$4.49 is the recorded KFC a la carte thigh price, the same figure recorded for the drum.
The KFC a la carte thigh price was recorded at $4.49, identical to the drum and 50 cents below the breast at $4.99. Only the wing costs less, at $2.79. Two dark cuts sharing a single price is a small but telling piece of menu design: the counter is not weighing anything, it is sorting four cuts into three tiers and then pricing the tier rather than the piece.
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What you need
5 itemsA La Carte Thigh price and calories
| Item | Typical price | Price range | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| A La Carte Thigh | $4.49 | — | — |
If something goes wrong
Why do the thigh and the drum cost exactly the same?
- Cause
- Both were recorded at $4.49. The a la carte counter appears to price by tier rather than by weight, and the two dark cuts sit in the same tier.
- Fix
- Choose on preference, since price offers no guidance between them. The only cut priced differently among the dark pieces is the wing at $2.79.
Is a thigh cheaper than a breast at KFC?
- Cause
- By 50 cents at the recorded figures: $4.49 against $4.99. That is a 10 per cent saving for the swap.
- Fix
- If the cut does not matter, take the thigh. If quantity matters more, price the bucket rows instead, where pieces cost $2.19 to $2.75 each.
Are calories shown for individual pieces?
- Cause
- No calorie figure could be read for any item in this section. The company's nutrition guide and its individual menu pages are browser-built and return nothing countable.
- Fix
- Ask for the printed nutrition information in the restaurant, where per-piece figures exist on paper.
A tier price, not a weight price
What's in it
A single bone-in thigh. The item comes from KFC's own published sitemap as one of four a la carte rows, and its page on the company's site could not be read, so nothing beyond the name is confirmed first-party here. No nutrition figure is available for the same reason.
Is it worth it
$4.49 puts the thigh in the middle of a three-tier counter. Breast tops it at $4.99, wing sits well below at $2.79, and the drum matches it exactly at $4.49.
That exact match is worth pausing on. A thigh and a drumstick are different pieces of the bird with different amounts of meat on them, and a menu that priced by weight would separate them. This one does not. Four cuts produce three prices, which suggests the counter is sorting pieces into categories and charging by category. Anyone who prefers thigh meat is therefore paying nothing extra for the preference.
Against the rest of the section, single cuts are an expensive way to buy chicken. The eight-piece bucket was recorded at $21.99, about $2.75 a piece, and the sixteen-piece at $34.99, roughly $2.19. A thigh at $4.49 costs more than twice the per-piece rate of the big bucket. Assemble a bucket's worth of pieces from this counter and the arithmetic gets worse: two of each cut comes to $33.52 against the bucket's $21.99.
None of that makes the row pointless. Single cuts do a job the buckets cannot, which is to let someone buy exactly one thing. Adding a thigh to a two-piece combo, or replacing a wing in a shared order with something more substantial, is what this price is for.
Set against the combo ladder the thigh looks worse again. Two pieces with sides were recorded at $8.89, three at $11.19 and four at $12.99, so the third piece inside a combo costs $2.30 and the fourth costs $1.80. Both of those steps undercut a thigh bought on its own by a wide margin, which is the clearest sign that this counter is priced for topping up rather than for building an order.
Only one published listing carried a price for this item. Prices also differ from restaurant to restaurant, and none appears on the company's own site until a location has been selected.
A La Carte Thigh at a glance
- KFC price
- not published
- Typical price
- $4.49
Questions people ask
How much is a KFC chicken thigh on its own?
$4.49 in the recorded listing. That is the same price as a drum, 50 cents below a breast at $4.99, and $1.70 above a wing at $2.79.
Why is the thigh the same price as the drum?
Both cuts sit in the same price tier. Four a la carte rows produce only three prices, which points to pricing by category rather than by weight or portion.
Is a single thigh better value than a bucket piece?
No. Bucket pieces work out at roughly $2.19 to $2.75 each depending on size, so a single thigh costs between 63 and 105 per cent more than the same piece bought in bulk.
Is this page an official KFC price list?
No. It sets out a published US price listing recorded in August 2026 alongside the item name from KFC's own sitemap. The company itself shows no price before a restaurant is chosen.
Can this site tell me the price at my local KFC?
No. A single reading and independent operator pricing mean the local figure has to come from the restaurant. Treat $4.49 as the benchmark to measure it against.