Fully cooked, seasoned ingredients meet customer demands, streamline operations.
April 16, 2024
Sponsored by Burke Corporation
Globally inspired dishes provide a key opportunity for operators to create menu excitement and drive sales, as consumers continue to explore flavors and ingredients from around the world.
Asian favorites such as Korean BBQ and kimchi, as well as traditional Mexican and Central American creations such as birria, chicken tinga, and salsa verde are among the foods that have garnered strong consumer interest, says Kyle Flottman, brand manager at Burke Corporation.
“Millennials and Gen Z have especially latched on to this trend,” he says, noting that these younger demographic groups are more likely to describe Mexican and Latin flavors as “exciting” and “premium.”
In fact, the National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot 2024 Culinary Forecast,” which surveyed more than 1,500 culinary professionals, cites several Latin ingredients as trends to watch this year, including birria, queso fundido, tajin, agave and hibiscus.
Well-known chefs have helped drive this phenomenon, said Erich Chieca, executive chef at Hormel Foods Culinary Collective.
“He became a leading authority for Mexican/Hispanic cuisine in the U.S. due to his travels and what he’s brought back and offered in his restaurants,” says Chieca. “That flavor profile and that authenticity have spilled out into the rest of the restaurant world, which now wants to work with those types of products.”
The items in the BURKE® Mexican-Inspired Meats line are well-suited for these trends, Chieca says. Not only do they provide bold, on-trend flavor profiles and high quality, but because they are full cooked, they are also easy for operators to incorporate into their operations. The line includes:
• Cooked Sausage with Salsa Verde-Style Seasonings;
• Beef Meatballs with Smoky Chipotle Seasonings;
• Chicken Sausage with Tinga-Style Seasonings;
• Pork & Beef Meatballs with Albondigas-Style Seasonings;
• Chorizo Sausage Crumbles, and
• Mexican Style Beef Crumbles, Zesty.
These items can easily be featured in global comfort food applications, which offer customers not only authentic Mexican flavors but also a degree of approachability and familiarity.
For example, consider a dish such as this Chicken Tinga Quesadilla, which consists of a flour tortilla filled with red enchilada sauce, Mexican cheeses, BURKE® Chicken Sausage with Tinga-Style Seasonings, roasted peppers, and onions, and finished with a drizzle of avocado hot sauce.
Or, for a shareable appetizer or entrée, Chorizo Spanish Rice Balls feature BURKE® Chorizo Sausage and Spanish rice, rolled into small spheres with onions, peppers, sharp cheddar cheese, coated in breadcrumbs and fried golden brown. These can also be served with enchilada sauce.
Items such as these, and others made with the BURKE® Mexican-Inspired Meats line, are ideal for limited time offers (LTOs), says Flottman.
“If operators can get an on-trend flavor on their menu, they are likely to bring in new customers as well as deliver an exciting new option to their loyal patrons,” he says.
These ingredients can also “bridge the gap between dayparts,” Flottman says, citing options such as Chorizo Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast or brunch, Chorizo Salad as a fun appetizer with a kick, and Chorizo Tacos for a fresh take on an old favorite.
“You can take this line from breakfast to dinner, and everything in between,” says Chieca.
Operational efficiencies
The items in the BURKE® Mexican-Inspired Meats line also provide the added benefit of boosting operational efficiency.
“You’re not bringing a raw product into the kitchen, where you have to prep and season it, cook it, hold it, and chill it,” says Chieca. “We’ve taken all those steps out of it. You’re getting a fully cooked product into the restaurant, with authentic flavor, that’s ready to use.”
Flottman delineates the advantages of using fully cooked ingredients such as these in the kitchen as follows:
• Fully cooked meats save time and back-of-house waste. All the BURKE® Mexican-Inspired Meats products are individually quick frozen (IQF) and are free-flowing from the bag, meaning that operators can pull the exact amount of product they need rather than having to defrost an entire bag and risk wasting product.
• By using BURKE® fully cooked meats, operators are ensuring consistency — predictable usage, consistent quality, and ultimately a better return on investment.
• Because the meats are fully cooked, operators can avoid the microbials and cross-contamination they may encounter when working with raw product.
“We design our products with operator make tables in mind,” says Flottman. “We know that operators have limited space back of house, so we create products that can be used in any application and in any daypart.”
In addition to streamlining kitchen operations to help hold the line on costs, BURKE® Mexican-Inspired Meats at the same provide an opportunity to expand margins. Consumers are generally willing to pay more for dishes that include premium flavors such as those in the BURKE® product line, he says.
“Operators win on both fronts,” says Flottman. “They are able to add exciting and trendy flavor profiles to their menu, while also boosting profits at minimum cost.”
For more information, about how BURKE® Mexican-Inspired Meats can help you drive increased sales and profitability in your operation, visit https://meat.burkecorp.com/mexican-inspired/
