India’s chicken craze takes wing as Gen Z, millennials drive unprecedented surge in demand

Chicken legs are losing flavour among younger consumers.

It’s not every day that you catch the chief executive of an Rs 8,000 crore restaurant empire spending his morning hunting for… chicken wings. Yet that’s exactly what Sameer Khetarpal, CEO of Jubilant FoodWorks, the company that runs the pizza chain Domino’s in India, has been doing of late. A sudden demand surge for chicken wings has caught the company off guard, sending its CEO scrambling to secure enough meat and forcing him to ration supplies.“I spend every Monday morning with my sourcing team to source chicken wings because we are constrained on supply of chicken wings,” Khetarpal told analysts during an earnings call last month. “So we had to ration chicken wings and, in fact, stop the business in North and West to serve South and East (which are larger non-veg markets),” he said.The shortage stems from the unexpectedly demand the company is seeing for its new fried-chicken menu. The Jubilant CEO said he never expected the February launch of the new menu would “exceed expectations”, calling it a Rs 1,000 crore business potential segment. Across the restaurant industry, a similar trend is emerging.Chicken legs are losing flavour among younger consumers. Gen Z and Millennials are gorging on chicken wings and fried chicken, driving an unprecedented demand for the meat, says restaurant chains and the fresh meat industry. The demand surge comes as relief for restaurant industry that has been grappling with consumers cutting back on eating out for eight quarters. But the demand has outstripped supplies for now. “Wings have become a go-to choice for group occasions, party orders, and OTT binging. They’re easy to eat, easy to share, and low-commitment—fitting perfectly into India’s growing ‘snackification’ trend, where consumers prefer multiple smaller, tasty meals over one heavy main,” says Kapil Grover, group chief marketing and digital officer, Restaurant Brands Asia that owns Burger King in India.Live EventsChicken legs, on the other hand, are finding themselves in a tough spot. Despite being meatier, they don’t feel as juicy nor do they pack the crispy, dip-friendly punch of wings, industry executives said. They’re also costlier per serving. Global influences are also frying up the demand. There’s a lot of Western and South Korean cultural influence on younger consumers, many of whom find pairing fried chicken and wings with beer or gin trendy. Grover said the rise of Korean pop culture—from K-Pop to K-Dramas—has led to a surge in Korean cuisines such as wings. To be sure, the supply shortage has not reached crisis level yet even as demand forecasts and supply plans have gone haywire for now. While some—like Domino’s—are forced to ration and manage regional supplies, most have reached out to their vendors to increase supplies.Another reason for the current situation: a bird has only two wings while chicken is mostly sold as whole. The founder of a leading fresh meat ecommerce platform said “there is a huge demand right now for wings. But if you don’t need the whole bird, then how do you price the wings only?” “How many kilos of chicken do you need to go through to get the desired number of wings?” he said, requesting anonymity. According to Euromonitor International, the market size of chicken limited restaurants defined as restaurants where the primary offering is chicken only, inclusive of dine-ins and take away, was estimated to be Rs 6,750 crore for the calendar year 2024. This market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9% till 2029. Kabir Jeet Singh, founder, Burger Singh, said, “It’s a bit of an elitist item on the menu, as you need to sell at least six of them in one serving,” he said.Arvind RP, chief marketing officer at McDonald’s India (West and South), said despite launching fried chicken during the pandemic, the category has demonstrated consistent growth especially in the South, where it has significantly boosted the average unit volumes.(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)

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