The Fried Chicken Conspiracy 

Fried Chicken is life! Go to surfshark.deals/ANDONG - Enter promo code ANDONG for 83% off and 3 extra months free!

I’m Nigerian, yoruba even and I’m surprised to hear about this history, they probably fried the chicken back then for preservation cause chicken is traditionally fried to be incredibly dry here. Your videos are really nice

a wise man once said, "you click for the food, you stay for the story"

Jesus Andong! These documentaries are getting spectacular. The content, the lighting, the edditing and filming are so great. And the host certainly knows how to draw us in!!! I'll be deep frying chicken today!!! You should really reach out to Max from Tasting History!

My first job, in 1963, was for KFC and Col. Sanders would come by to check on the quality and talk to us young boys working there. He would ask us to quit school and come to work for him full-time. He didn't have a good education, he said, and he was rich, so we could be too if we came to work full-time. My Dad threw a fit when I asked him about that. Anyway, the Colonel told us how he had a job washing dishes at a little restaurant in KY at some crossroads that attracted folks from all over to eat the great fried chicken the little lady who ran the place cooked with her own recipe. The Colonel bragged that he stole her recipe and made a fortune from it. THe one thing I remember most about Colonel Sanders is that he would add some word of profanity to every sentence that came from his mouth, with a sly grin to accompany each dirty word.

"...Nature's savory lollipop..." has to be one of the best ever descriptions of a chicken leg. 🤣👍

Just made Karaage a few days ago and now I want more chicken...

I got so invested in the documentary I forgot this was a cooking video😭 fr these are too well made

1. You get into the nuance of this history more deeply than even a lot of American food people do, it’s super impressive (and thank you for doing your research on the language to use as well! I cringe so hard when people still refer to enslaved Black people as “slaves”) 2. The other piece of this history that I think you would find super interesting is why and how industrial poultry farming grew in the US after WW2. Long story short, the American industrial agricultural complex arose largely as a Cold War tactic of promoting the benefits of capitalism. Ironically they did this by centralizing scientific research and heavily subsidizing and regulating the farm sector...

I just found your channel and i am loving the history side of the food! I have lived my entire life in the deep south and i can tell you that fried chicken has been an integral part of my life. I cannot tell you how many times growing up i grabbed a chicken and butchered it for dinner. The dark meat on the chicken is my preferred meat for frying. I will say that i am not the biggest fan of a buttermilk brine, i think it makes the chicken a little too heavy. I prefer to do a water and salt brine with garlic, onion, thyme, fresno chilies, peppercorns, lemon, and a little bit of honey. It's a modified version of a roughly 80 year old recipie that my great grandmother showed me. I still use buttermilk with egg and hot sauce as my pre dredging liquid, i just don't like marinating the chicken in it.

Great video, but one advice that I can give is to drizzle some of the buttermilk into the flour dredge and then procede to form some balls with it. It helps creating the crispy exterior, which some people mistake for cornflakes.

You gotta collab with Tastinghistory sometime. I’d love to see you guys talk about some history while making some tasty food.

The best fried chicken I've ever had was in an izakaya in Osaka. Tender, perfectly seasoned meat, juicy as all hell, wrapped in just the most perfect crunchy jacket. I literally shed a tear, as the meat juices dribbled down my chin. They know refer to me as "Chicken Boy".

Not only am I gonna get delicious chicken, I'm also gonna learn history not found in school books/taught in school.

I'm a Black American (not all of us like the term African American) and just wanted to say thanks for the very unbiased telling of the origins of fried chicken (as we all know it). It's refreshing to see someone tell our story truthfully.

Andong is reading my mine. I was going to the grocery store to buy what I need to do fried chicken when I receiced the notification. Ho well, i will watch this in the parking lot haha

Excellent content, Andong! Very thoughtful and respectful! It reminded me of the acarajé/akra dumpling jouney from West Africa to Brazil, and how it empowers a whole group of traditional vendors called "baianas do acarajé"; they are black women who dess in traditional candomblé (afrobrazilian traditional religion) garments and sell the treat in the streets of Salvador and other coastal cities of the state of Bahia. The dish got so popular that now you can find it in all of Brazil!

i grew up in western germany, near a large US military airbase. and long before the first KFC came to town, one little diner served that exact style of fried chicken, to sate the craving. and to this day, it's local institution of delicious fried chicken, and propably a taste of southern hospitality. please never change, leidl's fried chicken!

The legend says that if you are fast Andong will like your comment.

I was worried about how you would tackle this one but you did a good job especially with the language you used. I'm enjoying your content, very nice.

It's Friday, I'm at work. I'm calculating whether getting fried chicken delivered for lunch is a good idea...

I love how you do a deep dive into the history of food, explore it, understand it, and then you share it with the world! I think your channel is one of the most important culinary youtube channels because you teach cooking, but you also teach history and culture!

As an African American I wanted to say that I thought your history of fried chicken was very respectful and well stated. Thank you for not being too afraid to share the history behind the stereotype. There aren't very many people that can do this faithfully without being offensive. Amazing video and I look forward to seeing more content like this in the future.

Came for the fried chicken, stayed for the history lesson! Such great content!

Fun fact: Tempura the iconic Japanese style of frying foods was introduced by the Portuguese. Frying in general just has a wild history with all the different versions throughout the world.

Roosters don't crow just in the morning. They crow all the g** d*** time.

Fun fact: There's a small chain of fried chicken restaurants called Maryland Fried Chicken; however, it originates from Florida. So why was it named after Maryland? Because the first location was near an aerospace manufacturer, and many of their employees had moved from Maryland, so, it was named Maryland Fried Chicken to attract them.

You got something wrong about Harlan sanders. You said him using the kentucky Colonel title was for confederate romanticism but kentucky was a Union state during the civil war. Also his style of dress wasn't really anything about plantation owners it was common of door to door salesman of the time which is what he essentially was. Selling his recipe including pressure frying as a solicitor was how he made his living and later fortune when he licensed out his image.

14:02 Fried Chicken Recipe starts here.

This channel is so great. What Adam Neely does for jazz and its surrounding culture, you do for food. Absolutely brilliant work mate.

Hi Andong, as an ex KFC employee - they batter official Dairy premix ingredients declaration, Skimmed milk powder, whey powder, egg albumen. but that is NOT used in the original recipe chicken, original recipe only have KFC seasoning (Flavor enhancer MSG) Salt, Black pepper, White pepper, Spice blend S (Spices, Garlic powder, Red pepper), rapeseed oil. and 1kg of that mix is mixed with 14 of plain flour, chicken pieces is for few seconds dipped in the cold water, and than tossed in the mixed flour and spices. than cooked in the oil at 360F - pressure cooking

I am glad you didn't try to gloss over the dark history of this dish. Yes, you were not very detailed but you didn't just skip over that. Thank you for that. Many want to erase what has happened to minorities in America, especially now, but it is important to remember why things are where they are now and how to move forward from such darkness.

I never made that connection between Colonel Sanders outfit and plantation masters. Yikes 😂

Hey Andong, thank you for the honest history lesson on fried chicken. I have been a chef/cook for over 30 years. Since finding you channel, I have tried a few of your recipes and learned so much. This is truly one of the best cooking channels on RU-vid!

Andong: Makes a comprehensive video about the origins of fried chicken, with a section pointing out the racially-charged origins of KFC Viewers: Great info! Adam Ragusea: Previously made a video about the origins of flour vs. corn tortillas, with a section pointing out the racially-charged origins of Taco Bell Viewers: OMG STOP BRINGING POLITICS INTO FOOD VIDEOS YOU COLLEGE EDUCATED SNOB!!!!11!!!111!!!!!! Me: It's amazing how much of a difference there is in audiences between two good food RU-vidrs.

3:30 um... actual chickens can Fly. Red junglefoel does Fly.

Trivia: Sanders sold the US operation of KFC, but was so incensed with how they modified his gravy recipe, that he fought for and retained ownership of the Canadian operation. He even moved to Mississauga, Ontario, near Toronto, where he eventually passed away. It also means that for a long time if you wanted to taste the Col's real recipe, you had to buy it in Canada.

I still remember my reaction the first time I saw my grandpa's chickens chilling on a branch on a tree. And how my aunt and cousins gave me the 'this poor city girl who knows nothing' look ^^;;

I grew up in Madrid in the mid-60s to 70s. The first American restaurant in Madrid was Kentucky Fried Chicken; however, it was a fancy sit down restaurant with waiters in smartly pressed and spotless white suits and the Colonel's bow ties. In fact, when we (as American expats) picked up the chicken with our hands to eat the chicken off the bone, you could hear the wait staff almost gasp in shock! The food was so amazing, and a very necessary reminder of home.

Andong: Today, we're going to talk about the HISTORY of fried chicken. **[shows Chris Rock clip]** Me: "Here's your black card, accepted... NOWHERE." -Eddie Griffin Thank you for uploading this, it made my day.

I do not mean to diminish the story that you are trying to tell but that original recipe from Scotland was brought primarily to Appalachia (where the Harland Sanders Café started) , a very impoverished part of the country and fried chicken there was and is a staple. People were frying chicken in oil everywhere but the Scottish one was different it breaded it in flower and fried it giving it a crispy texture.

I love the halo effect the blue light behind you creates. St. Andong, patron of the good shit!

man it really makes me sad how underrated your channel is. with videos like this, youre already one of the best foodtubers ever!!

Btw: Chicken are great hunters. And for asian farmers who, most probably, have a problem with mice and rats devouring their grain, those animals were just like cats were for the ancient Egyptians. Ever seen chicken catch mice ? No ? You'll get the idea when you think of small-scale T-Rex dinosaurs (which, in fact, they are).

There's no fried chicken in Sweden. I grew up in Costa Rica, where fried chicken is everywhere. In Sweden, it is some sort of American curiosity people have heard about. Had to travel to Copenhagen in Denmark, that was the nearest fried chicken place.

ure a legend my sir

I know fried chicken is deeply rooted in african american history but I watched another channel that makes historical recipes from like old cookbooks and stuff and he made a fried chicken from like the 1700’s from like a european cook book or something. It was slightly different coating wise than the stuff we are used to, but pretty similar, so fried foods have been around a long time.

On the topic of KFC, I remember how I was shocked at the quality of the KFC when I first visited the US. I grew up eating KFC and where I'm from, its still amazing to this day, but KFC in the states? Its noting compared to KFC internationally! Maybe its because of industrialized farming or something, but the quality of KFC here is just not comparable to KFC anywhere outside of North America.

Just recently discovered your channel, I cannot stat enough that with the current trying times in America (and around the world, for that matter). How much your videos and your channel has bee a huge help. You combine two of my favorite assets, history and food, and you make them genuinely fascinating. The production value for your videos is insane. And, while I don't think you'd run across this comment, if you do, I hope you have a wonderful day.

I’ve been trying to perfect my fried chicken recipe during lockdown. I think I’m getting close but now I’ve got a new spice mix to try!

I think a common misconception around chickens is that they only crow in the morning. Having lived with chickens I know that they crow whenever the sun is up, not only in the morning. They don't necessarily do it early in the morning either. just when they're awake. I sometimes woke up before the chickens so they don't make for good alarm clocks

Andong, this is too funny. Google thinks you're Dutch and only have me Dutch subtitles...

As an Asian, specifically a Filipino who study agriculture. We also tackle about history of the livestocks. The earliest record of poultry domestication was around 3200 BC in Southeast Asia: India. There are four of wild jungle fowl which is the Red, Ceylon, Gray and Javan or Green jungle fowl. The Gallus gallus (Red Jungle Fowl) is found in the wild state in the area from India through Southeast Asia to the Philippines. As a global spread and domestication, a large number of breeds of domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) have been developed. Green jungle fowl and Gray jungle fowl are believed to be the ancestors of our domesticated chicken. Source: Lecture Learning Guide in Poultry Production and Management written by Rosers S. Bangcong As I was about to finish typing/writing, I came into realization that I am supposedly going to watch video about cooking fried chicken but the documentary got my mind working then lo and behold... I remembered what my instructor discussed when I was a freshman in college. 😅

When doing this at home, when there isn't a need to have a camera recording what you do, a wide and tall pot is a better choice for deep frying in case the oil starts to foam. I speak from experience here.. Also, a candy thermometer will much rather clip to a tall pot then a shallow skillet. And using a thermometer is highly recommended so you can more precisely control the temp of the oil. Large commercial fryers use a lot more oil and thus have more thermal mass to compensate adding the cold pieces of..whatever, at home you (at least I do) have to kinda fiddle with the heat a bit more.

Who woulda thunk? Fried chicken was the first "drive thru" fast food in America! I love your revelations of foodie history.

As a Nigerian, this was a real eye opener. Thanks Andong

i dont see how binding the batter to the skin helps with the skin not tearing off...it's usually the whole skin that separates from the meat, not the batter/crunchies from the skin

I'm loving the historical approach of your recent videos, it brings something new to the world of the youtube home cooks! Even if I don't particularly like a kind of food, it's very interesting to hear what's behind it.

Huh, I never heard about baking soda as a tenderizer, but it makes sense; it would react with the water in the chicken (which the salt will be "pulling out" of the meat), and create a basic (high ph) solution, which would break down the meat a bit. Then, when you add buttermilk (which is acidic), the acid and the base will (roughly) neutralize each other, removing any unwanted flavors of the baking soda. Neat! Also, great video, just for the history of fried chicken! So much of our history in the US is never taught due to our history (and present) of colonialism, capitalism, and slavery, but this stuff is fascinating.

Super interesting! I love food history I need to dig into this type of coating and do my own experiments. As a vegan I might not have use for a fried chicken recipe, but the technique can be used universally

I worked at KFC for nearly four and a half years and I was a cook. we added flour and mixed in dry milk and eggs with packets of the herbs and spices. I think that the method was very important as well as there was a method used for breading the chicken and it involved dunking the chicken in water (milk and egg will do fine) then turning (from under the chicken) forward and over 7 times, followed by burying the chicken with the seasoning in the container and pressing 10 times making sure to press the seasoned flour over every single chicken firmly and than turning with a folding motion again 7 times. also after the drumsticks were coated they were dunked again in the water and re-coated repeating the same method mentioned above. this made the drumsticks appear extra large whilst also enhancing their flavour. Now, a few time I tried without the method and pretty much just coated like anybody else would... and let me tell you that it was an ugly mess every single time and the flavour was nowhere near the same. Also keep in mind that they use a pressurized deep fryer to retain it's moisture. the timer was about 20 minutes.

I see you're a man of culture, early Chris Rock shows are the best hands down

I was glad to see the photos from Gordonsville Virginia. The lady pictured selling the chicken is attributed to one of the earlier fried chicken recipes in the nation, the town holds a fried chicken festival every year based on that history. It also has a railway museum with a killer BBQ place next door.

10:10 Why does this woman look exactly like MatPat from GameTheory???

Chicken was domesticated first and foremost for cockfighting. And they do fly quite well, at least as high as the branches of trees where they roost for the night.

Feeling blessed because youtube algorithm recommended your videos. I’ve been slowly binging on your content. Love how you incorporated history into your videos. Thank you ♡

I think it also need to be noted that chicken in the old days are different than the butchered poultry of today. I heard they usually cook older hen that can't lay eggs or rooster which have harder flesh. This also where brining and pressure fryer can help. IIRC i read that until late 70s per capita consumption of beef still dwarves that of chicken, it is only afterwards with the chicken processing advancement which start to sell chicken by parts (not whole carcasses) that the consumption start to rise.

"Don't mess with the sacred chickens." -Mike Duncan, History of Rome

Never really been one for fried food; (I really am Scottish, honest). But during lockdown I bought a deep-fat fryer as there were some recipes I wanted to try. Fried chicken was a winner, I really enjoyed it. Will be making a few tweeks now and using your method next time I make it. Always enjoy your videos, a perfect balance of history, food and cultures, three of my favourite subjects. So thank you.

So much good food has been born at the hands of starvation, death, struggle, and oppression. The only thing we can do now is eat it.

I was rised in (almost) a farm, and chicken and rabbits were part of the menu .We had almost 50 or 60 chicken...always fresh eggs to eat, boy!!! (I still have a big -250 eggs - incubator made by my father, kerosene-powered ). About "alarm clocks".....I HATED roosters! Specially in summer. I really wanted somebody to create a breed of silent roosters! I am home-office..ing? and devouring your videos....thanks a lot for so much effort! Hugs (with face mask) from Argentina.

I'm vegetarian but still came for the story

I want you to come over to my parents house for all future holiday feasts thank you for coming to my TED talk.

SO MUCH RESPECT ANDONG, thank you for taking the time to not only educate yourself but us! It’s so important!!!

this is the most robust video ive ever seen on the history of fried chicken. ive seen lots of this information here and there in bits and pieces but this is seriously robust. Like, not even alton brown covered it in this much detail. well done man, you killed it!

It doesn’t help that Colonel Sanders is dressed like a plantation owner.

Excellent video Ando. Great angles and movement. Change of presentation style. I enjoyed the historical overview. It's important we always remember and understand history. We can grow and learn and embrace everyone and everything around us. The past is gone but memory should lead us to clarity and transformation. Keep it up Bud!

This is education on the highest level :D Good job.

You come to this channel for the food and stay for the storys

I simply love those "history" videos, it's so nice to know the story behind the most common dishes, also watched the Doctor's wiener one and the fact that I live in eastern europe and we ate that kind of sausage our whole childhood and then to see a mini documentary related to this topic is amazing :D

People tend to use the terms history, stereotype, and culture for the same thing but flip it around depending on if they feel shame or pride or want to transfer or take ownership. Evry body that eats meat loves fried chicken. I have even busted a self proclaimed vegetarian for eating KFC. I swear some people just use it to try and claim moral superiority.

African food ways are deeply ingrained in the culture of the American South. As a white Southerner, I am indebted to my black brothers and sisters and their ancestors for much of our shared culture. I don't know how I'd live without, e.g., okra, hoppin john, and all the wonderful Creole dishes I grew up on.

This guy: “Black people love fried chicken. Why does this stereotype exist?” Also this guy: because black people love fried chicken”

Hi, I have an idea for you for the next video. Make a worlwide dumpling competition: ravioli, pierogi, pelmeni, Maultaschen, giaozi, jiaozi, gyoza and maybe more. Would Samosa count as a dumpling? Or you could try make an ultimate international fusion dumpling. ;)

This is also almost beat for beat how the watermelon stereotype started. A west African staple imported to the us, grown by slaves for food, then by freed slaves for money, then wielded as a stereotype by racist whites.

Some people might feel really uncomfortable learning the true history of fried chicken, related to slavery and colors only and etc. But the way I intepret it is really beautiful. Slaves were given very limited access of food and everything so they improvised hard enough to keep themselves fed. After Slavery, they immediately thought about empowering themselves,so black women were the actual pioneer of female empowerment. Which is definitely a feel good part of the story. When It was segregated and black people had to start their own restaurant, it didn't break their heart, instead they wanted to improvise and believe on themselves even more and that's why soul food is such a hit. I do believe that slavery and segregation is some of the biggest reason why fried chicken is such a fenomenon or else it would not be as popular as it is now. Starting with a sour note and ending with sweet and beautiful note is the reason we go forward.

Andong, Alter, I love your channel, the amount of research that you put into your recipes and videos (which is great), but, but, but ... on this occasion, I am so glad that you mentioned in the video that your pan with the frying fat was too full. Because it was. Dangerously full. Seeing you cook all that chicken in a pan of hot fat that is almost overflowing had me on the edge of my seat - and not in a good way! As someone who does a lot of deep-frying at home (and who is extremely cautious when so doing), I can tell you that the correct proportions are (i) the fat should be no higher than one third (ein Drittel) of the way up the side of the pan when there is no food cooking in the pan, and (ii) no higher than one half (eine Hälfte) of the way up when there is food cooking in the pan. And that’s it. Anything more is dangerous - just ask your friendly local fire brigade. They will tell you how many times in the year that they are called out to fires that start in the kitchen with too much fat cooking ... Anyhow, this is not meant as a criticism, nor as an admonition, but just a few well-meant words from a viewer who loves your channel and who wants to see you safe and healthy to cook for another day! 😸 Bleib‘ gesund, Alter! Mit bestem Gruß, Eòghann P.

Although i do get the historical reasoning for the stereotype regarding african people and friend chicken and watermelon, but if i'm honest that genuinely sounds like a pretty good fucking combo

So they just slap chicken,egg, and seasoned flour together and fry

I think what Sanders really did was make a very fast way to produce fried chicken in a restaurant setting through the use of pressure frying.

When a German guy knows more about race in America than most Americans

You have to be careful how much grease you use; it really doesn't have to be much deeper than halfway up the pieces when you put them in. They don't have to be fully submerged, since you turn them over anyway. You can absolutely fry an entire chicken (cut into serving pieces, obviously) in a single, common, ordinary 10-inch cast iron frying pan. (Well, ok, that was back in the days before Perdue oversized the "average" chicken; they were only 3-4 pounds back in the day.) Discovering the existence of the deeper "chicken fryer" was a revelation to me later in life! ;D I have to admit, I like the spices of the Colonel's original fried chicken, but for me it has always been for eat-in only, because it gets very soggy ridiculously fast. We nearly always got extra crispy for carryout when I was growing up, because every time we decided to risk the original, the stuff was stuck together and just plain disgusting after a mere 20 minute trip home. I'm also not a fan of how greasy it usually is these days, either. I'm still divided in my mind about whether I like a thicker coating on fried chicken or not. In my section of Virginia, we generally just used a seasoned flour dredge without any of the fancy bits. No baking soda, no buttermilk; just drop it in the dredge, shake off the excess, and straight into the Crisco. Thank you for the research and for telling the awkward parts. I had always thought fried chicken was an "everybody" thing, and had no idea about the stereotype until relatively recently. I'm glad to know how that came to be, so I can be more thoughtful in future. Microaggressions are still microaggressions, however unintended. :-/

WHERES THE COLLAB WITH JOSHUA

I'm not here for the recipes. I'm here for the incredible stories!

Stop saying “obviously” before shoehorning your own opinion. Stick with historical facts.

I just had to try this and I am blown away, never made such crunchy, flavorful and juicy chicken in my life! Thank you so much for going into so much detail with the history and the recipe!

This dude acts like only the U.S. had slaves. 😂🤣😂🤣 News flash: slavery is alive and well on this earth.

Another banger. You hitting the last few vids out the ballpark. Andong culinary historical journeyman has been unleashed. RU-vid is better off!

_Came here for a recipe, got a white person telling me about my ancestors. Great..._

As an african american I really appreciated the introduction! love it! this was great! loved your videos before, but love them more.