2 Kenny Rogers Roasters Due This Year : Fast food: As many as 15 of the flame-broiled chicken outlets are planned for the county.

Kenny Rogers Roasters Corp. says it will open two restaurants in Orange County this year and as many as 15 during the next five years.

Kenny Rogers Roasters, based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., features wood-fire roasted chicken. It is one of several chains hoping to dominate the flame-broiled chicken category, arguably the restaurant industry’s fastest-growing sector. Other key players include KFC Corp. of Louisville, Ky., and fast-growing Boston Chicken, which in January granted Carl Karcher Enterprises, Anaheim-based parent company of the Carl’s Jr. fast-food chain, a franchise to open as many as 300 Boston Chicken restaurants in California.

Consumers generally regard flame-broiled chicken as a healthier alternative to regular fast food and also perceive the meals as being a good value, restaurant industry analysts say. One measure of flame-broiled chicken’s appeal is the fact that Boston Chicken, based in Naperville, Ill., set a record when its initial public stock offering doubled in price in first-day trading in November.

The 15 Kenny Rogers Roasters planned for Orange County will be owned by a Newport Beach franchisee who plans to open restaurants this year in Fountain Valley and Santa Ana. Subsequent sites under the Orange County Roasters umbrella will be opened in 1995 and later years.

Kenny Rogers Roasters franchisees also plan to open a handful of other Southern California locations, including Northridge and Torrance, later this year.

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Kenny Rogers Roasters was founded by singer Kenny Rogers. The company’s chairman is former Kentucky Gov. John Y. Brown Jr., who is also a former owner and chief executive of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Kenny Rogers Roasters says it hopes to open as many as 1,500 restaurants nationwide, including about 200 in California, where it will deal largely through franchises.

A Kenny Rogers Roasters store already open in Palm Desert is partly owned by Carl Karcher Jr., son of Karcher Enterprises founder Carl N. Karcher.

Karcher Enterprises hopes that its Boston Chicken stores, the first of which is expected to open later this year in a converted Carl’s Jr. store, will bolster the company’s flagging sales and profits.

Other players in the chicken segment of the California fast-food market are Irvine-based El Pollo Loco, with 200 restaurants in California, Nevada and Texas; and KooKooRoo, a small but rapidly growing Los Angeles-based chain that serves skinless flame-broiled chicken.