What makes KFC Coleslaw so delicious

While most fast food and casual restaurants focusing on fried chicken and southern fare offer other fast food options besides potatoes, there is a consensus and almost objectively true belief that KFC has the best coleslaw. Some of America’s best fried chicken is served every day at thousands of KFC locations around the world, but it’s not a real meal or real interaction with the legendary Colonel Sanders without a large helping or a small plastic cup of coleslaw. As historic and popular as KFC’s fried chicken, the chain is almost as well known for its coleslaw, an unrivaled concoction of little more than cabbage, carrots, and a sweet and spicy dressing.

Coleslaw lovingly prepared at home or purchased from other restaurants never tastes or resembles what is served at KFC. That’s why the chain pays special attention and uses very specific ingredients, prepared in a precise process, to obtain a winning, one-of-a-kind final product. Here’s why KFC coleslaw is so undeniably good.

Read more: The many, many ingredients packed into McDonald’s fries

The vegetables are perfectly prepared

The texture and overall mouthfeel of KFC coleslaw are just as important and specific to the dish as the flavor. Coleslaw can easily become cloudy or experience separation, which may well be due to the way salad and dressing is traditionally prepared with shredded vegetables. Primarily cabbage, but other vegetarian ingredients such as carrots and onions appear in most coleslaws in long, thinly sliced ​​strips. KFC does it differently – all the vegetables in the coleslaw are finely chopped until they form tiny squares and rectangles.

Cutting the ingredients into the smallest form possible allows for more surface area to receive and absorb the thick and creamy sauce that turns a pile of chopped vegetables into coleslaw. This method allows the sauce to adhere to the ingredients, keeping everything mixed and blended much longer, allowing the sauce to soak into the solid pieces, making them soft and flavorful.

When you need it most, it’s perfectly cold

The most commonly available fast food additions are hot – french fries, onion rings and the like. This is especially true at KFC, which recreates classic American home-style dinners at affordable takeout prices. The chain serves dishes that historically and well pair with fried chicken, such as mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, biscuits and coleslaw. Only coleslaw is not served to customers warm or hot. Acting as a counterpart adds to its appeal – coleslaw is functional because it acts as a cooling balm to be eaten between bites of fried chicken filled with hot juices and heavily melted pasta or potatoes.

The coolness of the coleslaw also contrasts with other items on the KFC menu because it is so different from everything else. KFC biscuits may be dry, but the moisture of the almost mushy coleslaw precludes this from being a problem, while the cooling effect can also cure the spiciness. Some KFC menu items, such as hot wings, are quite spicy, and the coleslaw moderates the heat.

It’s visually appealing

Food engages many senses, not just taste, and we are often most drawn to foods that look like they have multiple flavors or are high in nutrients. Research indicates that visual recognition of food taste is an evolutionary advantage, along with the ability to perceive color, an essential function developed by early humans to enable us to perceive nutritious and energy-providing wild fruits and vegetables. This, in turn, led to a visual feeling of hunger, i.e. associating the sight of food with the desire or need to eat it.

This influences how we desire and want to consume food today. For example, KFC’s coleslaw is bright and colorful to be inviting – all chopped vegetables containing important nutrients attract consumers with these green, white and orange colors. Conversely, this is even more noticeable when compared to other KFC menu items – all that fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy are shades of dull brown.

It’s not too salty and sweet enough

The quality of a ready-to-serve coleslaw depends on the right balance between the small number of elements from which it is made. A well-made coleslaw should be tangy, sweet, tangy and salty – all of these things, but not too much in either direction. The KFC coleslaw recipe takes this into account and offers a precise combination of these flavor categories.

A serving of KFC coleslaw contains an objectively high amount of salt – 180 milligrams of sodium in one plastic cup, which means that this one small addition contains about 8% of the FDA’s recommended daily allowance. But it’s also low enough in salt to keep the diner unaware of how salty the coleslaw might be, because any overt saltiness is offset by the sweetness. The same serving of coleslaw contains 10 grams of added sugar, or 20% of the FDA’s recommended daily allowance. Salty and sweet swirl around each other, creating a flavor that is both real and something new, allowing tartness and spiciness to shine through.

The secret is in the vinegar

KFC coleslaw has many specific and easily identifiable flavor notes – the ready-made fast food addition is sweet, salty, creamy and spicy, among others. Many adjectives can be used to draw attention to another element that is difficult to define, such as spicy, tangy, or crackling. This distinctive flavor isn’t found in other restaurant coleslaws, and KFC’s is so good because of that tanginess that comes from the addition of bitter, sour, complex vinegar.

According to actual KFC employees, the secret ingredient in the chain’s coleslaw is vinegar, specifically that produced by fermenting sweet apple cider. That’s why KFC coleslaw is so tangy, tangy and has something amazing about it. The vinegar itself provides that spark, as does the combination of this ingredient with all the other flavorings in the KFC coleslaw.

The dressing is difficult to overcome or recreate

The dominant ingredients of coleslaw are cabbage and dressing, and because cabbage itself has no flavor, the vegetable is the vehicle for the dressing. Coleslaw is only as good as its sauce, and KFC is different from other fast food or pre-made supermarket coleslaw because of its unique sauce. Most coleslaws, whether professionally prepared or following a recipe, call for a mayonnaise-based dressing, and KFC is no exception as it uses a smooth, creamy dressing that is mayonnaise-based. But KFC’s coleslaw is different from all the others and stands head and shoulders above them because the sauce base consists not only of mayonnaise, spices and salt, but also of the Miracle Whip seasoning adhering to the mayonnaise.

Disrupting the age-old Miracle Whip vs. mayonnaise debate, former KFC employees say the officially approved coleslaw recipe uses a mixture of mayonnaise and Miracle Whip. This adds a distinct tang, as well as sweetness and a few subtle other flavors, since Miracle Whip is made with a fair amount of garlic, paprika, and sugar.

It is well portioned

Beyond flavors, functionality and texture, the key to KFC’s overarching size and consistency may be psychological. KFC seems to know exactly how much coleslaw is enough for most of its customers. In the vast majority of stores, KFC is sold in two ways – in a small, shallow plastic bowl intended for consumption by one person, or in a large tube that can be shared between up to three other people. Either way, this carefully portioned and perhaps small-looking mound of wet, sweet, salty cabbage bits in sauce is just the right amount of coleslaw that can and should be eaten with a KFC meal along with chicken, bread, and perhaps another starchy side dish.

The taste of coleslaw is so unique that too much of it can be overwhelming. KFC seems to be aware that in this case too much of a good thing is bad, because any serving of coleslaw larger than the specified amount can make you feel sick. Instead, Customers are served an amount that prevents other dishes from heating up and offer a sweet and creamy flavor to balance the meaty and oily flavors of fried chicken.

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