McDonald’s has launched a four-month “operational pilot” for hand-breaded chicken products in Ireland, the fast-food giant has announced.
Available to customers from Tuesday across a small number of Dublin restaurants, McDonald’s said the scheme “will test both the product and execution, evaluating how restaurants can deliver each menu item consistently at scale while keeping kitchen complexity to a minimum”.
“Customers will be able to enjoy hand-breaded versions of existing favourites,” the company continued, such as chicken wraps and strips. Come February, when the pilot project is set to conclude, McDonald’s plans to initiate larger-scale testing that will benefit from “advertising support”.
The Chicago-based company, which has nearly 40,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, said it had identified a “strong customer demand” in Ireland for chicken products, complimented by “the country’s chicken leadership”.
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This makes the Irish fast-food scene “an ideal market to introduce hand-breaded chicken to Europe”, McDonald’s said.
The new initiative comes as a slew of US quick-chicken brands has recently arrived in Ireland - including such as Popeyes, Wingstop, Dave’s Hot Chicken and Chick-fil-A.
Popeyes has expanded rapidly since arriving here, opening four outlets in three months.
KFC, the longest-established fast chicken player in the Irish market, has pledged a £105 million (€124 million) investment to grow its presence in Ireland over the next decade
McDonalds has already implemented the hand-breaded technique to over 10,000 restaurants across Asia.
Tim Kenward, the chief marketing officer of the fast-food giant’s UK and Ireland subsidiary, said “this is about much more than introducing a new way of preparing chicken.”
“Ireland’s strength in chicken makes it the ideal market to help us understand what it takes to deliver this at scale and support our ambition to become the first choice for more customers, more often.
McDonald’s operates 96 restaurants across the State and employs more than 7,000 people as of April 2026.
