Food & Drinks

Fried-Chicken-Sandwich Mania Forces Popeyes to Redo Its Kitchens

  • Guests complained that orders took too long, were often wrong
  • Goal is speedy delivery of sandwich that ‘broke the internet’
Popeyes Launches Next Salvo in Chicken WarsPhotographer: Eric Gay/AP

The kitchens that served up Popeyes’ internet-breaking fried chicken sandwich are getting ripped up.

Those kitchens haven’t changed in at least a decade, largely because many at Popeyes were afraid of jeopardizing food quality. But by last year, it was clear a fix was needed. The chicken-sandwich boom had faded, and many guests who’d gone out of their way to try the hit product weren’t returning. Some complained that orders were slow and often wrong.