Chick-fil-A has been dominant in fast-food chicken sandwich popularity with just shy of 3,000 restaurants, while Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, owned by Restaurant Brands International (QSR), took a bite out of the fast-food chicken market in 2019 with the launch of its popular chicken sandwich and launching the chicken sandwich war.
Popeyes created a phenomenon when they debuted their chicken sandwich about three years ago. The sandwich may not have started a craze if it weren't for the Twitter (TWTR) war than ensued with Chick-fil-A, the dominant market holder of the chicken sandwich. The end result for both companies was sales going up! A little friendly or unfriendly Twitter banter got more people to the table with a chicken sandwich in their hands.
Fierce Competition in Chicken Sandwich War
The original or first to the table with chicken as a fast-food was Kentucky Fried Chicken, owned by YUM! Brands Inc. (YUM). KFC began in 1950 and opened over 20,000 restaurants. The chain is known for its fried chicken and is the world’s second largest publicly traded fast-food restaurant, second only to McDonald's (MCD). Even with these big numbers it still doesn’t outrank Chick-fil-A in consumer reports.
KFC brought the heat back to the chicken sandwich wars in 2021 when it introduced, what Hypebeast called, "Its best chicken sandwich ever." The sandwich was tested in one market, and it doubled their sales. The sandwich is an all-white meat breast that is extra crispy, with pickles, mayo on a brioche bun.
Major Chains Join in the Chicken Craze
McDonald's, the leader of the pack in all thing's fast-food, sat back and quietly waited out their time to launch their new chicken sandwich in response to the competition. Their response may have been delayed because of the pandemic, but McDonald's did add three new chicken sandwiches to their menu at the beginning of 2021.
Restaurant Brands International's (QSR) Burger King, late to the chicken sandwich war, decided to join ranks earlier this year by adding three new chicken sandwiches as well. It introduced the Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich, the Spicy Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich and the Bacon and Swiss Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich.
Wendy's (WEN) wanted to spice things up a little after seeing the craze between Chick-fil-A and Popeye's. They showed up just after McDonald's launched its new line up. Wendy's new chicken sandwich is the Jalapeño Popper Sandwich.
Starbucks Disappoints in Its Chicken Offering
Starbucks has been working to increase its food sales to pair with its popular coffee to grow its average sales. Starbucks (SBUX) with over 27,000 locations made its play last month to challenge the chicken sandwich market with its own Chicken, Maple Butter, and Egg Sandwich. The coffee chain rolled out the new sandwich June 21. Within days an employed barista complained that she had gotten symptoms similar to food poisoning, and several other employees had comparable issues.
If you were lucky enough to not get sick from trying this newly launched and pulled breakfast sandwich, you might have missed tasting it. Foodie Justin McElroy from podcast "My Brother, My Brother and Me" stated that the sandwich was lacking in flavor. It was more about hype than actual taste. The sandwich, which was a breaded chicken patty on scrambled eggs, left much to be desired.
It is not uncommon for items to be pulled from menu, and the number of cases do not show great concern for illnesses being widespread. However, Starbucks ordered their stores to pull the sandwich from all sales and donations, and instructed stores to discard all remaining items. Starbucks states that the reason to pull the item from their menu was based on quality standards not being met and not a being reported as a food borne illness-related.
