Fried chicken in the context of "Chicken (food)"

KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American multinational fast food restaurant chain specializing in Southern fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with over 31,980 locations globally in 150 countries, as of September 2025. The chain is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company that also owns the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains.

KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders (1890–1980), an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant-franchising concept, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. By branding himself as "Colonel Sanders", Harland became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising to this day. However, the company's rapid expansion overwhelmed the aging Sanders, and he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964.

Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was an American entrepreneur and founder of fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken, now known as KFC. He later acted as the company's brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company today.

Sanders held a number of jobs in his early life, such as steam engine stoker, insurance salesman, and filling station operator. He began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in North Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. During that time, Sanders developed his "secret recipe" and his patented method of cooking chicken in a pressure fryer. Sanders recognized the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, and the first KFC franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952. When his original restaurant closed, he devoted himself full-time to franchising his fried chicken throughout the country.

BK Chicken Fries are a fried chicken product sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King. At the time of their introduction in 2005, the company had intended Chicken Fries to be one of their larger, adult-oriented products made with higher-quality ingredients than their standard menu items. Additionally, the product further targeted the snacking and convenience food markets with a specific packaging design that was intended to be easier to handle and fit into automotive cup holders. The product was part of a series of product introductions designed to expand Burger King's menu with both more sophisticated fare and present a larger, meatier product that appealed to 24- to 36-year-old males. Along with this series of larger, more complex menu products, the company intended to attract a larger, more affluent adult audience who would be willing to spend more on the better-quality products. They were discontinued in the United States in 2012, but continued to be sold in some markets, such as Italy. In August 2014, they were reintroduced for a limited-time offering (LTO) in North America, leading to their permanent re-addition to the menu in March 2015 in over 30 countries globally.

As one of the company's major offerings, the chicken fries are sometimes the center of product advertising for the company. The original advertisements were created by the firm of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky and were the subject of both criticism and legal action by the nu metal band Slipknot over claims of intellectual property rights, while later advertising programs started the company on a new direction of digital-based, multi-media advertising. With the product's North American reintroduction in 2014 and 2015, Burger King utilized a heavy social media campaign to help entice fans of the product back into restaurants. The company has also relied heavily on product tie-ins with the NFL, NCAA and NASCAR to promote the product across different demographic groups. Even though the product has been a prominent part of the menu for the better part of a decade, Burger King has released very few LTO variants of the product, with the first one being released in the summer of 2015. Despite being a major product line in the company's portfolio, Burger King has registered very few, if any, global trademarks to protect its investment in the product.

Popcorn chicken is a dish consisting of small, bite-sized pieces of chicken (about the size of popped corn kernels) that have been breaded and fried. The idea was originally developed by KFC in 1991, but heavily inspired by fried chicken street food in Taiwan. The dish has since been adopted by many restaurants with fried chicken items.

In cooking, pressure frying is a variation on pressure cooking where meat and cooking oil are brought to high temperatures while pressure is held high enough to cook the food more quickly. This leaves the meat very hot and juicy. A receptacle used in pressure frying is known as a pressure fryer. The process is most notable for its use in the preparation of fried chicken in many commercial fried chicken restaurants.