KFC Is Dropping Popcorn Chicken And Wings To Make Room For An 'Innovative' Spring
The idea that a company that sells chicken as its main focus point would rid its menu of any poultry products sounds almost unbelievable. But KFC has something a bit different in mind for the upcoming season. In the style of "out with the old, in with the new," the company is changing up its menu.
According to Yahoo! Finance, Yum! Brands, KFC's parent company, has announced that KFC would be undergoing a massive menu overhaul as part of a "simplification process" and to lay the groundwork for as-yet-unknown innovations. To make room for these new "innovations," KFC is dropping several items from its menu, including popcorn chicken, wings, chocolate chip cookies, Nashville-style hot sauce, and strawberry lemonade. These products were chosen to be discontinued because they were regional-only items or simply weren't profitable enough in the company's eyes.
Nation's Restaurant News reports that the company hopes to highlight "core menu items" while testing out new products, such as the chain's recently released wraps.
Some people are unhappy with the menu changes
Despite the menu changes, chicken is still KFC's number-one priority. But consider it akin to McDonald's announcing it would discontinue the Quarter Pounder and the Filet-O-Fish to make room for new menu items. To get rid of such recognizable products would surely prompt a response from fans. On Reddit, several individuals seemed to consider KFC's choice to be a poor one.
"Popcorn chicken is the only thing other than those mashed potatoes that is worth going there for," wrote one Reddit user. "I'm not a KFC fan, but I am tired of chains cutting menus for service time," another wrote. "Two restaurants with the same menu can have wildly different serving times, mostly because of staffing and management."
Although the popcorn chicken was a fan-favorite menu item, KFC may have plans to introduce something very similar to it in the future: chicken nuggets. In 2022, KFC began testing chicken nuggets in Charlotte, North Carolina, per WCNC Charlotte. The nuggets were targeted toward a younger customer base (per CNN). And as The Street notes, KFC's once-discontinued wraps have also returned to the chain's menu. So perhaps the popcorn chicken could make a comeback in the future.