McDonald's tests chicken strips

McDonald’s is leaning harder into chicken at the same moment beef is getting more expensive, and that shift is showing up in two very different places: on the menu in Chicago and in the company’s social media damage control. The chain has been testing crispy chicken strips in and around its hometown while Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski has also been answering jokes about a viral video in which he took a very small bite of McDonald’s new Big Arch burger. (mcdonalds.com) (msn.com) The chicken side of that story is no small side project. McDonald’s announced on April 24, 2025 that McCrispy Strips would become its first new permanent menu item in the United States in four years, with a national launch at participating restaurants by May 5, 2025. The company described the item as 100 percent white meat chicken with crispy breading and a black pepper flavor profile, sold in three-piece and four-piece orders with a new Creamy Chili Dip. (mcdonalds.com 1) (mcdonalds.com 2) That national rollout matters because McDonald’s had already been telling investors that chicken was becoming a bigger strategic priority. During discussion around its 2024 results in February 2025, the company said it saw major room to grow its “chicken portfolio” by 2026, while also promising the return of Snack Wraps and a new chicken strip offering later in the year. NBC Chicago, summarizing those company comments, noted that the chain was doubling down on chicken after a weak 2024 performance. (nbcchicago.com) McDonald’s kept making that case in 2026. In material tied to its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings, the company said it had grown chicken category share across its top 10 markets in 2025 and believed it was on track to increase that share by at least 1 percentage point by the end of 2026. In plain terms, McDonald’s is trying to win more of the meals where customers might otherwise choose Chick-fil-A, Popeyes, Wendy’s, or grocery-store chicken instead. (finance.yahoo.com) (fool.com) There is also a basic cost reason for the push. The United States Department of Agriculture said on March 17, 2026 that it had lowered its 2026 beef production forecast and raised its cattle price projections, including slaughter steer prices to $242 per hundredweight and feeder steer prices to $367.25 per hundredweight. When cattle supplies tighten and prices rise, a company that sells millions of burgers has a stronger incentive to put more marketing muscle behind chicken. (usda.gov) McDonald’s own annual report shows how seriously it is organizing around that shift. In its 2025 annual report, the company said it had created dedicated category teams for beef, chicken, and beverages inside its restaurant experience function. That is the corporate version of rearranging the kitchen so one team wakes up every day thinking only about making chicken sell better, taste better, and run more smoothly through the supply chain. (mcdonalds.com) The Chicago testing angle fits that pattern. McDonald’s is headquartered in Chicago, and the company has long used its home market as a place to try menu ideas before wider expansion. Reports that select Chicago locations were testing crispy chicken strips line up with the company’s broader pattern of refining chicken products locally before pushing them across the country. (nbcchicago.com) (mcdonalds.com) At the same time, McDonald’s has been trying to build excitement around burgers with the Big Arch, a larger sandwich platform that the company sees as a growth opportunity. Its 2025 annual report says the Big Arch won a permanent place on the United Kingdom menu after successful limited-time offers in multiple markets, and the company said it saw room to keep scaling that platform. (mcdonalds.com) That burger push ran into a very internet-shaped problem. A promotional video showing Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski taking a tiny bite of a Big Arch spread widely online, and viewers mocked both the bite itself and the executive tone of the clip. Coverage of his later response said he called the attention “good press” and joked about the now-famous bite. (msn.com) (yahoo.com) That episode says something useful about McDonald’s in 2026. The company is large enough to be managing cattle prices, menu architecture, supply chains, and investor expectations all at once, but it still has to survive the same meme cycle as any pop star or politician. One awkward bite can become part of the launch story for a burger that took months of product planning to build. (mcdonalds.com) (msn.com) The bigger picture is that McDonald’s is not abandoning beef. It is trying to make beef work harder while giving chicken a larger share of the spotlight, especially when beef inputs are under pressure and chicken offers more room for new products, sauces, wraps, and snackable formats. The result is a menu strategy that looks less like a burger chain adding a side item and more like a giant restaurant system