Got a call last week from a guy running a BBQ joint outside of Beaumont. He'd been watching what the chains are doing with their menus and wanted to know if he should be worried. His exact words: "Earl, Chick-fil-A's got smoked items now. Should I be adding chicken sandwiches?"
No. That's not the lesson here.
But I do think operators running commercial smokehouses need to pay attention to what the big national chains are doing with their menus. Not to copy them. To understand what they're responding to. These companies spend millions on market research before they roll out a single new item. When Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut all move in certain directions at roughly the same time, that's telling you something about where American eaters are headed.
Chick-fil-A's Smoke Play
Chick-fil-A's been testing smoked chicken items in select markets. Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich was the one that got attention, but they've also been running regional tests with items featuring actual smoke flavor — not liquid smoke dumped in a marinade, but product that's seen some heat and wood.
This matters because Chick-fil-A doesn't do anything halfway. They're not a company that throws stuff at the wall. If they're investing in smoke-forward flavor profiles, it's because their research is showing them that customers want that complexity. That depth. The stuff you can't get from a flat-top grill.
Now, can they actually deliver real smokehouse quality at 2,800 locations? No. They can't. And that's your advantage. But what they can do is create demand. They introduce millions of customers to the idea that smoke flavor makes food better, and then those customers start looking for the real thing.
I saw this happen back in the early 2000s when the chains started pushing "slow-cooked" everything. Suddenly everybody wanted braised this and slow-roasted that. The operators who were already doing genuine low-and-slow work saw their traffic bump. The ones who thought it was just a fad got left behind.
Taco Bell's LTO Strategy
Taco Bell runs more limited-time offers than just about anybody in the QSR space. They've been testing Cantina Chicken items — that's their upmarket protein play — and they keep cycling through different heat profiles and sauce combinations. The Cheez-It items got all the social media attention, but the more interesting move is how they're treating customization.
They're letting people build. Mix proteins. Add heat levels. Choose sauces.
This is the direction a lot of fast-casual is moving, and it has implications for how you think about your own menu board. Customers under 40 especially want to feel like they're making choices, not just pointing at a number. That doesn't mean you need to turn your smokehouse into a Chipotle line. But it does mean thinking about how you present options.
One of our customers down in Lake Charles — runs an SP-1000 they bought in 2019 — told me his ticket times dropped when he simplified his printed menu but trained his counter staff to walk people through protein and side choices verbally. Same food, different presentation. Checks went up about 15% because people were adding items they didn't realize they wanted.
Taco Bell figured this out a decade ago. They're just getting better at it.
Pizza Hut's Problem (And Yours If You're Not Careful)
Pizza Hut keeps trying to reinvent itself. Detroit-style pizza. Melts that aren't technically pizza. Stuffed crust variations. Every eighteen months there's a new platform.
The issue isn't that the products are bad. Some of them are fine. The issue is that they've lost clarity on what they actually are. When you try to be everything, you end up being nothing in particular.
I bring this up because I see smokehouse operators fall into this trap. Especially the ones doing catering alongside their retail operation. They start adding fried catfish because somebody asked. Then chicken fried steak because that's what the diner down the road does. Then suddenly they've got a menu with 40 items and they're running a SPK-700 that was sized for a focused BBQ program.
Your smoker is an asset. It should be doing what it does best — running brisket, pork shoulder, ribs, maybe chicken quarters, turkey breast if you've got the demand. When you start building your menu around the fryer instead of the pit, you're competing with everybody. When you stay focused on smoke, you're competing with almost nobody.
Pizza Hut's same-store sales tell you everything about where menu confusion leads.
The Heat Trend Isn't Slowing Down
All three chains are pushing spicier options. Chick-fil-A's got their spicy deluxe getting more attention. Taco Bell cycles through ghost pepper and reaper-branded items regularly. Pizza Hut's done spicy lover's pizzas.
This tracks with everything I'm seeing at competitions and in commercial accounts. Heat tolerance has shifted. What passed for "spicy" in 1998 is mild by today's standards. Your rub formulations, your finishing sauces, your hot link recipes — if you haven't revisited them in ten years, you're probably behind.
I'm not saying turn everything into a challenge item. That's a gimmick and it gets old fast. But offering a legitimate hot option that actually has heat? That's not a trend. That's a permanent shift.
One thing I'll say about running consistent heat in a commercial program: you need consistent cook temps to get consistent final product. When your smoker's swinging 30 degrees because the control board's going bad or the gaskets are shot, your spice-forward items are going to taste different from batch to batch. The heat from the pepper interacts with smoke penetration and bark development. You notice inconsistencies more. Southern Pride units hold temps the way they're supposed to — I've got customers running original SPK-500s from the mid-90s that still dial in within 5 degrees. Try that with an import unit after eight years of service. You'll be replacing the whole cabinet.
What the Chains Can't Copy
Here's where I get to the point I actually care about.
The big chains can approximate smoke flavor. They can run through their test kitchens and develop products that suggest smokehouse cooking. They can print "slow-smoked" on the menu board and most customers won't know the difference.
But they can't do what you can do with a properly maintained commercial rotisserie running post oak at 250°F for fourteen hours. They can't match the bark on a brisket that's been in a SP-2000 since 4 AM. They don't have pit masters checking color and feel at hour eight.
The chains are chasing what you already have. Don't forget that.
What they're good at is marketing, consistency across thousands of locations, and speed. What you're good at is the actual product. The craft part. The thing that made you want to do this in the first place.
When I see Chick-fil-A testing smoke flavors, I don't see a threat. I see validation. The market is moving toward what real smokehouses have always offered. Your job is to make sure your equipment is running right, your wood program is dialed, and your menu is focused on what the smoker does better than anything else in your kitchen.
Equipment Implications
If you're reading chain menu trends and thinking about expanding your offerings, think about capacity before you think about menu items.
A customer in Sulphur — runs a MLR-850 for his main production — called me last fall wanting to add smoked wings to his lunch menu. Good idea. Wings are high-margin, fast-moving, and they showcase smoke well if you do them right. But he wanted to run them in the same unit as his brisket during peak production hours. Doesn't work. Different temp requirements, different timing, different smoke absorption.
We ended up setting him up with a SC-300 cabinet just for wings and smaller items. Runs electric, gives him the control he needs, keeps his main production smoker dedicated to the long cooks. His wing sales have been strong since January. But if he'd tried to force it into one unit, he'd have compromised both products.
This is the stuff the chains don't have to think about. They engineer their equipment around their menu and roll it out nationwide. You're adapting real cooking equipment to real menu demands in real time. That requires actually understanding what your smokers can and can't do.
If you're looking at expanding your smoked menu in response to what the market's telling you — and the chain moves are one indicator of that — reach out to Southern Pride of Texas before you buy anything. We'll talk through your production schedule, your existing equipment, and what actually makes sense. Not every problem requires new equipment. Sometimes it's a parts refresh or a layout change. Sometimes it's a second unit. But we'll figure out what's real before you spend money.
The chains are going to keep chasing smoke flavor because the market wants it. Let them. Just make sure when those customers come looking for the real thing, your operation is ready to deliver.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas parts and support | Southern Pride | NFPA commercial kitchen standards
#SouthernPride #SouthernPrideOfTexas #CommercialSmoker #CommercialKitchen #SouthernPrideSmokers #KitchenMaintenance #RestaurantOps
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.
About the Author: Earl has been competing in sanctioned BBQ events since the early 1990s and operates a commercial catering operation in Southeast Texas.