Kentucky Fried Chicken a.k.a KFC, one of the most popular fast-food restaurant chains in the world, is making its debut into vegan food by introducing plant-based chicken to the world. KFC has finished their trails as well, and they are officially rolling out this amazing chicken alternative on January 10th, 2022. For the last two years, KFC, the food chain brand, has been working with Beyond Meat to experiment with the concept of plant-based fried chicken.
Now that the tests and trials are completed successfully, you'll find all the KFC branches selling this vegan chicken product across the United States for a limited period. "The mission from day one was simple – make the world-famous Kentucky Fried Chicken from plants," KFC US President Kevin Hochman said in a release. "And now over two years later we can say, 'mission accomplished."
Overwhelming Success
Beyond Meat, a subsidiary unit of Yum Brands has developed the plant-based chicken alternative for KFC. The food chain brand introduced this vegan chicken at an Atlanta restaurant in August 2019 as a part of their first trial. In under five hours, the whole product was sold at the respective location, and the company commemorated their trial victory by calling it an "overwhelming success".
Post their first success, KFC and Beyond Meat offered their vegan sample products to some of the restaurants in Southern California. Then they moved to 70 distinct places in and around Nashville, Charlotte, NC, and TN to continue their tests with the novel plant-based nuggets in 2020.
Louisville's fast-food chain brand, KFC, has always expressed their pleasure and delight in "doing chicken right". Now, they have expanded their chicken wings by entering into the vegan market, the untapped one till yesterday. Along with the plant-based fried chicken from Beyond Meat, you can have your favorite dipping sauce.
There are multiple varieties of sauces you can try having with your BFC nuggets - honey BBQ, ranch, honey mustard, and KFC sauce. The KFC brand is unveiling Beyond Fried Chicken at 4,000 locations across the nation. Customers can order à la carte in six-piece or 12-piece sizes. Or, they can go with a plant-based combo meal followed by a medium-sized drink. The combo deal starts at $7, but it differs from location to location.
'Truly Thrilled'
"We couldn't be prouder to partner with KFC to offer a best-in-class product that not only delivers the delicious experience consumers expect from this iconic chain but also provides the added benefits of plant-based meat," Beyond Meat founder and CEO Ethan Brown said. "We are truly thrilled to make it available to consumers nationwide."
From KFC's roll out to enter into vegan, and Beyond Meat's vegan chicken produce, we can manifest how both these brands came together to change the way people consume chicken. As and when KFC's plant-based fried chicken news knocked on the doors of customers nationwide, KFC Canada made headlines about making and adding Lightlife-based fried chicken as a permanent item to their menu.
Hadi Chahin, Mary Brown's President and COO, commented, "We're listening to what Canadians are saying and how their food tastes are changing. So while the chicken is at the heart of our menu, we also want to satisfy the cravings of Guests who are looking for delicious plant-based choices." He added, "Plant-based options open the door to more people enjoying Mary Brown's – and at the end of the day, sharing great food with family and friends is what we're all about."
Burger King introduced their first plant-based burger called the Impossible WHOPPER a few years back. Wendy's launched "Spicy Black Bean Burger" in July 2021. And now, KFC has also entered the vegan space as a competitor. Looking at the unveiling of plant-based chicken products in the fast-food chain brands, the trend will soon take over the market by storm.
