KFC Yanks Several Items Off Its Menu

In a move called a "menu simplification," YUM! Brands announced this week that the KFC menu will be slimmed down and several of your favorites will no longer be available.

Kentucky Fried Chicken wings, popcorn chicken, Nashville Hot sauce, strawberry lemonade, and chocolate chip cookies are all being eliminated from the menu as the fast-food brand pivots to new, unannounced items that will be coming soon.

"It's really to deliver our most popular products perfectly each time and to actually make room for new products." KFC U.S. Director Brittany Wilson explained to Yahoo!

OK, Brittany, but what's the story with eliminating things that seem to fall in line with the KFC Bill of Rights: Chicken wings, popcorn chicken, hot sauce...and chocolate chip cookies...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Brittany says the items were chosen because they "weren't available on a national scale or that haven't necessarily been growing on a national sales mix."

Or you could just say they weren't selling.

Franchise owner Justin Stewart tells Yahoo! that customers aren't complaining about the changes and they're actually happier because they're able "to navigate the new menu board more quickly and easily."

Yeah, those cookies were really taking up space on the menu.

So what new KFC items will be joining the menu and jumbling it up again?

Wraps!

Why? Because more and more of you are eating on the run in your cars. KFC has the analytics. They know you want to eat with one hand as you're cruising down the road.

"As we see macros in the consumer landscape shift back to a little bit more pre-COVID times, portability is key and having products that consumers can take with them on-the-go, will certainly be an extension of of how we're looking at it sandwiches going forward," CEO David Gibbs told investors.

The reviews are starting to trickle in and KFC might have another menu item that won't have a long shelf life.

KFC first debuted its popcorn chicken in 1992. In 2019, the chain reintroduced its chicken wings. Food and Wine got its hands on a box of the wings and determined "they're very good" in a bold headline. Now the wings are officially gone.

Again, KFC knows the analytics on its customers and it knows that Gen Z and millennials don't want to fight with bones.

Enter chicken nuggets, which could be coming to a store near you soon.

Buckle up.