Korean Corn Dogs and Other Fast Food Trends Coming to a Restaurant Near You Soon
Not long before the pandemic, the chicken sandwich wars were big news for fast-food chains. And they're still raging — even Panda Express is joining the fray with its own Asian-inspired take — but other trends have emerged from pandemic, too. Customers have new ways to order and pick up food, can grab dinner from virtual kitchens, and more. There is also plenty of culinary innovation, from globally inspired menu items to new twists on popular American staples. Here are the latest fast-food trends to track.
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While Starbucks seemed to have cornered the market on egg bites thanks to its sous vide egg bites in flavors including kale and mushroom, bacon and gruyere, and roasted red pepper and egg white, it didn't take long for competitors to get in on the action. Chick-fil-A began testing chorizo egg bites this summer, and for a limited time Dunkin offered bacon and cheddar, as well as egg white and veggie sous vide egg bites to mixed reviews last winter.
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Coffee has been a hot ticket for a while, but iced coffee has become a McCafe staple at McDonald's internationally for years. The buzz over cold brew coffee, however, has everyone from Starbucks to IHOP to Baskin Robbins getting in on the trend, with the ice cream chain adding an Oreo 'n Cold Brew flavor. Dunkin offers a Brown Sugar Cream Cold Brew, and Panera Bread, Dutch Bros, Taco John's, Pilot Flying J, and 7-11 all offer their takes on the cold brew coffee trend.
If the battle to create the ultimate chicken sandwich has signaled anything, it appears to be that most of us love chicken and there's room for a lot more of it. Even restaurants that don't sell sandwiches are running headlong into the fight: The latest, Panda Express, is testing an orange chicken sandwich based on its Original Orange Chicken entree, a menu mainstay, and Taco Bell has a crispy chicken taco. In addition, QSR Magazine reported on new chicken chains ready to take off, including Chick N Max, Huey Magoo's, Wing It On!, Dave's Hot Chicken, Starbird, Hoots Wings, Project Pollo, The Crack Shack, Southern Classic Chicken, and Layne's Chicken Fingers.
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Don't dismiss these outright if you don't like corn dogs — the name is a misnomer since the batter doesn't actually contain cornmeal. Instead, Korean corn dogs — aka K-dogs or rice dogs — start with a hot dog, mozzarella cheese, fish cakes, or rice cakes, which are then coated in a yeasted dough or rice flour batter and deep-fried. They're then served with toppings that can range from a simple dusting of sugar or a range of sweet, spicy, and savory sauces to crunchy ramen noodles, potato pieces, and more. Restaurants and food trucks serving up K-dogs have been popping up in Los Angeles (including Universal Studios Hollywood), the D.C. area, all over New York City, and many places in between.
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You'd have to be living under a rock not to have seen this one coming. The number of meatless, plant-based, and vegan options coming to menus is exploding. Even Little Caesar's — long a bastion for people who wanted meat on their pizzas and didn't much care where it came from — introduced a plant-based pepperoni pizza. Other notable entries in the plant-based fast-food logbook? Pizza Hut offered Beyond Meat sausage as a topping in Canada this year, KFC sells meat-free Beyond Fried Chicken, and Panda Express's Beyond the Original Orange Chicken was availably temporarily last year.
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Mochi and doughnuts are both sweet, pillowy forms of dessert, so whoever first got the idea to combine the two is a culinary genius as far as we're concerned. The main purveyor of this sweet hybrid is Mochinut, which has locations in South Korea and Thailand, but also in 32 U.S. states. If you don't have a location near you, it's certainly worth a Google search — this is a culinary trend catching on across the country.
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Certain fast-food sauces have long inspired cult followings, but it seems like the entire industry might be catching on to just how much devotion a well-crafted sauce or condiment can inspire. This trend can be evidenced in recent menu innovations like Slim Chickens' house-made dipping sauce menu, which includes 17 options that include Korean BBQ, Sriracha Garlic, and Mango Habanero. Qdoba is also adding a line of signature salsas, sauces, and toppings that can be used in its bowls, burritos, and other menu items.
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We're not talking about the mozzarella sticks that come out of the TGI Fridays freezer. These are artisanal and handcrafted. They're a trend that's been spurred on by the opening of places like NYC's Big Stick Willy’s, a startup that began during the pandemic and that QSR Magazine called the "virtual brand reinventing mozzarella sticks." On the menu are sweet and savory options that include ingredients such as goat cheese, fig chips, pretzels, Fruity Pebbles cereal, and puff pastry. They're served with sauces that run the gamut from spicy marinara to gochujang mayo and parmesan peppercorn.
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Expect this trend to hit both menus and the grocery store. While flavored popcorn has long been a thing, the concept is being taken to new heights by places such as Krispy Kreme, which introduced a glazed doughnut Smartfood popcorn. Throw in celebrity-backed brands like Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen's HUSK gourmet popcorn products, and you can see this culinary trend is pretty much a slam dunk.
Related: 50 Ways to Get Creative With Your Popcorn
Remember a time when your dining-out beverage choices were limited to a range of soda pop, coffee, water, and tea? Nowadays, drink menus include a dizzying array of options. Sonic, of course, has always been the frontrunner in overwhelming its customers with drink options, but others are getting in on the action, too. Both Shake Shack and Popeye's, for example, rolled out a diverse lineup of lemonades, and Dunkin' has a summer selection of iced drinks and cold brews. Expect to see this trend growing across the industry in the coming months.
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In mid-July, the nation’s first taquito-focused franchise, Roll-Em-Up Taquitos, announced that it would add 12 locations in California's San Bernardino County. If successful, diners in other states will no doubt see taquito places popping up around their areas, too. Items on the Roll-Em-Up menu include five taquito flavor options — braised shredded beef, shredded chicken, potato, cheese, and avocado — as well as a range of toppings to customize each order.
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Move over poke bowls — the chirashi bowl is coming for you. Basically sushi in a more deconstructed form (chirashi means "scattered sushi" in Japanese), this concept lets you pile everything you might order at your favorite local sushi restaurant — rice, fish, roe, wasabi, tempura, etc. — into a bowl. While this trend might not yet have made its way into middle America, more cosmopolitan locales like Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and New York have seen chirashi bowls take off.
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