WASHINGTON — Could the chicken wrap be the next item to reignite the fast food chicken wars?
Back in 2019, the debut of a new chicken sandwich at Popeyes caused a sizzling and ongoing battle over which chain had the best offering.
Now within the past two months, Wendy's and KFC have both added or announced plans to add chicken wraps to their respective menus nationwide.
Wendy's, in particular, appears to be using its announcement to try and draw in customers who have been missing McDonald's "Snack Wraps," which were discontinued a few years back.
The new Wendy's offering is a grilled chicken ranch wrap that will reportedly cost $6.29. The official press release cited a Wendy's executive saying they're "not snacking around" with the new offering and another told CNN the wrap is slightly different from McDonald's because they "didn’t want to mess around with a McBland snack wrap dupe.”
The McDonald's snack wrap debuted in 2006 and led other chains, including Wendy's and KFC to start selling similar snack-like chicken wraps. The McDonald's option was phased out completely from U.S. locations in 2020. Since then, there have been online petitions and various social media rumors about the possible return of the fan-favorite menu item.
The McDonald's social media account has occasionally cooked up some of that chatter in the past as well.
The fast food chain's account tweeted on Nov. 17 that it's "easier to order snack wraps than it is to get these tickets," seemingly in reference to the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster fiasco. In response to that tweet, the company told Food Network in November that "At this time, there are no plans to bring Snack Wraps back to nationwide menus in the U.S.”
McDonald's did not immediately respond Friday about a request for comment on whether there still are no snack wrap return plans for America. The chain's snack wraps remain available in other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom.