Fast-food companies lean into chicken offerings as popularity grows

A number of significant junk food business are leaning into chicken.

McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s have actually each suggested in current months that they are aiming to increase their offerings of the progressively popular protein.

Fast-food giant McDonald’s on Thursday exposed McCrispy Strips would end up being an irreversible menu product at all taking part U.S. dining establishments by Might 5, something CEO Chris Kempczinski mentioned throughout the business’s fourth-quarter profits hire February as he detailed some approaching prepare for its chicken service.

MCDONALD’S ADDING BRAND-NEW MENU PRODUCT: MCCRISPY STRIPS

The return of the Treat Wrap is likewise in the works at McDonald’s, with Kempczinski informing experts and financiers at the time that the product would get here in the U.S. “together with a couple of other markets” this year. The chain more just recently meant the date of the Treat Wrap’s resurgence with a social networks post that stated “treat covers 0x.14.2025.”

McDonald’s is likewise aiming to broaden the accessibility of its McCrispy chicken sandwich from its more than 70 markets to “almost all” by the end of the year, according to Kempczinski. When it comes to the Chicken Big Mac, the business prepares to “continue to pulse in” that sandwich as a “limited-time-only offering in time,” he stated.

” We’re delighted about the considerable chance we see within our chicken portfolio and see the prospective to include another point of chicken market share by the end of 2026,” Kempczinski stated throughout the February profits call.

Taco Bell, on the other hand, has actually likewise been making more relocations with chicken.

The chain included crispy chicken nuggets to its U.S. menus on Thursday, approximately 4 month s after their very first limited-time stint in December.

Taco Bell’s nuggets appeared in almost 1-in-6 Taco Bell orders throughout that minimal run, according to the brand name.

Their most current reappearance is the “initial step in Taco Bell’s strategy to include crispy chicken to menus completely by 2026,” the chain stated in mid-April.

Taco Bell stated the Crispy Chicken Nuggets “will be on menus for a restricted time as one of numerous brand-new productions the brand name is checking out as it pursues making crispy chicken an irreversible part of the menu” next year.

TACO BELL BRINGS CRISPY CHICKEN NUGGETS BACK

Throughout the “Live Mas” occasion that Taco Bell kept in early March, the brand name stated U.S. and Canadian consumers can likewise anticipate to see crispy chicken burritos and tacos on a limited-time basis this year.

At Taco Bell’s test cooking area, 95% of its developments highlight chicken, according to the brand name.

Early in 2015, the chain presented its Cantina Chicken Menu, including products like the Cantina Chicken Burrito, Cantina Chicken Quesadilla and Cantina Chicken Soft Taco. Taco Bell stated last month it is “going for Cantina Chicken Menu products to reach $5 billion in system sales by 2030.”

Executives at Wendy’s, which has more than 7,000 dining establishments worldwide, are likewise outlining to include more chicken to menus.

CEO Kirk Tanner stated throughout the business’s profits hire mid-February that Wendy’s has “strategies to broaden in fast-growing classifications, consisting of chicken and drinks.”

In a post after the business’s financier day in March, he likewise composed that Wendy’s was intending on “broadening our chicken offerings to supply modern-day, craveable choices to our consumers” in addition to the chain keeping a “ongoing concentrate on our renowned square hamburgers and fresh, never ever frozen beef as our quality differentiator.” The business has actually likewise presented Frost Fusions and Frosty Swirls this spring.

WENDY’S ADDING NEW FROSTY DESSERTS TO ITS MENU

Throughout the financier day, Wendy’s Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Radkoski stated chicken “overindexes with all 3 of our essential development audiences, and based upon patterns with those audiences and why they’re consuming chicken, we do not anticipate the development in chicken to decrease anytime quickly,” according to QSR Publication.

She likewise supposedly stated the chain’s “menu work” on chicken “is more extensive than ever previously.”

Wendy’s just recently launched a Cajun Crunch Chicken Sandwich as a limited-time offering as part of its spring menu.