Popeyes debuted its Honey Chicken Biscuit sandwich Monday in a national rollout, according to a press release.
The Honey Chicken Biscuit — priced around $5 depending on store and market — is a permanent menu item, designed to appeal to consumers across dayparts, a Popeyes spokesperson confirmed in an email.
The sandwich combines an enlarged version of the chain’s biscuit with its core chicken product and its sweet honey sauce, per the press release.
The spokesperson said the menu item was aligned with the chain’s efforts to refocus on its core menu items and constituted innovation that reimagines “what's already cooking in our kitchen.”
Biscuits are a staple element of some QSR chain’s breakfast offerings. McDonald’s, for instance, serves multiple biscuit-based breakfast sandwiches. Wendy’s does too — its menu even includes a chicken biscuit with honey butter, similar to Popeyes’ new offering. Bojangles and Chick-fil-A likewise sell several breakfast biscuits.
Despite the resemblance to many breakfast items, Popeyes said the sandwich is designed to be ordered across dayparts, including late night, while its price point makes it a viable snacking option.
“This is not a breakfast item but an all-day item,” the spokesperson wrote. “We do not have a formal breakfast menu.”
The chain does not generally serve breakfast and its restaurants are not usually open during the daypart.
“Restaurants typically open around 11AM but this changes restaurant to restaurant,” the spokesperson said.
Given how difficult it would be to add a new daypart across stores, it’s likely that Popeyes intends for this to be a buzzy item and an incremental sales driver, rather than the vanguard of a new daypart — at least in the short term.
But, given that Popeyes has seen same-store sales declines in seven of the last eight quarters, the chain may be planning something more ambitious, once it completes the operational reset prescribed in its turnaround efforts. The Honey Chicken Biscuit could be a convenient way to test flavor combinations, marketing ideas and store-level processes that might eventually go into a breakfast menu without stretching operations.
Of note as well: KFC recently began testing a breakfast daypart at a single showcase store in Texas. If Yum Brands undertakes a broader KFC breakfast launch, RBI may make a similar move at Popeyes to keep the competitive landscape fairly even between the two brands.
