KFC and Surreal launch Original Recipe chicken-flavoured cereal designed to be eaten with gravy

Key Takeaways

• KFC UK has teamed up with Surreal, the high-protein cereal brand, on its first ever breakfast cereal.

• KFCereal is a crunchy, savoury cereal flavoured with KFC's 11 herbs and spices, and you're meant to pour gravy over it instead of milk.

• Each serving has 19g of protein and 1g of sugar, in line with Surreal's grown-up take on childhood cereals.

• It's a limited edition, sold only through Surreal's UK online shop for £6 including shipping, from 22 September 2026 while stocks last.

Breakfast cereal has traditionally been a fairly predictable affair, with chocolate, honey and fruit-flavoured options filling supermarket shelves, but KFC and Surreal have decided that what the category really needs is a little more fried chicken. In one of the more unexpected food collaborations we've seen this year, the two brands have joined forces to launch KFCereal, a limited-edition breakfast cereal inspired by KFC's Original Recipe chicken and designed to be enjoyed with a generous helping of the Colonel's famous gravy.

Created in partnership with Surreal, the British cereal brand known for its high-protein alternatives to nostalgic childhood favourites, KFCereal combines the flavours of KFC's Original Recipe chicken with the familiar crunch of breakfast cereal.

Despite its rather unusual flavour profile, the product retains Surreal's nutritional credentials, offering 19g of protein and just 1g of sugar per serving, although anyone hoping to experience the collaboration exactly as intended will need to make a separate trip to KFC, as the gravy isn't included in the box (surely the best part?!).

The limited-edition cereal launched on 22 September 2026, exclusively through Surreal's UK website, priced at £6 including delivery. Available only while stocks last (and it looks like it's already "sold out"), the release gives fans a relatively accessible opportunity to try something that sits somewhere between a novelty breakfast, a savoury snack and a culinary experiment.

Explaining the thinking behind the collaboration, KFC brand manager Elspeth Allen joked that the Colonel's 11 herbs and spices had been doing a pretty good job on chicken, so the brand wanted to see what they could bring to breakfast. The result is a product aimed at KFC superfans and adventurous cereal lovers alike, with the brands encouraging customers to put the milk back in the fridge and reach for a pot of gravy instead.

Why KFC and Surreal are such an interesting pairing for an unexpected food collaboration

There's something particularly effective about collaborations that bring together two brands with completely different products but surprisingly compatible personalities, and KFC and Surreal are a great example of how that can work.

Surreal has spent the past few years establishing itself as a challenger in the cereal category, using playful advertising, tongue-in-cheek humour and a healthy dose of nostalgia to make its high-protein products stand out in a market dominated by much bigger household names. Its campaigns have frequently played with the conventions of traditional cereal advertising, making the brand feel like a natural partner for something as unconventional as a fried chicken-inspired breakfast.

KFC, meanwhile, has a long history of finding unexpected ways to extend its signature flavours beyond the restaurant - I mean, I'm pretty sure I cover at least one or two weird and wonderful campaigns they release each week. Which means that they have enough cultural familiarity that they can be taken out of their usual setting and still be immediately associated with the Colonel.

Bringing those two approaches together gives the collaboration a clear creative direction, with Surreal providing the breakfast credentials and KFC supplying the flavour, familiarity and slightly ridiculous premise that makes the whole thing worth talking about.

We've seen plenty of brands experiment with unusual flavour combinations and limited-edition products, particularly as social media has made the experience of trying something new almost as valuable as the product itself. People don't necessarily need to love what they're eating for the experience to be worth sharing, and sometimes the more questionable the combination, the more entertaining the resulting content becomes. KFCereal is almost designed for that kind of reaction. You can imagine the videos of people pouring gravy over their breakfast, friends daring each other to try it or creators attempting to decide whether the combination is surprisingly delicious or something that should never have made it out of the development kitchen.

The timing is another interesting element, with the launch coinciding with Freshers Week, when students are settling into university life and discovering the realities of cooking for themselves. A £6 box of chicken-flavoured cereal might not become a student kitchen staple, but it certainly feels like the sort of thing that could find its way into a shared flat, particularly when the entire experience lends itself to a group taste test.

It's a similar principle to Dieux and Fishwife's unexpected eye mask collaboration , where two brands with very different products found common ground through their distinctive identities, creating something that immediately stood out because it brought familiar brand assets into an entirely different setting.

SOURCES

[1] Dexerto

[2] KFCereal