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00:00FC. Our obsession with chicken is clucking massive. It is Britain's biggest fast food phenomenon.
00:08We spend over 4.5 billion pounds every year on chicken from fast food outlets. More than we do
00:14on beef burgers or takeaway pizza. Fried chicken is really enjoying a moment. Especially with the
00:20crispy skin when you dunk it into the gravy. It just makes sense. Chicken is the UK's fastest
00:26growing cuisine. The number of chicken shops grew 6% last year. It's also a social media
00:31sensation for awkward celeb dates. I'm actually surprised you're here. I'm also surprised I'm
00:36here as well. As the nation spends more on chicken than ever before, two mega brands are going
00:42claw to claw for our cash. The defending champion, the breast of the breast, the cock of the walk
00:49is a real American hero. Offering the classic US model of delicious fatty comfort food.
00:56Fast. Chicken Colossus KFC has over a thousand stores in the UK, selling an estimated 40 million
01:03pieces of chicken a week. That's 83,000 pieces of chicken an hour. Hot on KFC's tail feathers
01:12is the Peri Peri powerhouse Nando's. It's the UK's biggest sit-down restaurant. And last year
01:19shifted a billion pounds worth of chicken. These supersized Chick-ings are locked in a cockfight to
01:27serve our lust for chicken. So both of them are brilliant restaurant brands in their own particular
01:32ways. To sum up KFC in one word, I think I'd have to say boring. They're locked in an epic
01:40battle over
01:41flavor. If you're ordering lemon and herb, then, you know, kind of, you're a bit of a joke really.
01:45You can't handle the heat. Health. Fried chicken bad, grilled chicken good. The dining experience.
01:53You wouldn't go for cheeky KFC on a date night. It would be that impressive. And even our kitchen
01:58cupboards. So controversially, I have put Peri Peri sauce on a KFC. It's an epic clash of two titans.
02:06Who rules the roost in this battle of the brands? Ever since KFC arrived in the UK in 1965,
02:16the secret to becoming King Cock is to make the chicken taste of, well, something. Our proud
02:23cockerel's first battleground is over flavor. Chicken by itself is unbelievably bland. So it needs to have
02:31something around it, a coating, a sauce, a marinade to give it that flavor.
02:36The genius of chicken, if you're a restaurant, is it's very high margin. You can make profit from
02:41chicken. It's a very basic meat and you add flavor. That's where all the kind of the pizzazz
02:46comes in. I'm Colonel Harland Sanders and I'd like to tell you a little bit about my Kentucky Fried
02:50Chicken. For nearly 30 years, KFC went unchallenged in the UK chicken market, advertising a straightforward
02:57and unexciting story of herbs and spices. Look at there. Didn't I tell you it was finger-lickin'
03:01good?
03:02Yeah.
03:04Joshan Gill is the chicken king, the KFC OG.
03:08My normal KFC order is the Zynga Tower meal, two portions of extra wings and another Phillip
03:15burger on top, obviously with the chips as well. Over the years, I've probably spent around
03:19£50,000 to £20,000 at KFC. As for the 11 herbs and spices, which are kind of secret,
03:26that's obviously that calling card. I've actually cornered the chief executive and he said,
03:30I can't tell you what they are, but we are fairly confident what they are.
03:34Their secret weapon in the flavor fight is so secret. Not even the companies making the
03:40spice mix know the complete recipe.
03:43They still use two separate companies. So one company does five, another one does six
03:48and each company doesn't know what the other five or six is.
03:51It's been a squawking success. KFC has ten times as many fried chicken shops as anyone else
03:57and for years, no one could lay a claw on them in the chicken market.
04:03That was until a new exotic option from Portugal by way of South Africa entered the hen house.
04:10Nando's opened its first restaurant in Ealing in 1992, a totally new and revolutionary intruder
04:16on KFC's turf.
04:18There wasn't really anything like it before. Couldn't really get chicken and chips before,
04:21certainly couldn't get peri-peri. I don't think anyone has heard of it.
04:24Guess what? The food is here.
04:26Shailen and Sheldon are the brandos of Nando's. They're mad for it.
04:30How often do we go Nando's? Oh my God, we visit Nando's at least twice a week or maybe even
04:36three.
04:36Yeah, they love Nando's, that's what I hope. We do.
04:41In 1992, KFC had nearly 300 stores in the UK. To Nando's too.
04:48Nando's method of drum-sticking it to the big boys was to bring the heat.
04:53If you're in the chicken market, you've got to be in the spice market. That is what the modern consumer
04:57wants.
04:58For me, Nando's, the hotter it is, the better it is. It's painful, but still, for me, the best flavour.
05:05International global fast food is big business in the UK.
05:09In 1990, there was little apart from American fast food.
05:14Nando's first punch in the chicken fight was to offer an exotic challenge to Uncle Sam's stranglehold.
05:23Spicy chicken is hot online. This artfully filmed interview with a vulnerable Jennifer Lawrence has more than 100 million views.
05:34Nando's has leapt into the spice age with both wings, in its own tongue-in-cheek way.
05:39You sat at a table of OGs getting destroyed at Hot Wing Roulette.
05:43But there's a rematch next week.
05:48Nando's wing roulette has been promoted in naturalistic, authentic-seeming clips.
05:52It's a plate of wings of differing spices with a super-hot one hidden among them.
05:57Now, tucked in this plate of chicken wings is a super-spicy chicken wing.
06:02Let's see if we get lucky and get it.
06:04OK, I'm going to go for this one.
06:06Nando's way to stand out from the crowd is to offer this range of heats.
06:10That is hot.
06:12Tip of my tongue is on fire, but I don't think it's the hottest.
06:15From completely unspiced to extra hot.
06:18Oh. Oh. Oh.
06:23That's the super-spicy one.
06:25That is peri-peri hot.
06:28It's something KFC could only dream about.
06:31Everyone can find something they like.
06:35Nando's, they let you see how much spice you want.
06:38The sauce I go for in Nando's is a very hot one.
06:40My maximum tolerance is hot.
06:42Medium, right down the middle.
06:44I don't like hot at all. I'm a mild guy.
06:46I'm a spicy guy, so I like peri-peri, obviously, but extra hot.
06:50Yeah, yeah.
06:52I think one of the cleverest things that Nando's does is give the consumer an element of choice.
06:57You know, do you want lemon and herb? Do you want it extra hot?
07:00Britain had fallen in love with spicy food, and here was a restaurant chain saying,
07:04how spicy do you like it?
07:05You can be a 15-year-old lad who likes something a bit spicy, but your nan can come with
07:09you
07:09who maybe wants something, like, a bit more tame so she can have lemon and herb.
07:13I can't imagine anyone who I know who wouldn't be able to find something to eat in Nando's.
07:18It gave us more personalisation than KFC, but also generated hype and fun Nando's can wittily promote
07:25to its Gen Z target market.
07:27Then, blum, this guy pulled through screaming.
07:30Man, he's water.
07:31Gave us all the serious ick.
07:33Brother only ordered a medium.
07:35It's almost kind of a challenge when you go in there as to what level of flavour you can take,
07:40and then making kind of fun out of that element of the brand.
07:43His spice level is lemon and herb, whereas me, I will go for that extra hot spice.
07:48I think I'm going to go for this, my favourite.
07:51No, that's really bad.
07:53That's my favourite.
07:55I feel like that makes me more of a fiery kind of person.
07:58I feel like that's more my personality, whereas his personality is quite cool and is quite calm.
08:03There is a real culture of where you fit in, and there's all sorts of social media memes.
08:08You know, you can go on a date, and it's depending on whether you match on the spice levels.
08:11So, it's a lot of fun to be had with that.
08:16The Nando's Portuguese cockerel seriously ruffled KFC's feathers.
08:21The fight for spice was heating up.
08:23You put KFC on the back foot a little bit.
08:25They knew they had to develop.
08:27They knew they had to expand faster and try and make themselves more competitive,
08:33develop more recipes, develop more products.
08:37KFC had to respond.
08:39In 1996, they introduced a spicy speciality they say was popular in their Trinidad stores,
08:46the Zynga, showcased in this celebratory local ad.
08:50Wait, wasn't the Zynga invented in 1984?
08:53Yep, and I couldn't be prouder.
08:56So, I just love the Zynga taro meal.
09:00I'm just such a big fan of spicy fried chicken.
09:04The Zynga is KFC's biggest selling burger.
09:08They sell 31 million a year in the UK.
09:11That's a Zynga every second.
09:14KFC was fighting back against Nando's spice attack.
09:19Coming up, in the next stage of the chicken wars...
09:22Nice.
09:23Nando's turns to willing celebrities to make its signature spice famous too.
09:28And KFC tried to hook Gen Z in the most bizarre way.
09:31Very unhinged, very kind of quirky, at times pretty odd.
09:41Nando's spice had rattled KFC, but in the early 90s, his restaurants were struggling.
09:46In the first three years in the UK, they only built two more, while KFC built 80.
09:53The fight to make their chicken hot moved online.
09:56To be the biggest in the chicken coop, you need to create the myth, the legend, the hero.
10:02And they both have their golden eggs.
10:04KFC and Nando's, about the food, but not entirely.
10:08I think they transcend that, and they battle it out in terms of social media and staying relevant.
10:12Every business wants the consumers to be fanatical about their brand.
10:17Because fanatical consumers have a higher level of emotional connection with the consumer.
10:23They don't just like your product, they're in love with your product.
10:27KFC had their herbs and spices to make what it said was finger-licking good.
10:32The magic of KFC is kind of its own myth-making, and the fact that no one who works here
10:37knows what's in the 11 herbs and spices.
10:40It helped KFC grow from a single store in 1965 to over 1,000 today, more than double Nando's 474.
10:52Nando's needed a legend of its own that could define its image, too.
10:56It came in the form of an unknown piece of peppery pizzazz that could entice a winning performance from even
11:03England footballer Bakayu Saka in playful ads.
11:07Nice.
11:09The Nando's peri-peri sauce is super famous, obviously.
11:12You think peri-peri, you only think of Nando's.
11:14And so when people think Nando's, they think peri-peri and vice versa.
11:18It is like a hero for their brand.
11:22Peri-peri was completely new to the UK.
11:25As an African chilli.
11:27It didn't feature in our Indian curry houses.
11:33I'm at the hottest place in the UK right now, the Portsmouth chilli festival.
11:38And I'm here to find out exactly what a peri-peri is.
11:42Who better to try to pin down a peri-peri than a woman calling herself the chilli queen?
11:48Ah, the chilli queen.
11:50Hi, Kay.
11:51Thank you very much.
11:52I've looked everywhere at this festival for a peri-peri chilli.
11:55I can't find one.
11:57Okay, well, you're in luck, because I've got some right here.
12:00Awesome, the chilli queen.
12:01She just carries them around on her person.
12:03Here we go.
12:05These are piri-peri.
12:07Beautiful.
12:08Oh, yeah, look at them.
12:09Gorgeous.
12:13Should I put that in?
12:15I think go for it.
12:17Try it.
12:20It's a lovely pepper.
12:21It's not known for its heat.
12:23It's just more the flavour, the citrusy aspects of it.
12:27Okay.
12:29Okay, it's wrapping up now, babes.
12:31It's wrapping up.
12:32That's quite hot now.
12:33It warms up.
12:34You need to have some chocolate milk afterwards to cool things down.
12:37Oh, yeah.
12:37That's my little secret.
12:38I love chocolate milk afterwards.
12:40Yeah.
12:42Peri-peri simply means pepper in Swahili.
12:45It's hot, but not too hot.
12:47Middle of the road enough for Nando's to use without blowing the nation's socks off.
12:51To prove the point, the chilli queen wants to show me one that does.
12:57I have here the scotch bonnet yellow pepper.
13:00This comes in at about 350,000 scale heat units.
13:03We are talking probably five times the heat, at least.
13:07Yeah, absolutely.
13:08Here we go.
13:13It's almost like I can't even taste it.
13:15Really?
13:16Yeah.
13:16It's almost like I can't even taste chilli or pepper.
13:19It's just heat.
13:21It's just heat.
13:22It's just like fire.
13:24Wow.
13:24And it's revving up.
13:26You can really feel the contrast between the peri-peri and this, can't you?
13:30The jump in the heat levels.
13:32I mean, it's a whole different league.
13:34Yeah.
13:35Whole different calibre, isn't it?
13:36I think that's the first time I've eaten a scotch bonnet.
13:38You were really brave, but I have to say I was impressed.
13:40That was very impressive.
13:41I'm going to go find some milk.
13:43Great to meet you.
13:44Good luck.
13:50The genius that was peri-peri was almost entirely Nando's.
13:55They elevated this entirely unknown and unassuming pepper to God's status that rivaled the 11 herbs and spices.
14:03They could have just said spicy food, but spicy food doesn't create character and it doesn't create connection.
14:11And now, all of a sudden, we want to have Nando's peri-peri chips, Nando's peri-peri sauces.
14:19We all want a bit of this peri-peri pie.
14:21Go back to a time before Nando's was in the British market.
14:24It was completely unheard of.
14:27It has taken the UK by storm.
14:31In the fight with KFC's old-fashioned colonel, peri-peri made Nando's cool.
14:36Everyone wanted to be part of the chicken club.
14:39It was quite aggressive in terms of marketing.
14:42I think it kind of emerged, Nando's, in the UK, as social media did.
14:46So it was quite a natural rise.
14:49Having turned peri-peri into a legend, they attracted real-life legends, like an enthusiastic and bouncy Ed Sheeran.
14:56Yo, and we eat chicken for free, cause he's got a black car to see.
15:01He made a song about chicken from Nando's, and are you gonna bang yo yes?
15:04Nando's has really leveraged these celebrity superfans, because it's kind of endorsements that money can buy, and it's much more
15:10cost-effective.
15:12In the 2000s, they built the legend by, allegedly, giving a black card to VIPs that entitles you to free
15:18meals.
15:19Nando's have got the black card, which is only given to a select few people.
15:23So it creates exclusivity, and it makes you want to be part of that cult of people who can get
15:28a black card.
15:29Is the black card a real thing for Nando's? Do you know what? I'm a true lover for Nando's, and
15:35I've never actually seen one, so I do think that that might be a myth.
15:39Sadly, I was never sent a black card as much as I wanted one. I could only dream, and I
15:45think I could still only dream, and certainly after this, me slating them, I don't think there's any chance of
15:49getting a black card.
15:51Nando's was smashing it in the influence game. By 2014, it had 30 times as many restaurants as it did
15:58in 1998, narrowing the gap on KFC.
16:02I don't think Nando's is cool anymore. I think it was when it arrived. I think people got excited. It's
16:09an easy and convenient option.
16:10Mama! Hey! Mama! Hey!
16:14I need it!
16:15The old-timer KFC knew it had to fight its way back into the cockpit of cool. Since 2024, they've
16:22done it by going a bit unhinged.
16:25I get a yacht to riz you up.
16:27Cookie, you just made a massive mistake.
16:30El Riz Bro.
16:30Brands have really moved away from what was known as the Instagram aesthetic, which was really polished and clean, to
16:35something that's much more raw and authentic, because that fits in with all the things you normally see in your
16:40feed.
16:40KFC is just that thumb-stopping content, something you just can't help but stop you in your tracks as you
16:45scroll through TikTok and Instagram as well.
16:48Gen Z watches two hours of video on their phones a day, and KFC has struck while the fry is
16:54hot.
16:55People trust brands, trust institutions, trust news organisations far less than ever.
17:00It's broken every taboo, putting real animals into their ads, and even dunking humans in this cinematic and unsettling advert.
17:09Very unhinged, very kind of quirky, very offbeat, and very, at the time, pretty odd.
17:14KFC's chaos propelled them into the social media lead over their rivals, Nando's.
17:20Sales were also up 4% in the first three months of 2025.
17:25People are flocking to be a part of the KFC chicken cult.
17:30KFC is being much more subversive with its marketing, and it's actually building, kind of, following around the brand.
17:37On TikTok, they've got 1.3 million followers, and on Instagram, they've got 673,000.
17:42So it's something that's really clicking with their audience.
17:44Nando's has 250,000 TikTok followers and 439,000 on Insta.
17:50The sign that KFC is kind of cool is that they have a line of merch in a non-ironic
17:55way, and people want to wear that.
17:57And I think if you'd gone back a generation ago, if you walked around, essentially, as a walking billboard for
18:03KFC, people would have thought you've lost your mind.
18:05But there is definitely now a certain cachet attached to KFC.
18:11KFC have focused not only on the chicken in their marketing, but on what they add to it.
18:17KFC's signature condiment isn't quite what you first think of as a source, but it's fair to say it's having
18:24a moment.
18:26KFC even teamed up with cult fashion brand Aries in this postmodern, boundary-blurring promotion.
18:32One of the key ways that KFC have connected with their consumer is creating a cult product.
18:37They've taken gravy, which is a simple, traditional source, and built up immense hype around it, because they've got the
18:45consumer to connect with it.
18:47Especially with the crispy skin, when you dunk it into the gravy, it just makes sense.
18:51It's proof of how visual our culture is now. It photographs, it videos well. Does it taste any good? That
18:58doesn't matter. It looks good.
19:00So that's why Dippin' Gravy is enjoying a moment, because it looks good on TikTok or on Instagram or on
19:06any other social media, which is obsessed by video.
19:09It's a guilty pleasure. It's a Dippin' Burger, it's the gravy. And then scrawny.
19:16I'm a big fan of the KFC gravy, so despite having sort of a Zingatawa meal, I always ask for
19:23a side of gravy, so someone who has the gravy dips their burger in the gravy and then consumes the
19:29burger.
19:29Yeah, so it's a mess. It's a fun mess to have.
19:34KFC sells one pot of gravy every minute across the UK. And those in the north buy twice as much
19:40as those in the south.
19:43KFC promote their gravy as so tasty, it could be in candles or cocktails, advertising with mock sophistication.
19:50The soothing aroma of KFC gravy. It's all gravy, baby.
19:58But as of yet, you can't buy it in the shops, even if supermarket chain Iceland had a viral hit
20:04with their own homemade version.
20:06KFC also has recognised this popularity of their famous gravy by actually launching an ice cream flavour that's flavoured just
20:12like it, which, you know, is pretty out there.
20:14Savoury ice cream is nothing new. A gravy ice cream from KFC takes that to a whole different level.
20:20And it could work, because salt and ice cream is a taste sensation.
20:25It all contributes to KFC turning over £1.8 billion.
20:31Coming up, how a bit of nifty kit helps KFC smash Nando's for speed.
20:36This means that KFC can knock out the chicken at the rate it does.
20:41100%.
20:41And a cunning decision helped Nando's steal the casual dining set from their rivals.
20:47We had red wine on Thursday.
20:49The whole bottle.
20:50Amazing.
20:59KFC was smashing it in the attention game.
21:02Nando's strategy to rise up the pecking order was on the eating out experience.
21:06The battle for our chick coin isn't only about the flavour, but also where we eat.
21:13To steal KFC's chicken lunch, Nando's has gone upmarket.
21:17Nando's started as a takeaway.
21:20But they owe a lot to a decision by new management in 1995 that it could beat KFC if it
21:26got people to eat in.
21:28Nando's understands that people actually want to go to a destination, it's about a vibe, it's an experience as much
21:34as it is about the food.
21:35And unlike KFC, which is really about convenience and speed, Nando's is much more about what it's like to eat
21:41inside of Nando's.
21:42It's the vibe, it's the decor, the food.
21:46Not only that, you actually get red wine there.
21:48It's absolutely amazing.
21:49Like, we had red wine on Thursday.
21:51The whole bottle.
21:52Amazing.
21:54Eating out is big business again in the UK.
21:56We're set to spend £101 billion in restaurants this year.
22:00The trend that's really driving that is that for younger generations in particular is experience-led eating.
22:07So 65% of Gen Zs tell us that they're very experience-led.
22:11So restaurants that offer that is where they'll go.
22:14It kind of presents itself as a proper restaurant.
22:16You go in, you sit down, it has a bit of an ambiance.
22:21You know, there will always be some families in there, maybe some first dates, young people who are trying to
22:26foster some romance.
22:27One of my best mates, her mum, had her 80th birthday at Nando's because she knew that if she did
22:32that, then the grandkids would come and they'd be happy to come.
22:36So she did and everyone had a great time.
22:37I thought that was great.
22:38One of its core age groups are going to go to those restaurants, have less money to spend, but they
22:42still want the full restaurant experience.
22:45You know, you wouldn't go for Cheeky KFC on a date night.
22:47It wouldn't be that impressive.
22:48But if you went to Nando's, it's a whole different vibe.
22:51The change to Eat Inns saw Nando's go from five stores in 1995 to 300 by 2014.
23:01KFC had to try to compete.
23:03They did proudly showcase a KFC 11 fast casual restaurant to journalists in 2014.
23:10No, me neither.
23:11They pulled the plug on it less than two years later.
23:15Instead, most of KFC's eggs are in one bucket.
23:19Speed.
23:22KFC's way of getting bums on seats is to get them off again as quickly as possible.
23:27They want you to check in and check out as fast as they can.
23:34It's the classic fast food model that came over with KFC itself 60 years ago.
23:39KFC in some ways is the original fast food chain in Britain.
23:42I mean, it's been in Britain 10 years longer than McDonald's.
23:45Sir, do you have any idea what your wife has to do to run your house?
23:49This staggeringly outdated, of its time ad...
23:53Come on, doesn't she deserve a break?
23:56...shows how KFC has always been about making life a little easier, which means quicker.
24:01Take her out to dinner with convenient, delicious Colonel Satter's Kentucky Fried Chicken.
24:07The brand is very much tied to the taste, where you just can't get that anywhere else.
24:12But it's also got the fast food element, food to go, which means that you can be in and out
24:19really quickly.
24:21It's not actually that hard to make your own KFC, but it's really difficult to make it fast.
24:27Hi, yes, Kate, come on in.
24:29Chef Melissa Thompson reckons she can even knock up a finger-licking fake-away in her back garden.
24:35There are endless ways to cook chicken and it's very hard to get bored of it.
24:40But of all the ways, fried chicken has to be up there.
24:43What we want to do, we want to make sure that that flour gets from every nook and cranny.
24:47And we call it craggle.
24:49You know, fried chicken has all those little crispy corners and kind of all those undulations.
24:53That's called craggle and it's all that lovely texture.
24:58This looks great.
24:59It already looks great.
25:00It does, doesn't it?
25:01It's exciting.
25:02It's already looking very authentic.
25:03Awesome.
25:04And can you see that craggle?
25:05Almost looks like cornflakes.
25:07Yes.
25:08And what it is, is flour, seasoned flour.
25:11I'd say this is very KFC.
25:13Mmm.
25:14I'd say it's maybe even better.
25:17It's possible to get close to a KFC at home, but what isn't easy is to do it quickly.
25:23So this took, I mean, start to finish, 25 minutes, 30 minutes, 20 minutes in the fryer.
25:30Yes.
25:30Quite a long time for a fast food joint.
25:32The founders also thought the same.
25:34It takes too long for a fast food restaurant.
25:36Mmm.
25:37This is so delicious.
25:39I just got a really good bit.
25:40Oh, nice.
25:41Craggle-tastic.
25:42Oh, craggle-tastic, yes.
25:44What gives KFC the edge over Nando's in the speed game is the way it's cooked.
25:49A lot of the success of KFC has been through their adaptation of equipment that allow them
25:55to pressure fry their coated chicken.
25:58We always put a breast and a leg together.
26:00That's something that my dad's brought from KFC.
26:03KFC always does it like that.
26:04So when the customers get in a piece of dark meat and white meat.
26:08Chris Chea runs a chicken shop in Hitchin, set up by his dad, Ray, who used to work at KFC.
26:14This is our pressure fryer.
26:16This is an American version called the Henny Penny.
26:18So is this like a pressure cooker?
26:20Yes, but instead of using water, we're using oil under pressure.
26:24All the big chains like KFC and that, they'll definitely have these in there.
26:27They'll use these 100%.
26:28If you're serious about fried chicken, you've got to have one of these.
26:32So all your fried chicken comes out of here?
26:34Yeah.
26:35The pressure means the steam from water in the chicken can't escape, so the meat cooks quicker.
26:40And so now that's frying under pressure.
26:43It's completely airtight.
26:44Yeah, so chicken wings, we can do in 10 minutes.
26:47So yeah, super quick.
26:48I've seen the original pressure fire.
26:50It suddenly turns fried chicken into, you know, a restaurant meal, into fast food.
26:56You can do it really quickly.
26:58You can cook wings in around about seven or eight minutes in a pressure cooker.
27:02That's an astonishingly quick amount of time.
27:05The locked-in moisture also keeps the meat succulent.
27:08In a normal fryer, because it's such a dry heat, what will happen is you'll cook the outside
27:13before you cook the inside with the henny-penny, with the moisture all in there.
27:17That just keeps the outside crispy and also keeps the inside moist and cooks it all together
27:22a lot more efficiently.
27:23This means that KFC can knock out the chicken at the rate it does.
27:27100%.
27:29We're all in a rush these days.
27:3282% of us don't take a full lunch break.
27:34We now only take an average of 33 minutes before we're back working.
27:40With Aldesco the norm, getting people through the doors fast is the secret to KFC's serious profits.
27:47The pressure cooking enables it to be that much faster, that much more volume put through
27:53in the same amount of time.
27:54The pressure fryer changed the game for fried chicken, making a tasty treat a commercial
27:59one.
28:00Now, KFC's seasoning is what's famous, but the pressure fryer is what's important.
28:10It was the pressure fryer that convinced early franchisees to help KFC fly the Kentucky
28:16Coupe.
28:17Franchisees came up with the slogan, it's finger-licking good, and the very idea of putting chicken,
28:23bread rolls, and gravy in a bucket.
28:27No one now would start a restaurant saying, we're going to sell you food in a bucket, and
28:32that's nice.
28:33I mean, a bucket you associate with, you know, being sick or cleaning the loo.
28:36You don't associate it with serving food.
28:38But somehow, because KFC's now been around for so long, it's like, oh yeah, a bucket of
28:43chicken.
28:43There's nothing strange about that.
28:44KFC made us expect our food fast, so Nando's had to shake their tail feathers to catch up.
28:51Part of the success of Nando's is that it is a restaurant out front.
28:55It does have a bar.
28:56It does have waiters bringing you food.
28:59But out back, in the kitchen, it's very much fast.
29:03It's a fast food operation.
29:05They've managed to make it very quick.
29:07It's kind of a quick service restaurant, but it's not fast food.
29:11You still have to sit down and wait for your food to arrive.
29:13You don't stand around waiting for it.
29:15At KFC, the chicken is freshly cooked, but probably not exactly when you order it.
29:19One of the things that makes fast food fast food is they don't cook to order.
29:22But it means that when you turn up, the chances are they'll have fried chicken ready for you.
29:26You can be in and out within two minutes.
29:29Nando's, on the other hand, seems to be grilled right in front of your eyes.
29:32If it's getting grilled in front of you, you're like, well, you know, they're doing things
29:35properly.
29:36And so that kind of feeds into this experience of Nando's that makes it feel kind of just
29:41very special and almost like you're getting it for a bit of a steal because it's still
29:44quite affordable.
29:46But not all is necessarily as it seems.
29:50Cooking chicken on a grill without giving you salmonella takes a bit of time.
29:54The chicken is pre-marinated at factories and sent chilled to Nando's across the UK.
30:01Batches are cooked well ahead of time in huge on-site ovens, proudly showcased by the manufacturer
30:07in this earnest promo.
30:09It can be safely stored for hours in holding drawers before it's finished on the grill.
30:17Even the tender stem broccoli that they serve is pre-char grilled and comes into them just
30:24to be finished off on their grill at the point of service.
30:28Nando's quest to be as fast as KFC means it has stolen another trick from the market leader.
30:33KFC had introduced screens to order your food in 2014.
30:38In 2020, Nando's introduced the ability to order direct from the table.
30:43Literally 10 minutes and the food is there on the plate.
30:46Nando's use of QR codes means that they reduce their reliance on weight-weighting staff and
30:53it can actually make the process quicker for us to get our food if our order is sent from
31:00a QR code via an app directly to the kitchen.
31:04It also increases accuracy.
31:05The industry calls this model fast casual and it's halfway between fast food and casual dining.
31:12I guess you kind of have to do quite a lot of the legwork in Nando's but then that's why
31:16it's cheaper because I guess they can have fewer staff.
31:19I just would like to sit down and be bought my Coke Zero to be honest.
31:23Ordering digitally is quicker and cuts costs of wasting staff.
31:27I think the fast casual format is really clever in winning over young consumers, particularly now
31:33supposedly consumers who are too scared to pick up a phone or speak to a stranger,
31:37they can have the restaurant experience, you know, you can go on a date to Nando's,
31:41but you don't have the intimidating thing of having to speak to a waiter or a waitress and get it
31:47wrong.
31:48It might even encourage people to buy more.
31:52It's also been proven that if we order fast food through screens, we're more likely to order more
31:58than if we order with a human because we feel less self-conscious about buying more food.
32:04It's one of the reasons KFC make you order from a screen too.
32:19I feel like if I went to a KFC drive-thru, I feel like maybe I'd be a bit embarrassed
32:23about my KFC order
32:25and sometimes how big the order is.
32:28Coming up, the fight for chicken goes out of the restaurant and into our homes.
32:32It introduces millions of consumers to the joy of the Nando's experience.
32:39And rivals KFC fight back in the battle for the nation's health.
32:44All of a sudden you've tapped into consumers' mind and said,
32:47we're not unhealthy anymore.
32:54From two struggling stores in 1992 to turning over a billion pounds today,
33:01underdog Nando's has closed the gap on fast food Goliath KFC.
33:05To try to take the lead, it moved out of the restaurant in an attempt to get into our kitchen
33:10cupboards.
33:11The source of the latest rivalry?
33:14Source.
33:15It's the Battle of the Birds. Nando's vs. KFC. Ding, ding!
33:22Lockdown made us more adventurous and ambitious cooks,
33:25looking for exotic and spicier ways to jazz up our meals.
33:29The table sauce market is now worth nearly £1.5 billion.
33:34Winning a slice is a big opportunity.
33:37Nando's has built a warm, homely image of its sauces being part of the family too,
33:42even if you aren't in Nando's.
33:43Ooh, Nando's on a school night. Lucky you.
33:47The first time I've seen Nando's sauce in a supermarket, oh my God, I'm not even kidding you,
33:51I probably brought one of each.
33:53And my mum was like, no, no, no, let's just buy two of each.
33:56And any time I fancy like a Nando's sauce or the spice or the flavour,
34:01I just stick it into the air fryer and pre-marinate my chicken.
34:05Hot sauces are hot property.
34:07Last year, Tesco sold 2.5 million more bottles of hot sauce than the year before, a rise of 20%.
34:14Nando's were perfectly placed for a piece of that peppery pie.
34:18I get a bit nervous if you're here with me.
34:20We never cook together.
34:21Because we always have a round when we cook.
34:23Nando's have created a homely cook-along campaign using celebs like Rio Ferdinand and his wife, Kate.
34:28He's my assistant for the day.
34:30To show you don't have to go to Nando's to go to Nando's.
34:33You can't even mix the sauce.
34:34Are you winding me up?
34:35To be fair, you do cook once a week.
34:38All you have to do is buy their sauce.
34:41Nando's have been very clever in releasing their peri-peri sauce into supermarkets.
34:46And it's now substantial range because it introduces millions of consumers
34:50who might not eat in the restaurant to the joy of the Nando's experience.
34:56It's made serious amounts of Nando.
34:59The company sold 50 million quid's worth of sauces in 2024.
35:03Half of Tesco's top 10 hot sauces are made by Nando's.
35:08It's taken off hugely.
35:10There's such a huge range.
35:11Peri-peri sauce is the third most popular sauce in the UK after Heinz ketchup and Hellman's mayonnaise.
35:17It beats HP sauce, which used to be a staple of millions of British households.
35:22I mean, that is a sign of how radically our diets have changed.
35:27HP sauce out.
35:28Peri-peri sauce in.
35:31KFC wanted a dollop of that success too.
35:34The spicy mayo market is also booming as we look for more adventure.
35:38KFC sold bottles of supercharger mayo in their restaurants for four weeks.
35:43But so far, nothing in the supermarkets.
35:46So Morley's are a chain, fast-growing chain of fried chicken shops.
35:51They have a collab with Heinz in the supermarkets and that has really taken off.
35:56There is an appetite out there for chicken shop, you know, sauces.
36:02Nando's sauce success is because it's more like a table sauce.
36:05Like ketchup and mayo, you can have it with anything.
36:10I can't think of anything where Peri-peri wouldn't make an improvement.
36:14I was going to say apart from ice cream, but it would probably make ice cream sound like it tastes
36:17quite nice as well.
36:19To see just how Nando's smashed KFC by turning their restaurant success into a table sauce sensation,
36:26we're knocking up our own cheaty Nando sauce, based on the ingredients list on the bottle.
36:32This already looks delicious.
36:34Look at all these chilies.
36:35So what exactly is in Peri-peri sauce?
36:39The most basic of Peri-peri sauces will just contain vinegar, garlic and Peri-peri chilli.
36:45But the Nando's Peri-peri sauce contains other things and without those other ingredients, it won't taste like Nando's.
36:52As well as Peri-peri, Nando's sauces contain up to three other peppers, including cayenne, an extremely similar spice.
36:59So these are the Peri-peri ones that I've soaked.
37:01So we're only putting in one, two, three, four, five.
37:03It also has onion, vinegar and garlic.
37:09One of the most exciting, interesting ingredients is shedloads of lemon.
37:16The colour's pretty spot on.
37:18Wow, this smells so good.
37:20I'm excited. I'm really excited.
37:23But it's not Peri-peri that is the knockout sensation in this sauce.
37:27Whoa!
37:31Stick my head in that.
37:32Yes.
37:32After that, what's happened?
37:35Right, so after you choke, you can actually smell...
37:42Yeah?
37:43Wow.
37:44I tell you what hits.
37:45What hits is the lemon.
37:47Yes.
37:48Yes, it's the lemon that almost, like, makes you cough.
37:50That is interesting.
37:52Not chilli.
37:54Ooh!
37:54There is something about it that is, for me, quintessentially peri-peri.
37:59It's, um...
38:01I mean, I think it is the chillies, but there's just something.
38:04And I think it's the combination of the vinegar and the lemon juice.
38:09Boy, oh, my goodness, that smells so fresh.
38:12That is making my mouth water.
38:13Let's have a little taste.
38:14Let's go.
38:16Cheers.
38:19Cheers.
38:24That is, like, a party in my mouth.
38:25That is so delicious.
38:29Peri-peri is there, but in reality, it's a lemon sauce.
38:33Nando's sauces can contain up to 6% lemon, and that makes it consistent no matter which
38:38heat level you choose.
38:39The aroma from the lemon, I think it distracts me from the heat a little bit.
38:44It literally makes me want to rush out, buy a chicken, put it in the oven.
38:47Do you know what I mean?
38:47Yes, yes, yes.
38:48So you just want to eat this with a meal.
38:50It's delicious.
38:52Nando's created a sauce that could be used like ketchup to dash on anything.
38:57Controversially, I have put peri-peri sauce on a KFC.
39:01Sometimes you want that extra hot flavour, and if the zinga isn't as spicy as what I want
39:07it to be, I just slap that peri-peri sauce on top just to give it that extra kick.
39:13It's the other ingredients, not peri-peri, that make the sauce so versatile.
39:19If Nando's sauce is really a lemon slathering sauce...
39:22Are we putting in the same amount of every ingredient, the only omission is a peri-peri?
39:27Yes.
39:28Would it even work without their legendary peri-peri in it?
39:32So this is a sauce without any peri-peri?
39:34Mm-hmm.
39:35So we can't even call it peri-peri, can we?
39:39If that had been the first one, I would have said, that's a tasty hot sauce.
39:42And it's still got sting.
39:44I've got, like, you know, back of the throat, campfire, after having the homemade one without
39:49peri-peri.
39:51So the heat isn't all down to the peri-peri.
39:54We've taken our Nando's knock-off to the market to see if our peri-peri-free version
39:59would still work as a Nando's do-it-all table sauce.
40:03I would love you to try a bit of this one and that one, and tell me if you think
40:08either
40:08of them contain peri-peri chilies.
40:10Okay.
40:11Go for it.
40:11There's a stick in there.
40:14This is chunkier.
40:17Don't forget, looks can be deceiving.
40:20Deceiving, yeah.
40:23Probably about 30,000 Scoville, something like that.
40:27I love it.
40:28That's the spiciest one.
40:31Yeah.
40:31You are right.
40:34It is actually this sauce that contains the peri-peri.
40:37Surprised?
40:37I'm very surprised, yeah.
40:40That one.
40:40Absolutely spot on.
40:42I mean, I don't have any prizes.
40:44I think that one peri-peri.
40:45You are spot on.
40:47What about the chili queen herself?
40:50I think that one's got the peri-peri.
40:52This one contains the peri-peri.
40:54Oh, really?
40:55How funny is that?
40:57But also demonstrates that actually peri-peri is not the defining ingredient of a chili sauce.
41:03So that's really interesting.
41:05And I love my peri-peri sauce as well.
41:07Like, I love Nando's.
41:11KFC was the original chicken giant in the UK, until Nando's arrived and pecked them into a corner with its
41:18personalized spice and date night vibe.
41:21KFC's unhinged Gen Z advertising helped them claw back ground with young consumers.
41:31But the latest battleground is health, and finger-licking KFC is vulnerable.
41:35Nando's choice of heats might have just helped them win the spice race, but they have another advantage in their
41:42game of chicken with KFC.
41:45Healthy food is increasingly what we want.
41:48No wonder our chicken big boys are slugging it out in energetic ads and new slimline products.
41:5442% of consumers in Great Britain now tell us that they're very health-conscious.
41:59What chicken does for Gen Z's in particular is really appeals to that high-protein diet, which is something that
42:04has been very, very prevalent over the last few years.
42:06People really want lean protein, and chicken ticks that box.
42:11Nando's suddenly says you can have lots of exciting chicken in a kind of fast-food format, but it's healthy,
42:21because it's not deep-fried.
42:22And it kind of makes chicken cool again, because it's exciting, it's spicy, it's fun, and it's not unhealthy, because
42:29we're not deep-frying our chicken.
42:31We're grilling it.
42:33Nando's chips are still, well, chips.
42:36Its regular portion is 20% bigger than KFC's large one.
42:41But salads, hummus, olives, sweet corn all offer a feeling of virtue to your cheat day.
42:4720% of consumers cite Nando's as having healthy food options.
42:52There's a reason as to why they go there.
42:54That's roughly twice as many as what people would say for fast-food restaurants.
42:59One of its signature dishes is spicy rice, around half the calories of a portion of chips.
43:05Spicy rice at Nando's is great, can't go wrong.
43:08Something a bit different. Feels a little bit healthy as well.
43:11Nando's healthier image has KFC running to keep up.
43:15U.S. fast food was falling out of fashion.
43:18Fried chicken was seen as quite grotty, and there was an association fried food is bad food.
43:24Fried chicken, bad. Grilled chicken, good.
43:26KFC have made several attempts to claw things back and win a slice of that healthy eating chicken pie.
43:34KFC spent £8 million installing ovens in 2011 to bake chicken instead of frying it.
43:41But it was soon abandoned.
43:44Customers also complained when they tried to make their chips less fatty.
43:49KFC knows it can't continue to be successful if it's just selling fried chicken in a bucket.
43:55It's got to keep on coming up with new ideas, new recipes, new burgers.
43:59There's only so much you can do with fried chicken.
44:00Chicken with fries. Chicken with fries.
44:02Chicken with fries, excuse me.
44:04Chicken with fries.
44:04KFC, and maybe even a nervous Hodor from Game of Thrones,
44:07seemed self-aware about the fact maybe people just want a greasy treat at KFC.
44:13Chicken with fries.
44:16Chicken with fries.
44:21Chicken with fries.
44:22Chicken with fries.
44:25Chicken with fries.
44:25Chicken with fries.
44:26Yeah, that's me.
44:28I imagine they have, you know, weekly meetings, the top brass at KFC, wondering how they fight back.
44:34And I think that's evident in some of the products that KFC have brought out in the last 10 years.
44:39They've got rice boxes.
44:40I mean, that's quite telling, given one of the most popular sides at Nando's is spicy rice.
44:45This year, KFC offered two new rice bowls, with spicy rice no less,
44:49offering the famous flavour of KFC's chicken, but under 600 calories,
44:53about the same as a Nando's butterfly chicken and small spicy rice side.
44:57The wingers are at Gymshark to take on a KFC conditioning class to launch our new rice bowls.
45:03To make the point, they did something pretty unique for a fast food brand,
45:07coming up with a high-octane health skew campaign with sportswear brand Gymshark.
45:12They've taken all the positive connotations of Gymshark, a healthy brand,
45:16and connected them with KFC.
45:19Because all of a sudden, you've tapped into a consumer's mind and said,
45:22we're not unhealthy anymore.
45:24And we're even able to eat it without getting dirty fingers,
45:28which KFC promote by riffing on their famous slogan,
45:31rice bowls are fork-licking good.
45:37We eat a billion chickens a year in the UK.
45:40Whether you like breast or leg, eating in or on the run,
45:45our ever-changing tastes mean KFC and Nando's have to keep their claws sharp
45:49to get one over their arch-rivals.
45:54KFC kind of created the market, and they've not been challenged for many, many years,
45:58and now there's lots of rivalry, particularly with Nando's.
46:01These two chicken brands are desperate to keep us crossing the road to their shops.
46:06The way that these brands have done it is through creating novelty and experience around their products.
46:11KFC and Nando's both understand that they can't just appeal to a broad market
46:15or the people that are already coming to their outlets.
46:18They have to try and reach these younger audiences.
46:21Whether we want a spicy wing or a banging drumstick,
46:24these giants can't stand still in the Battle of the Birds.
46:35And next Tuesday, it's less chicken battles and more caterpillar fights.
46:40Aldi versus M&S in the Battle of the Brands at eight.
46:43But next up, it's a battle of wills.
46:46Would you survive being handcuffed to your polar opposite?
46:50It continues next.
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