Starting Monday, for a limited time, Yum! Brands' (NYSE: YUM) KFC will place Beyond Meat's (NASDAQ: BYND) entirely plant-based chicken on its menus. This new menu item, Beyond Fried Chicken, will be made available at over 4,000 KFC restaurants.
The plant-based chicken was made with the intention of mirroring KFC's fried chicken, just with animal products. There is a variety of ways in which the Beyond Fried Chicken can be ordered - six-piece, 12-piece, or as part of a plant-based combo meal. These types of meals come along with KFC Secret Recipe Fries as well as a medium-sized drink, and the costs depend upon each given location.
"We couldn't be prouder to partner with KFC to offer a best-in-class product that not only delivers the delicious experience consumers expect from this iconic chain, but also provides the added benefits of plant-based meat," said Ethan Brown, Founder and CEO of Beyond Meat, in a press statement. "We are truly thrilled to make it available to consumers nationwide."
The way that both Beyond Meat and KFC came to collaborate is through the testing of plant-based chicken at a restaurant in Atlanta in August 2019. Within the first five hours of selling the item, they were sold out. The next testing places for the plant-based chicken were in Nashville, Charlotte, North Carolina, and southern California.
KFC also highlighted the fact that, in spite of the fact that Beyond Fried Chicken does not have any animal products in it, has not been made in a way that would appeal to vegans. This is because it shares equipment with other items on the menu, such as chicken.
The dipping sauces that have been made available are Honey BBQ, Ranch, Honey Mustard, and KFC Sauce, but all of these have ingredients to them that are animal-based.
KFC's introduction of plant-based chicken from Beyond Meat will offer more variety to its menus. It also may create more competition that it has among other restaurants, given that plant-based meat is becoming increasingly popular.