McDonald’s is a chicken chain.
The Chicago-based fast-food giant known for its beefy products like the Big Mac and the Quarter Pounder now does just as much business in chicken, the company said on Wednesday.
As such, it plans to keep pushing into poultry. McDonald’s plans to expand its McCrispy line of chicken sandwiches into wraps and tenders, the company said as part of a series of announcements that are part of its Investor Day presentation. It also plans on bringing that sandwich to more countries.
Four of McDonald’s chicken items are among the 17 items on the company’s menu that are billion-dollar brands: McNuggets, the McChicken, McCrispy and McSpicy.
“Our chicken equities remain at the core of our growth strategy,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors in July.
Its foray into chicken largely follows consumer appetites, particularly in the U.S. Chicken topped beef as Americans’ favorite protein in 1993, according to data from the National Chicken Council, and that demand has soared ever since.
They now consume nearly twice as much chicken as they do beef. In fact, chicken on its own is on the verge of overtaking all red meat, including pork.
Inflation will likely give that a boost. Wholesale beef prices are up 29% over the past year alone. By comparison, chicken prices are down 8.4%.
That inflation gap can be expected to continue. The price of beef is expected to increase in the coming years amid weak supplies, which will likely push consumers even further toward the poultry section of the meat department.
It will also keep pushing consumers to chicken restaurants. While McDonald’s push into more chicken might garner fears that it could hurt demand for other chicken concepts, the fact is that there appears to be enough demand to go around.
Some of the fastest-growing chicken chains in the U.S. sell chicken, notably McDonald’s rival Chick-fil-A and the rapidly growing chicken tenders chain Raising Cane’s, along with the Dallas-based Wingstop. McDonald’s further encroachment into that market has barely made a dent in those chains’ success.
As such, McDonald’s plans to push more chicken. And Wednesday’s announcement also suggests it could bring back wraps, something the company eliminated from its menu back in 2016. But other chains, notably rivals Burger King and KFC, have had success with those recently.