KFC rolls out a new mac and cheese bowl topped with extra cheese and fried chicken as the fast-food mac and cheese battle heats up

• KFC is adding mac and cheese bowls to the menu starting on August 26. 
• The bowl takes KFC's mac and cheese and tops it with crispy popcorn chicken and a three-cheese blend. 
• KFC's bowl joins Chick-fil-A's new mac and cheese, ramping up the cheesy competition.
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Forget the chicken sandwich wars. The next fast-food battlefront is mac and cheese. 

On Thursday, KFC announced it is adding mac and cheese bowls to the menu starting on August 26. The bowls are a twist on KFC's pre-existing bowl lineup, swapping a mashed potato base for mac and cheese. 

KFC's mac and cheese bowl takes the chain's mac and cheese and tops it with crispy popcorn chicken and a three-cheese blend. 

"Mac and Cheese has a cult-like following, and bowl food is a trend that isn't going away anytime soon," Andrea Zahumensky, KFC US CMO, said in a statement. "So, it made perfect sense to call up a favorite side dish to the big leagues, in a way that only we could, with Mac and Cheese Bowls."

Fast-food menus are seeing a mac and cheese boom. Chick-fil-A recently added mac and cheese to its permanent menu, its first new side since 2017. 

Read more: I tried mac and cheese from 6 fast-food chains, and Chick-fil-A's transcended the others with cheese I could actually see and taste

The arrival of Chick-fil-A's mac and cheese ruffled some feathers, with Boston Market implying it was a knockoff of Boston Market's menu item. 

"We've got something cooking at the moment - and not just in our rotisserie ovens - that will reward our biggest mac and cheese fans in a pretty massive way," a Boston Market representative said in an email to Business Insider.