Popeyes serves chicken dishes in mild and spicy flavors and offers sides such as red beans and rice, Cajun fries, mashed potatoes with Cajun-style gravy, Cajun rice, macaroni & cheese, biscuits, and coleslaw. In addition to chicken, Popeyes also serves seafood entrées such as shrimp and catfish. On October 30, 2006, AFC announced that Popeyes planned to introduce a trans fat-free biscuit as well as french fries containing one gram of trans fat by year-end. On November 18, 2011, AFC announced that, for the Thanksgiving holiday, Popeyes would release a Fried Turducken sandwich that would show off the first ever Turducken patty. On July 29, 2013, AFC began offering a special entree of fried chicken strips dipped in waffle batter, which was already a proven success in some markets. For a limited time only in 2017, Popeyes offered "Sweet and Crunchy" chicken, fried chicken tenders coated in shortbread cookie breading. In 2021, Popeyes introduced a flounder sandwich.
Chicken sandwich
Popeyes Chicken Sandwich (Spicy)
Popeyes began selling a chicken sandwich in August 2019 to compete with Chick-fil-A's similar flagship sandwich. The company first launched the sandwich at Long Beach restaurant Sweet Dixie Kitchen, a locally-famous spot that had become known for reselling fried chicken that it had purchased at Popeyes. The sandwich launched nationwide to all locations in the US on August 12, 2019, but had some advance openings at the beginning of 2019.
The marketing campaign, designed by advertising agency GSD&M started on August 12, 2019, with a tweet on Popeyes' Twitter feed. The new sandwich went viral immediately and prompted responses from nearly every fast food chain including McDonald's, Chick-Fil-A, and Wendy's. Popeyes reported a 103% increase in traffic in the days following the launch of the sandwich. The sandwich helped Popeyes gather an estimated $23 million in free publicity since its launch. Popeyes stores routinely sold out of the sandwich and experienced long lines, and a man outside of a Maryland Popeyes chain was stabbed to death during a dispute over a cutting in line for a chicken sandwich. Locations across the US were supposed to have enough materials to last them until the end of September. Instead, restaurants were almost entirely sold out after less than two weeks. On August 27, approximately two weeks after the launch, Popeyes announced that it had officially sold out of the chicken sandwich across the country. One person in Tennessee sued Popeyes, claiming that his inability to get the sandwich has caused him to be "hustled out of money," making Popeyes guilty of "false advertising" along with "deceptive business practices." On October 28, 2019, Popeyes announced that the chicken sandwich would return to locations across the US on November 3. Popeyes chicken sandwich is made of buttermilk-battered white meat on a brioche bun along with pickles and mayonnaise or spicy Cajun spread. A single sandwich contains 700 calories, 42 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 1443 milligrams of sodium, and 28 net grams of protein.
In September 2020, Popeyes' chicken sandwich went on sale in Canada.
