A CHESHIRE Oaks restaurant is offering people the chance to swap KFC for JFC – or Japanese fried chicken.

YO!, formerly known as YO! Sushi, will be giving out a limited number of free chicken buckets to customers who turn up with an empty bucket of chicken purchased from a rival restaurant, such as KFC, as part of a cheeky promotion.

The Japanese food chain says it is embracing the Japanese tradition of eating fried chicken over the festive period.

Over 3.6 million buckets of fried chicken are consumed in Japan each Christmas, which has prompted YO! to switch up its offering.

The 'YO! Bucket Exchange' rewards hungry customers who bring an empty bucket to one of its participating YO! restaurants, including at the Cheshire Oaks branch, delivering a free refill of 'JFC' – or Japanese fried chicken.

A total of just 20 free chicken buckets will be available per day on Wednesday and Thursday, November 24-25, with one bucket refill per customer.

The promotion comes to mark the launch of YO!'s festive menu, for which it has organised a collection of Santa lookalikes to queue up with their chicken buckets to fuel up for the busy season ahead.

The JFC Bucket includes chicken tenders which are brined in buttermilk and fried in a secret YO! spiced flour before being sprinkled with nori tinsel.

The bucket, normally costing £14.95, is served alongside Korean wings, crunchy slaw, YO! fries, and the choice of miso corn on the cob or teriyaki BBQ beans and a pot of katsu curry sauce.

Vegetarians and vegans don’t need to miss out and can enjoy VJFC (normally costing £12.50) – featuring This Isn’t Chicken Karaage nuggets with Korean sweet chilli sauce for dunking, dished up with YO! fries, crunchy slaw and miso togarashi corn.

Victoria Mathers, UK head of marketing at YO! said: “Fried chicken for Christmas in Japan is a tradition going back decades.

"This Christmas, we’re introducing Japanese fried chicken to give consumers an unexpected twist on the Christmas menu."