Slim Chickens’ home base is Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the fast casual got its start in 2003. With sweet heat continuing to gain traction on menus, the chicken chain decided to jump in with a Southern take on the “swicy” trend to reflect its roots.
Before the August launch, Slim Chickens conducted a lot of consumer research and sweet-and-spicy came up again and again as a top trend and craving, said Patrick Noone, chief marketing officer for the 300-plus unit chain. But he didn’t want to take the “me too” route of pairing chicken with hot honey.
“Pimento cheese really over-indexes in the South, and that's where we have our deepest roots; that's kind of the heart of our geographic core,” said Noone. “So instead of just chasing the same trend that everyone else is chasing, it felt like we could do this in authentic way that that other brands couldn't.”
The result is the Honey Jalapeño Pimento Sandwich and Wrap, a limited time offer that delivers the sought-after flavor profile via a Southern favorite: Pimento cheese.
From idea to LTO
Slim Chickens’ culinary team brainstormed several ideas to land on the pairing.
“We have Chef Andrew Ruga, who is a phenomenal director of culinary, and he'll go pretty far out with some of these ideas,” said Noone. “We kind of give him a north star based on our menu strategy, then bring vendors into our test kitchen for discovery days, and present a focused brief centered on sweet and spicy.” When some great pimento options began emerging, Noone and the team knew they wanted to land there, thinking “this is really where we can win.”
The pimento cheese is sourced from several select supplier partners. Next, the culinary team worked on the sandwich build. They tried several ways to add sweetness, including some that included drizzles of hot honey.
“We actually had hot honey in-house because we launched a limited-time Hot Honey Ranch during this same time period as part of our Ranch Remix program. Every month, we change up our housemade ranch with a new flavor,” said Noone.
But one of the first builds they tried turned out to be the winner. It starts with a brioche bun that’s layered with a breaded chicken breast, pimento cheese, regular honey for sweetness, and pickled jalapeños to bring in the spiciness and a bit of acidity, he explained. The wrap features the ingredients layered with lettuce and shredded cheddar enclosed in a tortilla that’s flavored with a bit of jalapeño. In addition to the pimento cheese, both the honey and jalapeños were new SKUs sourced for this LTO.
“In test, we were surprised at how well the wrap did,” said Noone. “It’s the first time we extended an LTO to both formats and some markets are selling more wraps than sandwiches.” Customer feedback has been very positive so far, he added; the sandwich and wrap will run through the middle of September.
Slim Chickens has franchised units in 32 states, so price varies with the market. But à la carte, the sandwich or wrap goes for $7 to $9, and as part of a combo meal with a side and drink for $10 to $12.
Personalization built into the menu mission
Chicken tenders are at the core of Slim Chickens’ menu, buttermilk brined and breaded in house, then cooked to order. But the menu also includes wings, tender bites, sandwiches, wraps, and bowls. In the spirit of Southern hospitality, team members often say “welcome” to customers in the store or drive-thru, and ask “what you picking?”
Whatcha Pickin' leans into freedom of choice at Slim Chickens.
This year, that question has turned into a marketing hook called “Whatcha Pickin’” as well as a menu strategy.
“There's a huge opportunity to personalize the menu here, so that’s why we've centered on a brand positioning that we describe as ‘Whatcha Pickin’,” said Noone. “Through quantitative and qualitative research, we discovered that most of our guests are variety seekers, and they're bored by some of the one-note menus that you can experience in other brands. But the navigation of the menu can be difficult, plus we have 14 sauces, so Whatcha Pickin’ is a way for the team to guide customers through to different choices and combos.”
Guest feedback reveals that freedom of choice is at the heart of the Slim Chickens experience and what differentiates the concept from its competitors. The chain’s new brand positioning speaks to that, he added.
What’s next
Later this month, Slim Chickens is slowly rolling out a new process for coating chicken tenders that's already being used successfully on the brand’s spicy tenders. Also coming soon is a collaboration with Dr Pepper — another Southern brand — on a blasted Tender launch.
And Ranch Remix innovation will continue. Earlier this year, a popular dill pickle ranch launched, with hot honey ranch following, and the current candidate, barbecue ranch, now on the menu. All are made fresh in-house daily. Since the Honey Jalapeño Pimento Wrap was such a hit, more wraps may be coming up, too.
The chain also has a robust beverage innovation pipeline, said Noone, with dirty sodas and refreshers being two of the other platforms in the works.
Slim Chickens has a relatively new R&D center at its Fayetteville headquarters and Chef Ruga leads a lot of activity there. Once an item is developed, in-person focus groups are brought in, the menu item name is vetted with online screeners, and an operations shakedown is performed.
“That step involves every team member in the building coming down to the test kitchen for lunch to try the new product and provide feedback,” said Noone. “It gets everybody excited about the next innovation, and invested in it.” That’s followed by an ops test, and sometimes a full-blown marketing test, before it’s rolled out, he added. Some items take as little as six months to roll out, others take more than a year.
The rollout was pretty quick in the case of the Honey Jalapeño Pimento Sandwich and Wrap, said Noone. “It was kind of on the back burner, and the more indications we got from our guests that sweet and spicy was what they wanted, and we didn’t want to go with the typical hot honey, it took just several months from ideation to implementation.”
This story has been updated to reflect more recent information.