How To Make Sure You Get Fresh Fried Chicken From KFC Every Time

KFC has been around for more than 70 years. As time has passed, people have learned more chain restaurant hacks, like getting a fresh Burger King burger or ensuring a fresh Wendy's sandwich every time. But if you're trying to get some just-cooked KFC chicken, it all starts with three words: "from the back."

Allegedly, once KFC's chicken is cooked, it goes toward the back of the warming area where the employees grab it to sell. The older chicken moves toward the front of the warming area. This way, the chicken that was cooked longer ago gets sold before the fresher chicken, and it keeps the chicken's freshness consistent. But if you ask for chicken from the back, you're essentially asking for chicken that just came out of the fryer, meaning it will be the freshest of the bunch. Of course, there is no real way to know if the employees are grabbing your chicken from the back — though if you did a side-by-side taste test, you might be able to tell the difference — but it's worth a try. This trick is best done during busier times, when you want fresher chicken but it's unlikely that the store would cook your chicken to order.

Cooking the perfect fried chicken takes time — especially when it's as thick as KFC's chicken. But if the restaurant isn't busy at all, you might be able to get away with made-to-order chicken if you just ask. With that said, you can expect to wait a while for it to cook, and there's no guarantee they'll say yes to such a request. KFC doesn't say how long it takes to cook its chicken, but the brand does note on the website that it's "pressure cooked at a low temperature," so it likely takes at least five minutes, depending on the chicken's size.

If you don't want to ask for any special requests, your best bet is to just go to the store during its busiest times. This means the chicken is turning over just about as quickly as they can get it out of the fryer, so going during peak lunch and dinner hours means you probably won't have chicken that was sitting in a warming drawer for too long, if at all.