Popeyes Gets Hilariously Petty After Taco Bell Announces Its New Menu Item

The Louisiana Kitchen shared a TikTok "hack" video on how to turn their famous chicken sandwich into a taco.

February 26, 2021

It’s official: We’ve entered a new era of the ongoing Chicken Sandwich Wars.

While there are no new sandwiches to announce today, it seems Popeyes, the creators of the chicken sandwich that started it all in August 2019, has taken aim at one of its competitors.

Mere days after Taco Bell announced that it intends to debut its own take on the chicken sandwich — the Crispy Chicken Sandwich Taco — in select markets across the country on March 11, the official Popeyes TikTok account shared a suspiciously timed food hack.

In the TikTok video, which went live on Wednesday and has already garnered thousands of views, a Popeyes employee demonstrates how to make the chain’s famous chicken sandwich into two chicken tacos, just like the ones Taco Bell will soon offer.

@popeyeschicken

##LoveThoseTacosFromPopeyes ##FYP ##ForYou ##DIYrecipes ##DIYtacos ##PopeyesChicken ##popeyeschickensandwich

♬ original sound - Popeyes Chicken

Per the how-to video, the first thing you need to do is purchase one of Popeyes’ popular chicken sandwiches. Then, you need to open up the sandwich and set the chicken aside so you can rub the two buns together in an effort to spread the sauce.

Once that’s done, you tear the chicken in half and fold the bun so that it resembles a taco. You then put the chicken inside the taco, garnish it with pickles, "because they’re jalapenos’ first cousins,” and eat up.

While many TikTok users were intrigued by this new creation, it didn’t take long before some of them began to playfully call out Popeyes for some blatantly shady behavior.

“Lmaooo the shade,” one commentor wrote.

Another added: “Amazing Popeyes. Love everything about this video.”

On Monday, Taco Bell confirmed it plans to debut its Crispy Chicken Sandwich Taco in Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, with the intention to introduce it to the rest of the country later this year.

The upcoming menu item features premium all-white-meat crispy chicken, marinated in jalapeno buttermilk, then seasoned with bold Mexican spices and rolled in a crunchy tortilla chip coating. And instead of a standard sandwich bun, the dish will be served in a puffy bread that's shaped as a taco and slathered with a creamy chipotle sauce. The spicy version, which was seemingly referenced in Popeyes’ TikTok, will also feature jalapeno slices.

So far, Taco Bell hasn’t yet responded to this unmistakable shade – at least not yet.

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