Restaurants adjust menus to cater to preference for chicken dishes and declining profits for beef products

Chicken per capita consumption overtook beef back in 1993, according to Technomic, Inc., and today, the USDA estimates people eat about twice the amount of chicken in the U.S. than beef or pork.

Some cite costs and health reasons for the changes in preferences but definitely costs have increased significantly in recent times to push restaurants to provide more chicken menu choices because beef is less profitable. Around 93% of restaurant operators of all kinds include chicken on their menus.

Sales at chicken chains grew 8.9% in 2024 compared with 2023, while burger restaurant chain sales grew 1.4%, according to Technomic. Chicken now delivers more than $53 billion in annual sales for U.S. fast-food restaurants that specialize in poultry.

Chick-fil-A Restaurants’ multilane drive-throughs concept has made the chain, the third-biggest U.S. restaurant chain by domestic sales. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen launched its own version of the Chick-fil-A sandwich in 2019, kicking off fast food’s chicken sandwich wars, and chains from McDonald's to Shake Shack hustled to add their own.

Now, Taco Bell is developing a whole menu of crispy chicken tacos, burritos and nuggets, and Wendy's is launching new tenders later this year. McDonald’s rolled out its own chicken tenders in May, and afterwards added chicken Snack Wraps.

Hot spicy chicken chains are growing their footprints too. Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers’s, with its chicken fingers-centric menu, aims to add 100 locations this year. Wingstop Restaurants Inc. in February launched crispy tenders to its menu and will open approximately 435 to 460 net new stores in 2025 by year-end.

Read more: Welcome to the Fast-Food Industry’s Crispy Chicken Summer (The Wall Street Journal)