By Noelle Riddle

The fast food industry’s “years-long chicken craze” accelerated this year as companies from McDonald’s to Chipotle rolled out specialty products for budget-conscious, protein-craving consumers, wrote the Washington Post. Executives have touted new chicken sandwiches, wraps and wings as healthier and less expensive alternatives to beef in recent earnings calls, the Post reported.

Research shows that in 1970, the average person in the United States ate about 50 pounds of chicken each year. Today the Agriculture Department expects chicken consumption to surpass 100 pounds for the first time in 2024.

“The future for chicken remains bright,” said Hudson Riehle, the National Restaurant Association’s senior research vice president. “The market is driven by convenience and chicken is an extremely convenient protein to prepare.”

Chicken is a go-to protein for restaurants and consumers when inflation is high because it takes fewer natural resources to produce, wrote the Post. The average price of a whole chicken in the U.S. was $1.99 per pound in October, while a pound of ground beef was $5.59, according to federal government data.

The number of chicken products consumed at quick-service restaurants, including sandwiches, wings, nuggets and strips, has increased 11% since 2019 and increased 2% year over year in the 12 months ended October 2024, according to Brooks Berrodin, a food industry analyst at market research firm Circana.

Several companies have recently rolled out new chicken offerings. In October, McDonald’s released a Chicken Big Mac. The sandwich features the same toppings as the Big Mac but with two tempura-battered chicken patties in place of the two all-beef patties.

Some companies, such as Chipotle, price chicken products lower than beef. Others, like McDonald’s and Burger King, charge the same for both proteins, despite chicken’s lower cost, wrote the Post.

Noelle Riddle is the editor/writer of NACS Daily.