LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Would KGC ever have the same ring?

In a culinary gambit backed by buckets of big money, KFC is hoping to replicate its founder’s recipe for success with the national introduction of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

The rollout is KFC’s most ambitious attempt to win over health-conscious customers as the chain known worldwide for fried chicken tries to reinvigorate lackluster U.S. sales.

“It’s going to get people who haven’t eaten KFC for a long time to come back into our restaurants,” said KFC President Roger Eaton. “It’s going to get people who have never eaten KFC to come into our restaurants.”

Eaton says he spent years as part of the team tinkering with a grilled alternative, and the rollout follows KFC’s longest market test ever. It is being backed by a marketing blitz.

Like its predecessor, Kentucky Grilled Chicken has its own secret recipe. The original copy of the recipe — a blend of six herbs and spices — will be kept in an electronic safe at company headquarters. It will sit alongside Sanders’ handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices coating the chain’s Original Recipe fried chicken.

The difference is in the nutritional numbers.

KFC says each piece of its grilled chicken has 70 to 180 calories and 4 to 9 grams of fat. By contrast, the Original Recipe items have between 110 and 370 calories and 7 to 21 grams of fat, depending on the piece. The grilled chicken contains from 160 to 440 milligrams of sodium per piece, as opposed to 290 to 1,050 milligrams of sodium per piece of Original Recipe chicken.

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