Chick-fil-A’s newest chicken sandwich doesn’t feature chicken.
The Atlanta-based fast-food chain on Thursday said it is testing a cauliflower sandwich in three markets: Charleston, S.C., the Greensboro-Triad region of North Carolina and Denver.
The sandwich is made with a fillet of whole cauliflower that is marinated, breaded, seasoned, pressure cooked and served on a toasted bun with two dill pickle chips.
“Cauliflower is the hero of our new sandwich, and it was inspired by our original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich,” Leslie Neslage, director of menu and packaging at Chick-fil-A, said in a statement. “Guests told us they wanted to add more vegetables into their diets, and they wanted a plant-forward entree that tasted uniquely Chick-fil-A.”
The company said its chefs worked for nearly four years to develop the sandwich, finding the right ingredients and the right recipe. Chick-fil-A’s culinary team explored a wide variety of vegetables to serve as the centerpiece of the sandwich, including mushrooms, chickpeas or chopped vegetables formed into patties.
“We explored every corner of the plant-based space in search of the perfect centerpiece for our plant-forward entree,” Stuart Tracy, culinary developer of the cauliflower sandwich, said in a statement. “Time and again, we kept returning to cauliflower as the base of our sandwich. After a significant amount of development, we knew we had a one-of-a-kind entree.”
The test comes amid an evolution in the plant-based meat trend. Chains had been pushing products made with meat alternatives produced by companies such as Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat.
But many major fast-food chains have either tested items without announcing a major expansion, such as McDonald’s, or they pulled their plant-based products, such as Dunkin’. And both Impossible and Beyond have been laying off staff amid disappointing sales.
Meanwhile, brands appear to be developing different versions in the hope of capturing a segment of consumers that say they want more plant-based meat options—but have yet to fully endorse the concept. Taco Bell, for instance, has tested its own proprietary plant-based meat in addition to tests it has done with Beyond Meat and its own selection of vegetarian options.
Chick-fil-A could give this trend a boost on its own. It is the third-largest restaurant chain in the U.S. and the second-largest traditional fast-food concept. It is also one of the fastest-growing. The company in 2021 generated about $17 billion in global system sales, almost all of that in the U.S., where it is behind only McDonald’s and Starbucks.
The question, however, is whether consumers in the chain’s core Southeastern markets will go for the product enough to warrant a larger-scale launch. McDonald’s, for instance, struggled to win over consumers in more rural areas with its McPlant test.
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