Taco Bell Challenges McDonald's with New Chicken Menu
The new chicken offerings will be available at various price points, including $2.79 for the Crispy Chicken Taco and $5.49 for the Crispy Chicken Burrito, with the option to add a new Spicy Ranchero Sauce for $0.30 or $0.60 a la carte, giving customers a range of options to suit their budgets and tastes.
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Taco Bell is set to release three new menu items, including Crispy Chicken Strips, Crispy Chicken Burrito, and Crispy Chicken Taco, on June 17, in a move seen as a challenge to McDonald's growing chicken offerings. The items were teased at Live Más Live and tested multiple times over the past year, featuring marinated chicken in jalapeño buttermilk flavor and coated with tortilla chip breadcrumbs.
The Crispy Chicken Strips can be ordered on their own or with Spicy Ranchero Sauce or Avocado Ranch sauce, while the Crispy Chicken Taco features a Crispy Chicken Strip topped with purple cabbage, lettuce, pico de gallo, and shredded Cheddar cheese on a tortilla. The Crispy Chicken Burrito is double the size of the taco with two Crispy Chicken Strips, offering customers a variety of options to choose from.
These new items are part of Taco Bell's effort to add crispy chicken to its permanent menu by 2026, as the company looks to broaden its relevancy and capitalize on the growing demand for chicken offerings. The launch comes as competition in the chicken category intensifies, with McDonald's and Popeyes also introducing new chicken items, making it a challenging market for Taco Bell to establish itself.
The introduction of the new menu items, including the limited-time Crispy Chicken Taco and Burrito, marks a significant step for Taco Bell in its bid to become a major player in the chicken market, and it remains to be seen how the items will be received by customers and how they will impact the company's sales and market share.