KFC plans to offer grilled chicken on menu

Jayne Hurley, senior nutritionist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based advocate for nutrition and health, said KFC deserves credit but the chain lagged behind competitors.

"KFC has sort of been missing in action for healthier options," she said.

The grilled chicken easily beats KFC Original Recipe fried chicken in calories, fat and sodium, but Hurley warned a grilled chicken breast contains 600 milligrams of sodium, slightly more than a third of what someone 50 years or older should consume daily. By contrast, an Original Recipe fried chicken breast has 1,020 milligrams.

Still, there's likely more on a plate than just KFC chicken. Hurley said she'd like to see KFC offer healthier side dishes as an alternative to such standards as macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes and gravy.

"Just because you're getting grilled chicken doesn't mean you can just chow down on biscuits," she said.

KFC says some of its restaurants offer salads.

In promoting the new grilled product, KFC plans to change "Kentucky Fried Chicken" storefront signs to add grilled to the name. Chicken buckets will still feature KFC founder Harland Sanders but will get a redesign to promote fried and grilled chicken.

Still, Hasselo acknowledged that changing perceptions about KFC won't happen overnight.

"With Kentucky Fried Chicken being part of your name, trying to get people to understand that you have these non-fried options available now — it's not an uphill battle but it's certainly something we have to work on and make sure we communicate well," he said.

Brian Shinn, in charge of operations at 13 Colorado Springs KFC stores part of the grilled chicken test, said some KFC franchisees have been frustrated with the chain for not rolling out non-fried items sooner.

"When we saw everything going healthy, we needed to jump on sooner," Shinn said.

"We have to play catch up now," he added.

KFC has been testing Kentucky Grilled Chicken for about 2 1/2 years, and even the chain's president admitted he's been anxious at times about the wait.

"You might say, `What took us so long,'" Dedrick said. "I've asked that question a couple times myself. The answer is we had to get it right."

In Colorado Springs, grilled chicken sales had a robust start 2 1/2 years ago, backed by television advertising, Shinn said. TV spots promoting grilled chicken ended about a year and a half ago, and since then sales for the product "have not been where we wanted to be," he said.

Now KFC plans a series of TV ads promoting grilled chicken in test markets, including a spot featuring Dedrick and workers adding grilled to a storefront name.

Shinn said the company seems committed to grilled chicken, and said he's optimistic that KFC has finally come up with a lasting non-fried chicken winner.

"We need to have it," he said. "We need to make it work."

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