Chicken Sandwich Wars? McDonald's Testing New Chicken Sandwich To Compete With Popeyes, Chick-Fil-A

McDonald’s is looking to throw its own hat into the chicken sandwich ring with a new item being tested in Texas and Tennessee.

Starting Monday, McDonald’s customers in Houston and Knoxville will be able to get their hands on the new Crispy Chicken Sandwich the chain is testing in both cities. This makes McDonald’s the third chain to offer a “southern-style” chicken sandwich as it attempts to steal some of the market share from Popeyes and Chick-Fil-A.

The product test will be running from Dec. 2 to Jan. 26.

McDonald’s will be testing two versions of the new sandwich: a regular and a deluxe version. Both will feature a fried chicken filet on a potato roll topped with butter and pickles. The deluxe includes lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise.

It’s also the second chicken sandwich to be tested by McDonald's in 2019. The chain tested a Spicy BBQ Chicken Sandwich in Chicago in the fall but it failed to generate as much excitement as Popeyes' and Chick-Fil-A’s sandwiches.

The new sandwich test was teased Sunday with a tweet to customers in Houston and Knoxville.

Since Popeyes and Chick-Fil-A introduced their new chicken sandwiches earlier in the year, franchisees had reportedly been asking for McDonald’s to introduce one of their own. The National Owners Association board a new chicken sandwich “should be our top priority” in an email from July.

The chicken sandwich craze of 2019 has already proven to be massive hits for Popeyes and Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A has become the third biggest fast-food restaurant chain by sales in the U.S., behind Starbucks and McDonald’s, due in part to their chicken sandwich. Popeyes has also benefitted from the craze, reporting its best sales quarter in nearly 20 years driven by sales from the chicken sandwich.