Time flies doesn’t it? It was just yesterday everyone was talking about Beyond Meat’s deep-friend nugget and boneless wing test in Georgia. Before we dive into the news, let’s do a head-count. As of writing, here’s an up-to-date compilation of all the fast-food restaurant chains with plant-based items on their menus (for sale, or in test markets):
- KFC, The Imposter (not a typo), a U.K. chicken burger
- Little Caesars, Supreme Pizza (spicy-sweet sausage)
- Qdoba, Qdoba Impossible Bowl or Qdoba Impossible Taco
- Burger King, Impossible Whopper
- Carl’s Jr., Beyond Famous Star
- Del Taco, Beyond Taco
- Dunkin’, Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich
- Red Robin, Impossible Burger
- TGI Fridays, Beyond Burger
- White Castle, Impossible Slider
Derrick Bryson Taylor for The Times writes:
For weeks, a debate over where to get the best chicken sandwich has waged between Popeyes, Chick-fil-A and the chicken-eating public at large. But KFC, another chicken giant with a global reach, is working on its own agenda: a plant-based “chicken” that proved so popular in a sales test that it sold out in a single day.
“It’s confusing, but it’s also delicious,” read a tweet from KFC on Monday announcing the sale of Beyond Fried Chicken, created with the help of the company Beyond Meat, at a single location in Atlanta. In about five hours on Tuesday, a KFC representative said, the restaurant sold as many plant-based boneless wings and nuggets as it would sell of its popular popcorn chicken in an entire week. (A “Kentucky Fried Miracle,” the company declared.)
In 24 hours, the test market sold out. This is simply put, delicious news for everyone.