Food

How Amy Alarcon gave Popeyes the edge in the chicken sandwich wars

As head of culinary for the chain, Alarcon and her team created a record-breaking chicken sandwich. Now there’s a new one on the menu—plus a lot of other R&D excitement.

After Popeyes off-the-charts success with its fried chicken sandwich, Amy Alarcon and her culinary team spent four years perfecting the cooking technique and flavor profile of the just-launched Blackened Chicken Sandwich. In between, she developed a new and improved chicken nugget and a number of seasonal LTOs.

Amy Alarcon
Amy Alarcon

Throughout the R&D process, Alarcon taps into New Orleans as her inspiration point. Listen as she shares how her Southern roots have impacted her culinary journey, how Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen does Thanksgiving and what’s in store for 2023.

Subscribe to Menu Feed on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Food

Inside Chili's quest to craft a value-priced burger that could take on McDonald's

Behind the Menu: How the casual-dining chain smashes expectations with a winning combination of familiarity and price with its new Big Smasher burger.

Financing

Here's the big problem with all these $5 meal deals

The Bottom Line: With McDonald’s planning a $5 value meal of its own, more brands are already jumping onto the bandwagon. But not everybody will pay $5.

Financing

What did the Starbucks CEO expect?

The Bottom Line: Howard Schultz needed just one bad quarter to make public his displeasure with the coffee shop chain. But the stage was set for that two years ago.

Trending

More from our partners