We’ve talked about the sauce wars taking over the QSR space and now it seems there’s a specific battle happening between saucy chicken nuggets.
About two months after launching Saucy Nuggets, KFC today announced it is adding a new flavor to the lineup – honey BBQ, a sweet, smoky, and tangy sauce with brown sugar, honey, tomato, and secret spices. It joins Korean BBQ and honey Sriracha Saucy Nuggets, which will remain on the menu after receiving positive consumer feedback from their April 1 launch. Starting today, a 10-piece order of saucy nuggets in one of those three flavors is available at participating locations for $5.99. Saucy nugget combo meals are also available with Secret Recipe fries and a drink.
"In response to requests from our customers, we're rolling out our popular honey BBQ sauce on our nuggets. KFC guests have loved our Saucy Nuggets and we're excited to continue to introduce new flavors into the mix," CMO Nick Chavez said in a statement. "Our Saucy Nuggets are made the KFC way – starting with our 100% white meat chicken nuggets, hand-breaded by our cooks with our distinctive Original Recipe of 11 herbs and spices and sauced to perfection.”
KFC also hinted at “more saucy news to come later this summer.” In the meantime, its updated Saucy Nuggets lineup comes about a week after Wendy’s jumped into the category, launching Saucy Nuggs with seven flavors – honey bbq, garlic parm, Buffalo, spicy honey bbq, spicy garlic parm, spicy Buffalo, and spicy ghost pepper. Wendy’s offering is available in 4, 6, 10, or 20-piece sizes.
In a statement, Wendy’s CMO Lindsay Radkoski said Saucy Nuggs will "create more opportunities for Wendy’s to meet the needs of new and existing customers."
Of course, this shouldn’t be a huge surprise. We’ve been dressing up our chicken wings and boneless chicken wings for years and years now, giving us license to finally do the same with nuggets as more customers clamor for such sauciness. According to Technomic’s Flavor Consumer Trend Report, 34% of consumers consider what sauces and condiments are available when deciding what restaurants to visit.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
