Today, the chicken sandwich wars are still a point of contention among friends — the sandwich you prefer is like a Rorschach test for your culinary personality.
It all started in 2019, when Popeyes debuted its chicken sandwich. Chick-fil-A responded in a tweet that it was the originator of the sandwich, having had its chicken sandwich on the menu since 1964.
The fast-food chains quickly became the center of a heated debate on social media over which restaurant had the best sandwich. The lucrative marketing campaign drove a chicken sandwich boom, but Popeyes' same-store sales growth has since declined.
Yet, chicken remains a major category for restaurant chains. According to the Technomic 2023 Top 500 Chain Report, chicken sales rose 11% in 2022, and cumulative sales of the top chicken chains jumped from $27 billion in 2018 to about $44 billion in 2022.
Popeyes and Chick-fil-A have nearly the same number of US locations at 2,900 and 2,800, respectively, at the end of 2022, according to data from Technomics. But the company's 2022 US sales were quite different. Popeyes was about $5 billion, while Chick-fil-A's was $18 billion, per Technomics.
To reignite demand and boost profitability, Popeyes is renovating its kitchens. In the past, customers complained that Popeyes' orders took too long or were often wrong, according to Bloomberg. The chain is also introducing new menu items, like its blackened chicken sandwich, which uses a breading-free chicken breast marinated for 12 hours and seasoned with Cajun and Creole spices.
Restaurant Brand International, which owns Popeyes, is focused on making its kitchens easy to run. "Simplifying our kitchens means offering our guests faster, more accurate service and taking a big load off our team members," executive chairman J. Patrick Doyle said in an August earnings call.
I tried the chicken sandwiches at both chains to see which was best and compare how quickly they prepared them.