Why KFC Gave Up On Grilled Chicken

KFC is about as American as it gets. Big portions, tons of fat and delicious as all hell — not to mention it's ready in a minute or so. Did anyone else like to dip their fried chicken in the brown gravy, too? No...? Well, anyway, it might be surprising to remember that KFC twice tried to get in on the health food trend of grilled or broiled chicken, but it didn't go so well.

So what gives? Did the Colonel veto grilled chicken? No, probably not. While KFC and its parent conglomerate, Yum! Brands haven't really addressed this publicly, it does seem that when you have "Fried Chicken" in your brand name and try to sell grilled chicken, customers won't exactly be champing at the bit. One KFC worker mentioned that they just didn't sell very well at their location. The grilled chicken also didn't keep very well under the heat lamps after being prepped, so it was thrown out quite often. The funny thing is, now that it's gone, customers can't seem to get enough, with that same employee saying it's all customers ask for. But when it was there, no one cared.

While the KFC Double Down seems to rear its fried double head every so often, it's not the only menu change fast food companies have been forced to undergo due to failing sales and just plain bad logistical planning. Though plenty of famous, normal fast food meals still upset customers (isn't that right, Subway tuna sandwich?)

While it would be easy to bag on the Double Arch Deluxe, I'm thinking more along the lines of McDonald's all-day breakfast menu. While it seems like a great idea (I'll be the first to admit that the best item on the McDonald's menu is the hashbrown patty), apparently, the all-day breakfast menu causes nothing but kitchen chaos. The way the breakfast menu items are assembled just doesn't mesh well with how regular lunch and dinner menu items are made. Add that to the fact that the breakfast menu is cheaper, and you'll see that sales actually declined.

But the parallels between the failed grilled chicken and the failed all-day breakfast don't just stop at the logistical issues. McDonald's cites that their customer base's single biggest request was all-day breakfast items, much like how customers want the grilled chicken back. Who knows why customers demand certain things and then fail to purchase them? For KFC, it's a weird branding issue. For McDonald's, it would probably be an incredibly large, some say bloated, menu. I'm sad to see that I can't get hash browns at 2 p.m. like I want, but I guess life goes on.