A new power has decided to join in on the fast food chicken sandwich wars, perhaps throwing the current hierarchy of chicken sandwiches into a tumbling chaos.
On Monday, McDonald’s announced the addition of three new chicken sandwiches to its menu, which will be available nationally on February 24, CNN reports.
According to a recent release (via Business Insider), the new sandwiches will be juicier and crispier than the chicken sandwiches currently featured on the McDonald’s menu.
The three new items are (via CNN):
- The Crispy Chicken Sandwich, a crispy chicken patty topped with pickles and served on a potato roll.
- The Spicy Chicken Sandwich, similar to the Crispy Chicken Sandwich but topped with a spicy pepper sauce in addition to the pickles.
- The Deluxe Chicken Sandwich, a variant of the Crispy Chicken Sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes and mayo.
Business Insider pointed out that if these three sandwiches sound familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve eaten at Chick-fil-A before. McDonald’s new sandwiches sound eerily similar to three of Chick-fil-A’s most popular sandwiches. What’s more, McDonald’s will serve the new sandwiches in foil bags, just like its chicken-centric competitor.
In November, the fast food chain announced to investors that a new chicken sandwich was on the horizon, and during the announcement Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, stated:
“Globally, the chicken category is almost twice the size of beef...It is growing faster and represents a significant opportunity...Developing a reputation for great chicken represents one of our highest aspirations. We want customers to choose McDonald’s for chicken” via CNN.
According to CNN, fast food chains that offer popular chicken sandwiches have been rewarded with droves of customers in recent years. When Popeyes debuted its new chicken sandwich in August of 2019, the product sold out nationally in just two weeks. Chick-fil-A, the chicken sandwich chain that McDonald’s seems to be challenging directly, has seen steady growth for years.
After the colossal success of the Popeye’s chicken sandwich, the fast food chicken wars were reignited in October of 2020 when Wendy’s rolled out a new version of its chicken sandwich. Over the summer, KFC also launched a new premium sandwich called the KFC Chicken Sandwich.