How Dangerous Are the KFC Pressure Fryers?

When you make fried chicken at home, you drop it into a pot of boiling oil. But if you work as a Cook at Kentucky Fried Chicken, you aren’t just deep frying—you are Pressure Frying.

KFC uses massive, highly specialized machines (often the Winston Collectramatic fryer) to cook their famous Original Recipe chicken. These machines fry the chicken in boiling oil under intense pressurized steam. This is what makes the chicken cook faster and stay incredibly juicy on the inside.

But dealing with boiling oil and high pressure simultaneously sounds terrifying. How dangerous is it?

The Hazards of the Pressure Fryer

If operated incorrectly, a pressure fryer is incredibly dangerous. If you attempt to open the lid while the vat is still pressurized, the 350-degree oil will erupt, causing severe, life-altering burns.

However, modern KFC fryers are built with idiot-proof safety mechanisms.

• The Safety Lock: The machine has a mechanical pressure lock. Once the timer starts and pressure builds, a heavy metal pin drops into place. It is physically impossible to open the lid until the machine has completely vented the steam at the end of the cooking cycle.
• The Venting Process: When the 15-minute timer goes off, the machine automatically releases the pressure through a massive exhaust pipe before the cook is allowed to touch the handle.

The Real Danger: The “Drop”

The most common injuries don’t come from the pressure; they come from loading the machine.

A cook has to load racks of wet, raw, breaded chicken into a metal basket, and then use a specialized handle to slowly lower that heavy basket into the boiling oil. Because the chicken is wet, the oil instantly bubbles and spits violently.

To protect themselves, KFC cooks are required to wear heavy-duty rubber aprons, thick elbow-length heat-resistant gloves, and often a clear plastic face shield when dropping the chicken or filtering the oil.

If you follow the training and wear the protective gear, the job is safe. If you get lazy and try to drop a batch without your gloves on, you will get burned.