Can You Request Fresh Chicken At KFC? What To Know Before You Ask

There's no denying that even after all these years, KFC is immensely popular. Although it has fallen in the rankings among chicken restaurants across America, it still made nearly $5 billion in 2024, according to Restaurant Business, and that's a heck of a lot of chicken. If you find yourself craving some of the Colonel's 11 herbs and spices but you don't want chicken that's been sitting in the warmer for a little while, fear not. There is a way to get fresh, piping hot chicken from KFC. But you do need a little patience.

Fresh chicken usually means you're going to need to wait a bit. According to Redditors, it's not hard to get. You just need to ask for it. Each piece of chicken gets hand breaded and seasoned in store before being fried, although the Extra Crispy process is a little different. The chicken is pressure fried at KFC, a process that can take 10 to 12 minutes. With the prep work, including seasoning and resting time, you could be looking at 20 minutes for a fresh piece of chicken, depending on whether a new batch has already been started, according to employees on Reddit.

Keep in mind, the store generally won't make a single piece of chicken if that's all you're looking for. They tend to cook in larger batches. One Redditor said, "They can't cook less than 18 pieces where I'm from," so you may need to have a larger order or catch them when they are planning to put more down anyway.

Depending on your KFC, you may not be able to get fresh chicken all the time. If you just want a couple of pieces and it's not peak time, they may not be willing to put new chicken down. The store has no way to reheat chicken, either. That would likely violate company standards, so you can't ask them to drop it in the fryer again. There is also no microwave available. A KFC employee who spoke to the Daily Mail suggested that you can order chicken from the back if you're looking for a fresher piece. Chicken is stored in the warmer according to a first in, first out system. So the chicken at the front will be the oldest and therefore least fresh. If you ask for it from the back, that will be the freshest available.

Your best bet for getting fresh chicken without a wait is to order during peak times. If the restaurant is doing brisk business, it will be constantly cooking chicken to keep up with demand. According to Quora, you should visit between 11:30 AM and 1:30 PM or between 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM for the most frequent turnover. During these times, it's most likely that politely requesting freshly cooked chicken will get you a hot portion.

Another tip is to order items that are more easily cooked to order. Bone-in chicken is cooked in batches, but a fried chicken sandwich or chicken tenders can be made fresh to order one at a time. With all this in mind, and these other KFC ordering mistakes you can avoid, getting hot, fresh chicken should be a breeze.