• by Todd Wasserman , Staff Writer, May 23, 2023

KFC’s reintroduction of chicken nuggets in March is boosting sales at the chain.

KFC saw an 8% rise in year-over-year foot traffic in the weeks following the release of nuggets, according to Placer.ai., though the limited-time release of its Double Down sandwich may have helped those results too.

The nuggets are made with KFC’s original recipe of 11 herbs and spices. They start at $3.49 and are available as a five-, eight-, 12- or 36-piece entrée at participating restaurants.

In April, KFC introduced ads via MullenLowe that presented the nuggets as an object of desire.

The Placer.ai figures jibe with a previous test of the nuggets in North Carolina, which accounted for more than 10% of the sales mix at the time, Nick Chavez, KFC’s chief marketing officer, told Nation’s Restaurant News.

KFC first added Kentucky Nuggets to its menu in 1984. After McDonald’s launched Chicken McNuggets. KFC responded with ads calling out McDonald’s by name. But KFC discontinued the item in the mid-1990s, according to the KFC Wiki.

One casualty of KFC’s decision to bring back nuggets is Popcorn Chicken, which KFC discontinued at the beginning of the year. At the moment though, KFC’s chicken nuggets and its Double Down sandwich appear to be bridging that gap.