KFC touts boneless chicken, new drinks as chain tries to regain share

To win over today’s diners, KFC is prioritizing boneless chicken menu items, expanding its sauce options and designing its restaurants to keep customers’ attention.

These days, the Yum Brands unit is facing stiff competition, both from upstart chicken chains and legacy giants like McDonald’s that are betting big on the growing global popularity of chicken. While KFC claims to have invented the chicken quick-service restaurant category, being the first isn’t the same as being No. 1, particularly in the U.S., where its sales have slumped in recent years.

“In an increasingly crowded category, we have a clear opportunity to set the standard for modern chicken in QSR,” KFC Global CEO Scott Mezvinsky said Monday in a statement announcing the chain’s “next chapter.”

A focal point of the strategy is what KFC calls a “bold menu revamp.”

As part of that, the chain plans to expand its boneless chicken options and improve its recipe for its existing tenders.

“We are moving from chicken-on-the bone to more and more boneless chicken,” KFC Chief Concept Officer Christophe Poirier told CNBC.

“We are evolving our tenders to make sure that, nonnegotiable, we’re going to have the biggest, the juiciest and the crispiest,” he added.

KFC is also expanding its available sauces to appeal to consumers who like dunking, drenching or drizzling their chicken tenders. The chain’s “global sauce pantry” has more than 20 varieties that often mix classic sauces with new flavors, like its chimichurri ranch. (KFC’s tender- and sauce-centric spinoff restaurant chain Saucy, meanwhile, has grown to nearly a dozen locations, all in Florida.)

This month, restaurants in the United Kingdom and Ireland will begin rolling out the new tenders as well as nine new sauces. Australia and the United States will follow later this summer, with more global markets expected throughout the rest of the year.

KFC is also launching a menu line called “Dunked,” which features tenders, wings and sandwiches drenched in sauce. The menu items are already available in South Africa and India.

Like many fast-food restaurants, KFC is also expanding its range of drink options to include boba refreshers, sparkling lemonades and iced coffees under a new sub-brand called Kwench by KFC. Select Irish and British restaurants already sell Kwench drinks, but Australia and Canada will add them to their permanent menus this year.

“We can rapidly cascade a lot of initiatives that we’re leading from the center,” Poirier said, crediting the chain’s nimble supply chain.

The chain’s own restaurants will also look different as it rolls out new store designs. This summer, an “open-concept” restaurant in McKinney, Texas, will open its doors; an “immersive,” two-story location in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will follow in September.

Poirier compared the experience of visiting its upcoming “immersive” restaurant…