ensure customers receive the best quality food cooked for the optimum time.
 
If a customer would prefer a larger piece of chicken we encourage them to request it when ordering and we’ll do our best to make their experience a great one.