Burger King Enters the Chicken Sandwich War With the Ch'King Burger King is set to release its new crispy sandwich, called the Ch'King, on June 3.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
All is fair in love and chicken wars as another fast-food giant has entered the competition in creating the best chicken sandwich.
Burger King is set to release its new crispy sandwich, called the Ch'King, on June 3.
The sandwich has been slowly phased out in select stores across the country with the original announcement of the item being made earlier this year in February.
It consists of a hand-breaded chicken filet topped with pickles and Burger King's famous sauce on a potato bun.
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"We said we would create a delicious hand-breaded chicken sandwich that was worth the wait, we just didn't anticipate that it would turn out quite this good," Chief Marketing Officer of Burger King North America Ellie Doty said.
In order to amp up sales and awareness of the new item, Burger King will be running a promotion from June 3 to 20 where customers who purchase the Ch'King online or through the BK app will receive a free Whopper.
The battle of the fast-food chicken sandwiches started in August 2019 when Popeye's released its fried chicken sandwich that instantly began selling out at stores across the country. The sandwich — which also included breaded chicken, pickles, sauce and a brioche bun — caught the attention of Chick-fil-A who cheekily tweeted what seemed to be a jab at Popeye's for creating nearly the same sandwich.
Bun + Chicken + Pickles = all the ❤️ for the original. pic.twitter.com/qBAIIxZx5v
— Chick-fil-A, Inc. (@ChickfilA) August 19, 2019
Since then, fast food chains like Wendy's, Arby's, McDonald's and even Taco Bell have taken a stab at creating their own twist on the classic sandwich.
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Burger King's release comes at a risky time where the restaurant industry as a whole is facing widespread poultry shortages due to supply and demand issues, many presumably brought about by the pandemic.
The company believes that its phased rollout method and expectation of high demand will prevent early sell-outs and an inability to keep up with demand, however.
"We're not immune to macro forces, they hit us just like they hit everybody else, but we have put in place a very robust supply chain support system, we have a diversified set of suppliers," Doty assured.
And industry experts are confident that the chicken craze isn't going anywhere.
"No matter which chicken sandwich wins the chicken sandwich war or which sandwich is competing with the burger, operators who put chicken sandwiches or burgers or both on their menus are headed in the right direction," said NPD Food Industry Advisor David Portalatin.
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