While chicken sandwiches have gained a lot of attention over the past few years as more poultry restaurant concepts open and more chicken sandwiches appear on menus, beef burgers remain the top entrée item ordered in the United States by far, according to the NPD Group.
In 2020, burgers were included in 13.5% of all restaurant orders, which translated to approximately 7 billion servings. Chicken sandwiches (breaded and grilled) were included in 6.7% of restaurant orders in the United States, which amounts to 3.5 billion servings, reports the Port Washington, New York-based market research firm, which tracks consumer behavior at restaurants and other foodservice outlets across the nation and abroad.
Chicken sandwiches rank #2 in the sandwich pecking order, and are gaining popularity as more restaurants – especially quick service restaurants – add them to menu or enhance the chicken sandwich offerings they already have on offer. Servings of breaded chicken sandwiches increased by 8% in last year compared to sales in 2019.. This gain in servings is contrasted with the double-digit decline in total restaurant visits in 2020 versus the previous year.
Most breaded chicken sandwiches are sold by quick service restaurants (QSRs), which received 2.5 billion order last year, up 9% over 2019. About 65% of the US population has purchased a breaded chicken sandwich from a QSR in the last six months.
“No matter which chicken sandwich wins the chicken sandwich war or which sandwich is competing with the burger, operators who put chicken sandwiches or burgers or both on their menus are headed in the right direction,” said David Portalatin, NPD’s food industry advisor and the author of Eating Patterns in America. “These sandwiches have always been and will always be a customer favorite.”
