5 Ways Chicken Is Spicing Up Menus
By Aimee Harvey on Aug. 08, 2016CHICAGO -- This month there’s been a flurry of activity around promotion of limited-time chicken items. While chicken has long been a traditional fixture on the menu, it also continues to be a highly adaptable platform for flavor innovation.
This August, limited-service restaurant chains are capitalizing on the popularity of big, bold and spicy taste profiles for chicken.
Here are five recent attention grabbers:
Krystal's Boneless Chicken Wings
Krystal rolled out new Boneless Chicken Wings. The breaded, crispy chicken is hand tossed in the customer’s choice of tangy Southern-style barbecue sauce or a classic spicy Buffalo sauce.
Burger 21's Sweet Heat Chicken Burger
Burger 21 flaunts an interesting sweet-and-hot flavor synergy for its new chicken offering. Its Sweet Heat Chicken Burger features a buttermilk-dipped crispy chicken patty topped with avocado, watermelon and a signature “sweet heat” sauce; it’s available through Aug. 30.
KFC's Georgia Gold Fried Chicken
Its Nashville Hot chicken was a hit – now KFC has debuted another regionally inspired chicken item, Georgia Gold Fried Chicken. Available through Sept. 4, the Georgia Gold chicken features a honey-mustard barbecue flavor and is served in both bone-in and boneless preparations.
White Castle's Pretzel Chicken Rings
Pretzel Chicken Rings are a spinoff on White Castle’s signature Chicken Rings product. Served with the customer's choice of dipping sauce, the new item is differentiated by a crispy pretzel coating; 20 rings are priced at $4.99.
Popeye’s Beer Can Rip’n Chicken
Popeye’s new flavor-rich limited-time offer (LTO), Beer Can Rip’n Chicken, is marinated in garlic, rosemary, cayenne and lemon zest. The batter-fried chicken breast is sliced to tear off as a finger food and is served with a spicy cayenne dipping sauce. On the menu until Aug. 29, it’s priced at $3.99.
C-Store Selections
Convenience stores are largely on board with bolder flavors for chicken, from 7-Eleven’s Spicy Chicken Biscuit, to QuickChek’s Spicy Chicken and Chorizo Fajita Wrap and Sheetz’s Buffalo Chicken Pizza.
Trends around hotter, more pronounced flavors for chicken aren’t necessarily new, but it’s important for operators to continuously think about ways to develop taste profiles for chicken. It’s a solid consumer expectation: Fifty-five percent of consumers say they’d be interested in trying new or unique flavors and sauces for chicken, and another 44% say they want menus to offer more chicken dishes with ethnic ingredients and flavors, according to Technomic’s latest data on poultry preferences.