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Size matters: How KFC’s test kitchen overhauled the chicken tender

What makes the best chicken tender? Will people eat pickle cheesecake? KFC’s test kitchen is trying to find the answers, and find the next hit promotion.

KFC has embarked on a major revamp of its classic fried chicken line-up, starting with a redesign of its signature tenders, as part of a strategy to fend off fast-growing new rivals such as Fried Brothers and El Jannah.

For the past 18 months, at a test kitchen in Frenchs Forest – a quiet suburban enclave in Sydney’s northern beaches – a team of chefs has broken down KFC’s tenders to their individual elements and scrutinised each step of the process.

Size does matter: KFC is promising bigger, crispier chicken in menu revamp

KFC is defending its territory as the top fried-chicken player by overhauling menu classics and chasing sales “sugar highs” as it seeks to halve the time it takes to bring globally trending flavours to Australia.

This week the Dirty Bird relaunched chicken tenders that claim to be crispier and 30 per cent bigger than its previous version, after emerging fast-food and fried-chicken competitors led to a rise in KFC customer complaints and a drop-off in sales of the boneless serving.

“We didn’t have the best tenders in the market,” said Vanessa Rowed, chief marketing officer at Yum! Brands, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut in Australia. “We have the best chicken but we’re not necessarily clear with the customer because it was too small or it was a bit feeling a bit dry.”

KFC unleashes biggest overhaul to its menu in decades

Fast-food giant KFC has revealed its biggest menu overhaul in decades, as chicken becomes the new frontier in the takeaway battleground.

The first big shift? A complete transformation of its signature tenders. 

From today customers will notice a change to KFC’s chicken tenders  Australian Financial Review

The Australian Financial Review reported that over the past 18 months, a team of chefs has developed an updated version of a KFC menu mainstay – chicken tenders.

KFC senior innovation development manager Kathryn Lake told the AFR that customers wanted bigger, more plump tenders after “a high number of complaints about them”.

This spurred KFC to develop a new chicken tender, described as a crispier and juicer thanks to a change in the way they are cooked. 

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