Chicken still wins in foodservice, but faces boredom risk
Chicken has become the most heavily penetrated protein across U.S. foodservice, particularly in quick service restaurants, but its ubiquity now poses its own challenge: keeping the category from growing stale, according to Maeve Webster, president of food industry consultancy Menu Matters.
"Chicken has won the protein wars," Webster told attendees the 2026 Chicken Marketing Summit, held July 27-29 at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida.
The category's success has come largely at beef's expense. Reduced cattle supply, higher costs and thinner margins have pushed operators to shift focus toward chicken. Webster pointed to McDonald's as an example, noting the company's chicken market share sits in the high teens compared with a mid-40s share in beef, leaving substantial room for growth.
But that same success has created a new problem, she said: "It has become so ubiquitous and so successful and so popular in its many formats that it is now table stakes."
The real question for operators, Webster said, is "how do we constantly keep it interesting?"
Global trend, not just domestic
Menu Matters tracks consumer and food trends across international markets, and Webster said fried chicken's popularity — including flavors such as hot honey and Nashville hot — is not confined to the U.S.
"It is a global movement," she said, with regional markets adapting the format to local tastes.
Protein demand overall is rising due to an aging population and declining birth rate, Webster said, a trend she traced back to Atkins, Paleo and keto diets rather than solely to GLP-1 medications.