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KFC has relaunched its chicken tenders as 30 per cent bigger and crispier, the first step in a broader menu overhaul as it fights new fried chicken rivals and shortens flavour rollout times in Australia.
KFC has relaunched its chicken tenders as 30 per cent bigger and crispier than the previous version, the first step in a broader overhaul of its core menu.
The change follows a rise in customer complaints and a drop-off in sales of the boneless serving as new fast-food and fried-chicken competitors gained ground. Vanessa Rowed, chief marketing officer at Yum! Brands, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut in Australia, said the old tenders were not good enough. We did not have the best tenders in the market, she said.
KFC Chicken Tenders Get Bigger And Crisper
We have the best chicken, but we were not necessarily clear with the customer because it was too small or it was feeling a bit dry. The bigger, juicier tenders come at a slightly higher price. A three-pack bundle that sold for $9.45 is now $10.95. A five-pack that previously cost $12.95 is now $14.95.
Rowed said size was the core issue and KFC intends to set a new benchmark starting with tenders. We are going to set the benchmark here and then we are going to do that with every single product in our portfolio, she said. The overhaul could include revamping KFC's bestselling Original Recipe, developed by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1940. We are not redoing the Original just yet but I am not saying no, Rowed said.
El Jannah, Guzman y Gomez, Wingstop and a growing number of independent rivals are threatening KFC's customer base and market share with their own fried and boneless chicken offerings. KFC Australia has responded by jumping on globally trending flavours faster and shortening the time it takes to roll out new products. New menu items that were previously introduced about every six weeks are now being rolled out every four weeks.
KFC Speeds Up New Menu Launches
Typically it can take nine to 12 months of development before new items land on menus. KFC's Picklecore range, which first launched in Canada and then the UK, was delivered to Australians in four months. Customer research and testing indicated the flavour trend had yet to take hold with local consumers. We just took a punt, Rowed said.
Sometimes you have got to go on gut instinct. What you do not want to be is at the end of a trend. The first week of Picklecore's launch delivered the best sales week ever for some stores, Rowed said. By week two, that sales bump, or sugar high, began tapering.
Food is very much like fast fashion, Rowed said. The news hits within week one, and by week four it is old news, and the customer wants something completely different. KFC and McDonald's have separately released ranges of brightly coloured beverages with toppings like popping pearls or cold foam that pick up traction on social media, to lure customers into stores. They command a higher margin at little additional cost.
KFC Turns To Sauces And Innovation
Sauces and condiments are another frontier. KFC's chicken tenders launched alongside a range of 11 sauces, including Korean BBQ, Hot Honey, Smokey Maple and Liquid Gold, which generated a spike in Google searches when it launched in mid-March. KFC's push to innovate both old and new menu items has been driven by executives at the top. In the US, sales went backwards by 4.6 per cent in 2025, following a 5.2 per cent decline the year before.
By sales, KFC has slipped to fourth place, with competitors Chick-fil-A and Raising Cane capturing customers. KFC global chief executive Scott Mezvinsky conceded it had not kept up with customer tastes in the US. The consumer obviously moved, gravitated towards boneless in a bigger way before we did, he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this year. We are trying to play catch-up now.
In Australia, one of KFC's most innovative markets, that has translated into more freedom to experiment. There is a different attitude coming through from the team to take a little bit more risk and to do some stuff that probably we would not have done before, Rowed said. If we do not reinvent ourselves, we will die. That is the reality of brands like KFC.
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brisbanetimes:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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