Buttermilk Biscuit Butterfly Shrimp
What makes the item a winner:
1. The sides: Popeyes’ Cajun-spiced French fries and a buttermilk biscuit accompany every serving.
2. The shrimp and the seasoning: A menu standard, the shrimp is sliced down the middle to create the butterfly shape. The shrimp is marinated with a proprietary mix of herbs and spices known as Popeyes’ Louisiana seasoning.
3. The sauce: Each dish comes with a blackened tartar dipping sauce — a traditional creamy sauce that’s made spicy with black pepper, red pepper and paprika.
4. The batter: The batter fries up light yet crunchy on the shrimp.
The story behind the item
Success breeds success.
One of the most successful limited-time offers Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen presented to customers was based on two of its core menu’s leading items — the buttermilk biscuit and the butterfly shrimp.
“We get a lot of love for the butterfly shrimp offering and our biscuits have a cult status,” said Amy Alarcon, vice president of innovation for the Atlanta-based quick service chicken chain. “Why not take these things customers love about us and combine them?”
The Buttermilk Biscuit Butterfly Shrimp is a dish of eight pieces served with Cajun fries, a biscuit and blackened tartar sauce. The LTO ran in November.
“It was highly received and exceed our expectations,” Alarcon said.
Popeyes does 12 limited-time offers a year, and usually about seven of them will be new products, she said. Research and planning begin 12 to 18 months in advance. Ideas are tested thoroughly with the innovation team of four chefs and with customers. Any idea also must meet operational standards and be easy to implement for franchisees in the more than 2,000-unit system. The dish also must meet certain company criteria — it must be seasoned, crispy and contain the flavor customers expect.
Throughout the development, the culinary team keeps in mind how marketing and advertising will play in the rollout of a new menu item. Popeyes, which was founded in 1972 in New Orleans, features “Annie the Chicken Queen” in its advertising to emphasize the chain’s Louisiana heritage.
“Even in the ideation stage, we think about what would Annie say,” Alarcon said, “We have her voice in the back of our minds.”
