Three headlines crossed my feed this week that all connect in ways that matter to anyone running a commercial BBQ program. Chicken sales are up across the board — again. Popeyes just launched some kind of wrap situation that's getting attention. And Miller's CEO made comments about where casual dining is headed that should make operators think about their positioning.
I want to break these down, but not in the abstract industry-analyst way. I want to talk about what this actually means if you're loading a smoker at 4 AM and trying to figure out where your menu should go in 2025.
The Chicken Numbers Are Real, and They're Not Slowing Down
Look — chicken has been the growth protein for years now, but something shifted in the last 18 months. It's not just that chicken is cheaper than beef (though it is, significantly). It's that operators figured out how to make chicken exciting again. Wings got too expensive during that whole pandemic price spike, and suddenly everyone was scrambling to find other ways to serve chicken that customers would pay premium prices for.
Smoked chicken was sitting right there the whole time.
I talked to a guy running a 40-seat BBQ joint in Lake Charles a few weeks back. He told me his smoked chicken thighs outsold pulled pork three to one last summer. Three to one. And his margins on those thighs were better than anything else on the menu except maybe loaded baked potatoes. He's running an SP-1000 and dedicating an entire rack just to chicken now — something he never would have done even two years ago.
The data backs this up across the industry. Chicken consumption per capita keeps climbing while beef stays relatively flat. Some of that is price sensitivity, sure. But some of it is that younger customers just prefer chicken. They grew up on it. They trust it. And when you smoke it right — crispy skin, juicy meat, actual smoke flavor — it competes with anything on a BBQ menu.
Here's the thing though: most BBQ operators still treat chicken as an afterthought. It's the item you add because someone in every group "doesn't eat red meat." That's leaving money on the table.
What Popeyes Wraps Tell Us About Format Innovation
Popeyes launching wraps isn't exactly breaking news in the sense that it changes the chicken industry overnight. But it's worth paying attention to because of what it signals about how big chains think about format.
The chicken sandwich wars of 2019-2021 proved that format matters as much as flavor. Popeyes had good fried chicken before that sandwich — they'd had it for decades. But putting it in a different format at a different price point created a genuine cultural moment. Now they're testing whether wraps can do something similar. More portable. Lower price point. Different eating occasion.
For BBQ operators, the lesson isn't "go launch a smoked chicken wrap" (though honestly, that's not a bad idea for food trucks). The lesson is that the same protein in a different format can reach completely different customers.
I've seen this work firsthand. A catering client of mine started offering smoked chicken salads — not as a main menu item at his restaurant, but specifically for corporate lunch catering. Same chicken he was already smoking. Different format. His corporate catering revenue went up something like 40% in one quarter because suddenly he had an option that worked for the office crowd who wanted something lighter than a brisket plate.
And here's where I'll correct myself — I said earlier that most operators treat chicken as an afterthought. That's true for the traditional plate format. But the operators who are winning right now are the ones treating chicken as a platform for multiple formats. Plates, yes. But also tacos. Salads. Nachos. Sandwiches. Each format hits a different price point and a different customer need.
Miller's CEO and the Casual Dining Question
The comments from Miller's leadership this week were mostly about casual dining's challenges — traffic trends, value perception, competition from fast casual. Standard stuff if you follow restaurant industry news.
But there was one line that stuck with me. Something about customers wanting "experiences they can't replicate at home."
Now, the backyard BBQ crowd on social media would have you believe anyone can smoke competition-quality meat with a $400 pellet grill and a YouTube tutorial. And look, some of them are pretty good. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But there's a massive difference between what a hobbyist can do cooking 4 briskets a year and what a commercial operation can do cooking 40 a week.
Consistency is the word that matters here. Not just "good" — consistent good.
That's where equipment actually matters in a business context. I've run cheaper smokers. I've run imports. When I switched to Southern Pride rotisserie units — I'm on an MLR-850 now — the difference wasn't that the first brisket was magically better. The difference was that the 500th brisket was the same as the first. Hold temps that don't drift. Rotation that doesn't stick. Build quality that doesn't degrade after a year of heavy use.
The casual dining squeeze that Miller's CEO is talking about doesn't really apply to BBQ the same way. Good smoked meat is genuinely hard to replicate at home at any kind of volume or consistency. That's your moat.
What This Means for Production Planning
If you're running a BBQ operation right now — restaurant, food truck, catering — here's what I'd actually do with this information:
First, audit your chicken program. What percentage of your smoker capacity goes to chicken? What's the margin on those items compared to beef? If you're like most operators, there's room to grow here without cannibalizing your signature items.
Second, think about format expansion. Not menu bloat — that's different. I'm talking about taking protein you're already smoking and offering it in formats that hit different dayparts or customer needs. A smoked chicken thigh that works on a dinner plate at $16 might also work shredded in a $9 lunch taco.
Third, and this is where equipment comes in — make sure your smoker can handle the flexibility. Rotisserie systems like the SPK-1400 or SP-1000 give you the capacity to run multiple proteins simultaneously without flavor transfer issues. You're not choosing between brisket day and chicken day. You're running both, optimizing rack space based on actual demand.
I know operators who are still running cabinet smokers from the 90s — and honestly, some of those old units were tanks, I get the attachment. But if you're trying to run a diversified protein program with multiple formats, you need equipment that supports that flexibility. Temperature consistency across zones. Enough rack space to segregate products. And build quality that doesn't fall apart when you're pushing the unit hard six days a week.
The Parts and Support Angle
One more thing on equipment, since it's relevant to the reliability question.
I had a motor issue on my rotisserie back in March. Called Southern Pride of Texas on a Tuesday morning, had the part by Thursday, was back running by Friday lunch service. Didn't miss a single catering commitment.
A buddy of mine runs an import smoker — I won't name the brand, but you'd recognize it from the trade shows. He had a similar issue last fall. Took him three weeks to source the part. Three weeks. He was running backup equipment he borrowed from another operator and losing money every day.
When you're building a chicken program — or any protein program — around consistency and reliability, the equipment decision matters beyond just the initial purchase price. USA manufacturing means domestic parts availability. Manufacturer relationships mean actual technical support, not just a call center reading from a manual.
I'm not saying this to sell you anything. I'm saying it because I've lived both sides of that equation, and the difference is real.
Where This All Lands
Chicken is having a moment that's probably not a moment — it's a structural shift in consumer preference. The chains are responding with format innovation. Casual dining is under pressure from experiences customers can't replicate at home.
For BBQ operators, this is mostly good news. Smoked chicken is a product customers want, margins support, and home cooks genuinely struggle to match at quality. The operators who are going to win are the ones who take their chicken program seriously — as seriously as they take brisket — and who have equipment that supports that kind of diversified, high-volume production.
That's the takeaway. Not that you need to launch wraps tomorrow. But that chicken deserves a spot in your production planning that goes beyond "the thing we smoke because someone asked."
And if you're running equipment that can't keep up with that kind of program — inconsistent temps, limited capacity, parts that take weeks to source — that's worth thinking about too. Not because I said so, but because your margins will.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas | QSR Magazine | Restaurant Business Online
#SouthernPrideOfTexas #FoodService #RestaurantOwner #BBQBusiness #CateringBusiness #BBQRestaurant #RestaurantIndustry
Photo by Media Lens King on Pexels.
About the Author: Travis operates a competition BBQ team and a Gulf Coast food truck, and documents his commercial cooking process for food service professionals.