In order that you may know exactly how your finger lickin’ good fried chicken is prepared at KFC, the fast food chain plans to bring guests on insider tours of its previously highly guarded kitchens. To underscore its commitment to transparency and food safety, KFC Singapore has also opened its first open-kitchen concept restaurant at Tampines Mall, where patrons can see the cooks at work inside the kitchen through glass panels.

KFC’s new Tampines Mall outlet, which opened on Tuesday (2 April), is the first Southeast Asian outlet to feature such an open kitchen. KFC’s Open Kitchen programme has already been rolled out in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Japan. KFC calls its glass-panelled kitchen “The Tank”.



KFC Singapore’s general manager, Lynette Lee, said at the outlet’s launch, “With the rollout of the ‘The Tank’ at KFC Tampines Mall and the KFC Open Kitchen programme, I hope to proudly share KFC’s heritage and Colonel Sanders’ obsessive passion in cooking the best-tasting chicken. We’re very proud of this heritage and we’re so happy to share that with all Singaporeans.”

View photos KFC’s custom-made stainless steel “clamshell” basket for frying chicken. (Photo: Teng Yong Ping/Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore) More

Customers will be able to see KFC’s chefs perform all the steps involved in preparing and cooking its famous fried chicken, from breading all the way to frying. (Of course, they are still not revealing the top-secret ingredients which contain 11 different herbs and spices – although a reporter claimed to have found the secret recipe in an old family scrapbook belonging to Colonel Sanders’ nephew.)

View photos Colonel Sanders’ planned layout for arranging chicken pieces before they’re fried in KFC’s “clamshell” baskets in the pressure cooker. (Photo: Teng Yong Ping/Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore) More

KFC fried chicken is apparently still prepared using the techniques created by founder Colonel Harlan Sanders. The chicken pieces are breaded with a “7-10-7” technique: they’re rolled seven times after being cleaned to remove excess moisture, tossed in the breading flour 10 times, then pressed into the breading flour seven times to ensure the ideal flour-to-chicken coating ratio. The chicken is then arranged in KFC’s special stainless steel “clamshell” baskets according to Colonel Sanders’ exact layout – designed to prevent overlapping of the chicken pieces – before being pressure-cooked.

Beginning 8 April, guided 35-minute tour sessions of KFC kitchens at selected outlets will be available for booking at KFC Singapore’s website. These include outlets in Kallang, Waterway Point, Toa Payoh Lorong 6, Jurong Point and Northpoint City. The tours are not free though – each admission costs $15, but it comes with a two-piece KFC chicken meal and a goodie bag. On these tours, you will get to see the kitchen’s storage area, the chicken breading and preparation stations, and the service counter area where food is served.

Follow Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore on Facebook.

Related stories:

KFC is finally revealing its secret recipe

Two more Jollibee restaurants to open soon in Singapore heartlands

Man claims he’s uncovered KFC’s top-secret recipe