Birds Eye is expanding its frozen Chicken Shop range in a collaboration that taps directly into the appetite among consumers in the United Kingdom for bigger, bolder flavors. The Nomad Foods brand has partnered with Nottingham, England-based flavor specialist Sauce Shop to launch two new chicken wings products: Buffalo Hot and Honey BBQ Chipotle, each pairing Chicken Shop’s wings with a dedicated Sauce Shop sachet for at-home customization.
Demand for tasty fakeaways products continues to grow, especially among younger shoppers who want indulgent, customizable meals without the cost or wait of home delivery. Research form Nielsen shows flavor is the top priority in a chicken fakeaway, with over half of 18-34-year-olds in Britain mixing up what they choose and 40% saying new flavors make the occasion feel more special.
Birds Eye’s Chicken Shop line is already well aligned to this behavior, offering fast-cooking takeaway-style formats (including air fryer-friendly products) that suit the smaller group occasions that make up 74% of fakeaways. The addition of Sauce Shop’s trend-driven sauces gives home meal preparers even more control by letting them dial up the heat, sweetness or smokiness to preferred levels, while recreating the flavor profiles dominating quick service restaurant menus and social media trends.
Birds Eye’s Chicken Shop is regarded as one of the most dynamic frozen brands on the UK retail market, delivering +28.8% value growth and +28% volume growth year-on-year through December 27, 2025, and recruiting new customers into frozen poultry at a +3.7% clip during the same period, according to Nielsen statistics.
Sauce Shop brings equally compelling category momentum. In a competitive sauces category, the brand has delivered +40.4% retail sales value growth with strong gains in hot sauce and BBQ segments. Its Buffalo Hot Sauce, the brand’s top seller, is now the second largest Buffalo sauce in the market – and the biggest UK-made – growing +76% year-on-year.
Together, the two brands are creating a proposition that drives cross-category interest designed to strengthen trial, repeat and basket spend.
Claire Sutton, marketing director at Birds Eye commented: “Our Chicken Shop range has always been about bringing quick service restaurant style quality into the frozen fixture, and flavor sits at the heart of that. Partnering with Sauce Shop, one of the most exciting flavor brands in the UK, lets us bring the kind of sauces people obsess over online straight into the freezer aisle. These new Chicken Shop wings give consumers all the flavor, fun and flexibility they expect from a night-in without any compromise on taste.”
Pam Digva, co-founder of Sauce Shop, added: “This partnership is rooted in flavor. Birds Eye Chicken Shop delivers great quality wings and pairing them with our sauces lets people tailor the heat and flavor at home. Buffalo Hot and Honey & Chipotle BBQ are two of our best-loved profiles, so they felt like a natural fit for the range.”
Priced at £4.50 per 385-gram pack, the products will be available starting March 2 at Tesco and Sainsbury’s retail stores throughout Britain.
