A key missing ingredient in the Colonel$$s special recipe forced KFC to close nearly all of its $900$ restaurants across the UK and Ireland. But it isn$$t any of the $11$ secret herbs and spices $$ what$$s missing is the chicken! The fast$-$food empire blamed the cluck$-$up on a new delivery company that failed to get poultry to most of its stores. $$The chicken crossed the road, just not to our restaurants,$$ KFC$$s British branch tweeted Sunday. $$We$$ve brought a new delivery partner on board, but they$$ve had a couple of teething problems $$ getting fresh chicken out to $900$ restaurants across the country is pretty complex!$$ The company recently switched from a specialist food$-$delivery company to German shipping giant DHL$,$ which promised in October to $$set a new benchmark for delivering fresh products to KFC in a sustainable way.$$ Instead, DHL conceded that it has had $$operational issues$$ in recent days, which resulted in $$incomplete or delayed$$ bird deliveries. But the trade union that represents workers at the previous distributor said the fried$-$chicken titan had switched to an inferior service to save some money $$ an Original Recipe for disaster. $$It$$s an absolute nightmare. KFC are left with hundreds of restaurants closed while DHL try and run the whole operation out of one distribution centre $$ where conditions are an utter shambles,$$ said Mick Rix of the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union. The shortage has British finger$-$licking$$ fans in a flap. $$We$$re going to have to hit a McDonald$$s up$,$ a Manchester man said in a YouTube video while on a wild goose chase for an open KFC$.$That is s$$t$,$ mate. We like our chicken. You know we like our chicken!$.$ In the meantime, KFC has set up a Web page where irate chicken lovers across The Pond can stay abreast on the status of their nearest franchise. $$The Colonel is working on it$,$ KFC promises. The first overseas KFC opened in Lancashire, England, in $1965$ almost a decade before McDonald$$s$.$