The fast food giant has launched a four-month ‘operational pilot’ across a small group of its restaurants in Dublin.
McDonald’s UK&I says 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.
Products to feature in the pilot include hand-breaded McSpicy wings; hand-breaded McCrispy strips; and a range of hand-breaded McCrispy burger options.
The move mirrors McDonald’s approach overseas, where hand-breaded chicken is currently being tested across 10,000 restaurants in Asia and a small group of sites near Chicago.
Following the Ireland pilot, which is set to conclude in February, McDonald’s plans to initiate larger-scale testing that will benefit from advertising support.
“This is about much more than introducing a new way of preparing chicken,” says Tim Kenward, the chief marketing officer of McDonald’s UK&I.
“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.”