In the battle of fried chicken wars, who would’ve thought Kentucky Fried Chicken’s spiciest critic would turn out to be the great-great-great-nephew of the Colonel himself?
It all began last month, when Colonel Junior Anthony E. Sanders posted a video voicing his frustration with the company’s marketing team and their sexualization of the late Colonel Sanders. At the very start, Sanders revealed that KFC had blocked him on social media.
He explained:
“My page has been dedicated for many years to upholding Colonel Sanders' legacy… They blocked me for upholding his true history to let people know who he actually was, and they blocked me for calling out their advertising team as weird, disrespectful, and disgusting over the last decade.”
He’s referring to the 129-year-old founder being depicted as “DTF” (for old folks, that means “down to the fry”) with actors like Mario Lopez in Lifetime’s KFC mini-movie A Recipe for Seduction.
Check out the Original Recipe trailer below:
- YouTubeOne Media Coverage/YouTube
Other actors have donned the white suit and bolo tie, including Billy Zane, Rob Lowe, Jim Gaffigan, Norm Macdonald, Craig Fleming, and George Hamilton.
In recent years, the iconic founder of the Harland Sanders’ chain has been reimagined as the star of a romance novella, a tattooed virtual influencer, a troupe of erotic dancers, a Nashville crooner, and even the prize in a digital dating simulator.
And who could forget the 2019 “Chickendales” Mother’s Day ad—a full-on parody of Chippendales featuring shirtless dancers:
- YouTubeKFC/YouTube
Because nothing says Mother’s Day like sexually fried chicken.
But according to Sanders’ descendant, the family isn’t laughing:
“They have sexualized my uncle for marketing purposes. They have encouraged fans to sexualize him as well. I can and will not support a company that does that.”
The complaint also extends to fan art, anime edits, and Pinterest boards that recast the Colonel as a silver-haired Zaddy.
TikToker user @angel.lie123 posted a compilation:
In response, Sanders decided to fight fire with fryer—by spilling the secret recipe.
After blasting the advertising team’s work as “weird,” “disrespectful,” and “disgusting,” he revealed:
“My response to Kentucky Fried Chicken blocking me is, do you wanna know how to make their chicken truly, genuinely their chicken? This recipe I put together through facts.”
The recipe includes sage, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, red and cayenne pepper, coriander, ginger, garlic powder, white pepper, black pepper, cardamom, plus salt, regular flour, and cake flour.
For precise measurements, Sanders shared his own twist:
“The measurements I'm providing is what my family likes. This is the chicken we cook in our house.”
Meanwhile, in my house, we’re strictly a Popeyes chicken household—sorry, not sorry, Colonel, those biscuits and gravy-filled mashed potatoes own my soul.
And his cooking instructions came with extra emphasis:
“If you happen to have a pressure cooker, use that. If you don't, follow the instructions to the best of your abilities with what you have. Use cake flour. Use lard or vegetable oil and add the salt and MSG to the flour after the eleven is mixed with the flour. Do the seven-ten-seven method. Film it and tag me in it.”
Watch Sanders spill the full recipe tea in his TikTok video below:
And don’t worry, folks, here’s a screenshot of the recipe below:
@realcolonelsanders/TikTok
Quick, someone call TikTok food reviewer Jordan Howlett to fact-check this chicken recipe, stat.
Social media, of course, ate it up—family drama and all:
@lemongrabthisass/TikTok
@theo.abernathy/TikTok
@daedae1032/TikTok
@woofgang85/TikTok
@fennuki/TikTok
@lana.the.impaler/TikTok
@bubblegumkikiTikTok
@endpieceofrye/TikTok
@mrlsarcher/TikTok
@mikiroony/TikTok
@a.noni.moose/TikTok
@ecomagical/TikTok
Meanwhile, the family feud comes at a difficult time for KFC.
According to the New York Post, all that attractive marketing hasn’t exactly boosted sales. The chain lost market share last year to competitors Raising Cane’s and Wingstop, dropping to the No. 5 chicken chain in the U.S. by sales. Same-store sales at KFC restaurants worldwide increased by 2 percent, but in the U.S., they decreased by 5 percent.
Executives admitted this week that, despite introducing value deals and new menu items, customers just aren’t responding. Meanwhile, Taco Bell—also owned by Yum Brands—reported a 4 percent increase in U.S. and international sales, partly due to the successful relaunch of Crispy Chicken Nuggets.
At this point, the Colonel might need less “finger-lickin’ sexy” and more “finger-lickin’ strategy” if KFC wants to claw back its crown.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
