Poultry is prominent in restaurants, at all levels

by Marni Andrews
Contributing editor

Consumers and restaurateurs are embracing poultry more than ever in an effort to reduce household and restaurant food costs. Health and ethnic preferences are also helping drive demand.

According to data compiled by TABASCO from the CREST/ NPD Group, chicken/poultry entrees ranked number two in the Top 10 Foods for 2007, surpassed only by French fries. For the dinner daypart, chicken/poultry entrees were included in 28 per cent of meal occasions, the third most popular spot.

Also in the Top 10 Foods was the hot chicken sandwich in the number nine spot. This item had one of the fastest growth rates from 2006 to 2007.

At the 73-unit Mary Brown’s Inc. chain, president and COO Nigel Beattie says that pieces of chicken are still the best seller but they are declining slightly compared to the Big Mary chicken sandwich ($5), chicken fingers and chicken wraps.

“People are trending toward boneless skinless cuts of chicken and products they’re able to eat on the go or in hand,” says Beattie.

At McCain Foods Canada, sales of chicken products have increased by 62 per cent over the last 12 months, according to Cindy Wennerstrom, customer marketing manager. The company’s most popular poultry item is the Wong Wing Chicken Mini Spring Roll.

“When people dine out, they are looking for food that tastes and looks better than they can prepare at home. So innovative new flavours and creative plate presentations can make any menu item more successful, including poultry,” says Wennerstrom.

“Asian flavours are growing in popularity and operators are always looking for flavourful products to help differentiate themselves.”

Michael Delli Colli, marketing coordinator, Expresco Foods, which offers ready-to-cook and fully cooked satays, skewers, strips and portioned chicken breasts, says that there is always growth with poultry, especially with scares from beef. Expresco’s best seller in poultry is the Fully Cooked Fire Grilled Skewer.

“The price is very affordable as well. The main trends now are organic chicken and natural chicken,” he says.

“We’re seeing an interesting trend developing among restaurants where chicken is being served as a ‘down home’ basic dish and as a fine dining, occasion meal. That speaks to the versatility of the product,” says Lisa Bishop-Spencer, manager of communications, Chicken Farmers of Canada.

The beauty of poultry, especially chicken, is its versatility. It can be paired with all types of sauces and spices. It can be cut up, pounded, prepared boneless or bone-in, with white meat or dark meat. Increasingly, poultry is being incorporated into even breakfast and snack items to help reduce costs compared to red meat.

“Poultry is such a versatile meat; it can be made more of less flavourful by the choice of seasonings or breading (from mild to western to Cajun to barbecue),” says Noreen Olivieri, sales director, Chester’s.

“And the continuous influx of immigrants from warmer climates, who are familiar already with a variety of spices that enhance chicken, have influenced many restaurants to add more flavourful coatings and dipping sauces to their menus.”

Alto-Shaam Canada corporate chef Tom Field comments that since chicken tastes like, well, chicken, chefs are adding levels of flavour to the breast to differentiate themselves. He says that Caribbean Jerk seasoning is becoming popular as are Moroccan or Indian flavours for marinades. Thai remains an easy sell.

Field adds that some chefs are now pre-smoking duck, chicken or turkey breasts using a cold smoking process as a form of marinade that does not cook the meat. The raw, smoked poultry can then be cooked to order.

Chicken is a protein with many virtues, says Chef Ralph Bettany, corporate chef for TABASCO foodservice in Canada. A skinless chicken breast has approximately half the fat of a trimmed sirloin steak, for example. However, he notes that while chicken is the protein most thought of when poultry is mentioned, turkey and duck are also stars.

“Turkey is a very under-utilized protein in restaurant kitchens. It’s as versatile as chicken, is lower in fat and sodium than most other proteins, and is easily available in different cuts. Dark meat such as legs, thighs and drumsticks can be used for casseroles and curries or slow cooked with regional seasonings and used for fajitas, tortillas and quesadillas,” he says.

“Duck is seen as more expensive and difficult to prepare, but this is not true. The meat from small ducks is very tender and can be sautéed or used in a stirfry,” adds Bettany.

At Reuven International, which offers a broad line of poultry items for Canadian foodservice, manufacturing and retail segments, director sales Andrew MacLean says that sales of Oven Roasted Chicken Breast Strips have soared.

Reuven stills sells a lot of chicken wings, but sales today comprise a mix of raw and fully cooked items that reflects the foodservice industry’s demand for labour, energy and time-saving products.

MacLean notes that 97 per cent of respondents buy poultry and eat chicken an average of 8.6 times per month, according to the 2008 Chicken Data Booklet from the Chicken Farmers of Canada.

Eighty-two per cent of respondents said they prepared or cooked meals with chicken at home at least once per week, which was up from 75 per cent in 2004.

At the 24 Ontario locations of St. Louis Wings and Ribs, it’s all about the chicken and “we use as many parts as we can,” according to Bruce Stephens, director, food & beverage procurement for St. Louis Franchise Ltd.

The chain offers main course wings, half chickens, breasts, legs and drumsticks priced from $8.45 to $12.95. Stephens says St. Louis promotions include in-house specials such as Tuesday Night Wing Night.

“Since our company’s inception in 1992, Tuesday nights have become a tradition,” he says. Wings are definitely St. Louis’ most popular poultry item with 70 per cent of food sales derived from them. During the calendar year of 2007, St. Louis sold more than 1.5 million pounds of wings.

Stephens acknowledges that guests can easily cook poultry at home, so it’s important to “provide the guest with a product that cannot be easily replicated.”

He claims that the chain’s signature method of preparation, spicing and saucing deliver just that. “The key to success is to never overcook poultry,” adds Stephens.

Poultry seems to get more popular every year, says Michael Dentico, executive vice-president of La Nova Wings, Inc., which offers a variety of mostly fully cooked and sauced/seasoned chicken products. Spicy wings continue to be La Nova’s best selling item and Dentico predicts the company will finish the year with double digit growth.

“We have seen even a larger acceptance to spicy food over the last several years, especially by younger folks. Spice seems to be the way of life,” says Dentico.

Chief operating officer Joel Sisson of the 37-unit Shoeless Joe’s Limited chain sells a lot of wings; they’re his number one selling menu item at about 800,000 pounds a year. That’s compared to about 200,000 pounds of chicken breast which appears in about 25 per cent of menu items. The chain has had a Tuesday wing night for 15 years that he says “does very well for us.”

“Wings are very successful for us but they’re expensive so we’ve started to look at how we can use the dark meat, maybe in combo with white meat in some of our appetizers. Chicken will always make up at least 20 to 25 per cent of our menu. People find it more familiar and healthy, so there’s more willingness to try chicken dishes,” he says.

"In the U.S., [deli] turkey sales represent the largest portion of the deli-prepared foods category with a 33.5 per cent share,” says Roni Dabora, vice-president application, Hardt Equipment, which offers combination rotisseries and hot display cases to the market. The statistic cited is from the Perishables Group’s FreshFact Data, What’s In Store 2008 and refers to the 52 weeks ending Feb. 23, 2008.

“We see a huge movement toward providing the customer with healthy, low fat, lower salt menu offerings,” says Stacy Butler, foodservice marketing rep for the Turkey Farmers of Ontario, which provides free marketing and promotional resources to Ontario foodservice operators through the Ambassador Program. “Turkey fits all of those categories.”

Butler says that traditional Turkey Club sandwiches and Turkey Wraps are the top sellers in foodservice but turkey breast strips are being requested by more chain accounts to offer customers a greater variety of sandwiches. Butler has also noticed increased use of ground turkey to replace other ground proteins due to the much lower fat content.

Olymel’s marketing director Gilbert St-Yves says the company has just introduced a unique new turkey Osso Buco product. Olymel offers a full line of chicken and turkey products for foodservice.

The current best seller is the Love Me Tender chicken tender. St-Yves says that 90 per cent of new Olymel items are fully cooked products to counteract issues of labour shortages, security and speed of service.

While boneless, skinless chicken breast is still the preferred poultry in Canada, dark meat is gaining in popularity for two reasons: ethnic preference and price point. Asian and Latino populations tend to prefer dark poultry meat. So does Quebec, according to Bishop-Spencer of the Chicken Farmers of Canada.

At the three-unit Imperial Buffet concept in the GTA, manager Raingion Kong says that he served a lot of chicken breast when the Ajax restaurant first opened two years ago but now there’s more demand for dark meat.

“I think our dark meat sells better because even if it’s cooked healthy, there’s more fat in it so it has more taste,” says Kong.

“With chicken, demand for darker meat is being driven by the price point differential and the availability of more dark versus whiter pieces within the chicken and turkey [market]. As well, the consumer is developing a taste for the more flavourful, darker chicken meat,” says Olivieri of Chester’s.

Yvette Bedard, product manager, Lilydale Inc., which offers fresh and further processed chicken and turkey products, says that hand-trimmed, boneless skinless chicken breast is their most popular poultry item. However, boneless skinless chicken thighs are their fastest growing poultry product.

Delli Colli of Expresco Foods agrees.

“Chicken thigh is becoming popular since commodity prices are rising and chicken breast is always more expensive,” he says.

Duck is all dark meat, and with consumer tastes becoming more adventurous, this poultry is becoming noticed by more chefs as consumers are much less likely to cook it at home, says Patti Thompson, sales manager, King Cole Ducks Ltd., Canada’s largest vertically-integrated duck farm and processor offering fresh and frozen, raw and value-added product.

“Restaurateurs seem to welcome the addition of value-added duck products that allow them to add duck to the menu in unique ways. We have seen chefs use duck in breakfast entrees such as Smoked Duck with Eggs Benedict or smoked duck breast in a ‘DLT’ Sandwich,” adds Thompson.

“While chicken breast reigns supreme, guinea hen and duck are increasing in popularity among the chefs I deal with,” says Chef Field of Alto-Shaam Canada.

“Muscovy Duck in particular sparks the imagination of chefs because the breast can be served rare. The legs, cooked slowly in duck fat, become tender and achieve a depth of flavour that is much appreciated as a lunch dish with salad or shredded into stuffing for pasta or wraps.”