The food world woke up around August 12, 2019. That was the day Popeyes launched its spicy crispy chicken sandwich. Now, that wouldn’t be so noteworthy, except they ran out of them in two weeks. Completely. R&D chefs arose. We are still seeing “me-too” launches daily.
The takeaway from that wake-up moment was twofold: consumers love crispy chicken sandwiches. But they also love spicy sandwiches. Arby’s is my favorite recent example of a chain that applied that learning in the extreme earlier this year. It promoted its Diablo Dare Crispy Chicken Sandwich as the spiciest sandwich on the market with five sources: ghost pepper jack cheese, fiery hot seasoning, fire-roasted jalapenos and Diablo BBQ sauce, served on a red chipotle bun. To underscore the spicy factor, it warned the sandwich “is so spicy, we had to include a free vanilla shake to cool your mouth down between bites.”
Other R&D chefs have expanded in other directions
- Wendy’s launched a Hot Honey Chicken Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich earlier this year to not only spice up the breakfast menu, but to tap into sweet-and-heat sensibilities. Hot honey is super trendy right now.
- Consider The Velvet Elvis Sandwich at Pinky’s Westside Grill. It’s crunchy peanut butter, spicy honey, cream cheese, banana and bacon on Texas toast.
- Which Wich offers ZA’WICH. That’s pepperoni, spicy capicola, marinara, provolone and hot pepper mix.
- Burgers, take notice. Bad Daddy Burger Bar is running an El Poblano Loco special, which is beef patty, pepper Jack cheese, pico de gallo, fried poblano peppers and chipotle ranch on a bun. Those fried poblano peppers? You can also order a side of just those with chipotle ranch.
This love of spicy food is fairly recent. When I started researching and writing about food more than 25 years ago, spice levels were much lower, and chefs weren’t eager to push the limits. Today’s generation is much more daring, plus our country has a different demographic makeup. There’s research on this spicy topic. According to one report, “only 15% of consumers believe they can tolerate their food at a ‘very spicy’ level, but 37% still consider themselves to be a ‘spicy food aficionado.’ Nearly half of Americans (43%) admit they like to ‘test their limits’ when it comes to trying spicy foods.”
Back to the Arby’s Diablo Dare Crispy Chicken Sandwich promotion. How brilliant was it to combine a vanilla shake with the sandwich? Yes, it was a gimmick that garnered a LOT of free press/buzz, but it was probably also necessary!
Tell me what you think.
Jody
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