McDonald's, Wendy's and other burger joints are leaning into chicken
Chicken: It's what's for dinner — even at major restaurant chains long known as temples to beef.
The first permanent menu item McDonald's has rolled out in four years consists entirely of white meat. In introducing McCrispy Strips last month, the fast-food giant acknowledged that diners 'have made one thing clear: they want more chicken.'
Wendy's launched a new Cajun-spiced chicken sandwich in April, the same month Taco Bell brought back chicken nuggets, declaring it wants to become the 'go-to destination for crispy chicken.'
Fast-food brands long known for beef have been pushing chicken menu items recently.
The poultry push comes amid fast-food operators' broader battle for customers who've been tightening their dining-out budgets.
McDonald's last week reported its worst quarterly U.S. sales decline since the depths of the pandemic in 2020, with a 3.6% drop. Wendy's saw first-quarter global sales shrink by 1.1% and reduced its outlook for the year. Chipotle, which also flagged a slowdown, said its limited-time honey chicken offering helped prop up sales, which slid 0.4% for the quarter.
Consumers have been demanding more chicken even as they've rebelled against menu price hikes during the past year, sending many restaurant chains racing to roll out value deals and find other ways to keep customers coming back.
Chicken featured in nearly 40% of all Grubhub restaurant orders last year and was purchased almost three times as often as beef by grocery customers, the delivery company said in December.
Visits to chicken chains swelled by 4.3% in the third quarter of 2024 from the same period a year earlier, according to the location analytics firm Placer.ai, while quick-service and fast-casual traffic dipped by 1.3% and 2.4%, respectively. These trends play to the strengths of chicken-focused brands including Dave's Hot Chicken, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers and Church's Texas Chicken, while putting pressure on burger-centric incumbents.
Taco Bell said its limited-run chicken nuggets sold out nationwide in less than a week.
'The reason they're doing this, as much as anything else, is really about competitiveness,' Jonathan Maze, editor-in-chief of Restaurant Business magazine, said of fast-food chains' embrace of chicken.
Consumers are seeing more stable prices for poultry than they are for many other animal proteins. Chicken costs were up just 1.3% in March from a year earlier, federal data shows, while pork rose 2.9% and beef and veal prices surged 8.6%.
But Maze said the biggest factor may simply be a shift in diners' tastes — as fast-food brands themselves have acknowledged. Chicken at Wendy's 'consistently resonates with our fans, and we do not expect this momentum to slow down,' a spokesperson said. 'Our focus on chicken is more intensive than ever!'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
9 hours ago
- New York Post
These are the Top 3 worst-rated food chain restaurants in the US
It got slaughtered. KFC was named the worst-rated food chain in the country, according to crypto exchange site ChicksX, which analyzed 7.3 million TripAdvisor reviews of 244 restaurant brands. The Louisville-based fried-chicken giant, which has 4,095 locations in the US, had an average customer review score of 2.89 out of 5, landing it dead last in the pecking order. Advertisement 'It was one of the few disappointments of my New York holiday,' TripAdvisor user Francesco N said in his review of KFC's Midtown location in Penn Plaza, which has since closed. 3 KFC took the crown as the worst-rated food chain in the country. SINSU1980 – 3 McDonald's landed in the second worst spot. FOTO_STOCKER – Advertisement Second to last was McDonald's. It's average score of 2.99 made it clear that many customers of its 14,300 US locations in America aren't lovin' it. 'The food was so nasty. It was dry. They took too long to take my order … some of the machines aren't even working,' lamented Zahara J. who reviewed the McDonald's on Broadway in the Theater District. 3 Burger King took the third worst title. agencies – You may not have it your way at Burger King either — as the Home of the Whopper was the third from the bottom, with an average score of 3 at its 6,678 locations in the country. Advertisement 'It took 15 minutes before we received our order and the burgers were all covered with ketchup. Don't waste your money here,' warned Jonas S. of the Burger King on Broadway in Midtown. Rounding out the Worst 10 was Church's Texas Chicken, Long John Silver's, Taco Bueno, Taco Bell, Hardee's, Wendy's and Pizza Hut. The top rated on the list was Andy's Frozen Custard, which is based in Missouri and has 85 locations in 14 states. Advertisement Great Harvest Bread Company, a franchise headquartered in Montana that has around 150 locations in the country, came in second best. The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant chain with close to 100 locations, including two in New Jersey locations, landed in third. In New York, the Mediterranean-inspired chain Cava ranked the highest, with an average score of 4.55 out of 5. In order to qualify for the list, the eatery must have had at least 150 reviews on the travel site.
CNBC
a day ago
- CNBC
Cramer's Lightning Round: 'It's the time to buy McDonald's'
Nebius Group: "....Nebius we are not going to trust." Sweetgreen: "The stock's down 57%, and they're not making money." Monster Beverage: "...You own is just one smoking hot stock." Okta: "You buy Okta...I want to own more Okta." McDonald's: "I've been saying that you must own McDonald's the time to buy McDonald's." Click here to download Jim Cramer's Guide to Investing at no cost to help you build long-term wealth and invest
Newsweek
a day ago
- Newsweek
McDonald's Exists for Food, Not Social Engineering
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Editor's Note: This article is a lightly edited transcript of an excerpt from an episode of Newsweek Radio. McDonald's is facing a nationwide boycott this week, fueled in part by the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. "As a brand that serves millions of people every day, McDonald's opens our doors to everyone, and our commitment to inclusion remains steadfast," the company told Newsweek. Since Tuesday, the company has been the subject of a boycott led by the People's Union USA, a grassroots movement that's accused McDonald's of price gouging, exploiting tax loopholes, corporate greed, and of walking away from its DEI commitments. The same group has also organized boycotts against Walmart, Amazon, and Target, and says it plans further action against McDonald's unless the company agrees to major changes in its corporate policy. This is all happening while McDonald's is battling declining sales in the U.S. In May, the company reported a 3.6 percent drop in same-store sales nationwide, the steepest decline since 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic. Here's the part that needs to be said. Just because many of us are uncomfortable with public displays of DEI indoctrination in the workplace, and the quasi-religious nature of DEI seminars, does not mean we're not committed to the actual fundamentals of diversity, equity, and inclusivity. GLOUCESTER, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 13: The logo of the fast food restaurant McDonald's is displayed outside a branch of the restaurant, on June 13, 2025 in Gloucester, England. GLOUCESTER, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 13: The logo of the fast food restaurant McDonald's is displayed outside a branch of the restaurant, on June 13, 2025 in Gloucester, the opposite, actually. Many of us think the way DEI is being implemented contradicts and works against anything that actually resembles real diversity, equity, or inclusion. These words don't have a single definition. They're wide open to interpretation. What looks like diversity to you might look like uniformity to me. What looks like equity to me might look like inequity to you. What feels inclusive to both of us might feel exclusionary to someone else. These are complicated concepts, and there's no logical reason to expect a company like McDonald's to solve them by using its workforce as guinea pigs for corporate social experiments. McDonald's is here to bring us cheap food, hot and fast. That's what it does. That's what it's always done. If we want people to learn about DEI, then put it in a high school social studies class, where it belongs. Don't expect a fast-food chain, or any other corporation, to carry that load on behalf of the rest of society. McDonald's isn't hurting right now because it moved away from DEI training. It's hurting because it's getting too expensive to keep employees at a job most people don't want to do, at a time when costs are rising and people are more health-conscious than ever. It also doesn't help that the company has painted all the restaurants that weird drab gray color that matches the color of its beef patties. It's not exactly an inviting atmosphere. That said, McDonald's has still got the best fries, in my opinion. And I'm rarely disappointed in the Filet-O-Fish with a Coke. If McDonald's wants a quick rebound, it should focus on bringing costs back down on the original menu, restoring the customer experience, and maybe adding a little warmth and color back into the stores. Hopefully now that DEI isn't eating up so much time in the workday, it can get back to doing what it does best. At the end of the day, McDonald's doesn't exist to make us better people. It exists to feed us. And sometimes, that's enough. Jesse Edwards is director of Newsweek Radio & Podcasting, and the host of Newsweek Radio. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
