Barbecue is growing moderately in restaurants, with overall barbecue menu items growing 11 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Chicago-based Mintel International’s Menu Insights (MMI). In menu dishes featuring barbecue sauces, among the quickest growing are boneless chicken wings (up 32 percent), chicken wings (up 13 percent), barbecue pizza (up 13 percent) and bacon burgers (up 4 percent).
“The uptick in chicken mirrors a larger industry trend in favor of this protein, which allows consumers to indulge in certain indulgent preps — barbecue sauces, fried chicken — while still enjoying the health halo that a leaner protein offers,” says Jill Failla, Mintel foodservice analyst. “Pizza and bacon burgers, on the other hand, demonstrate consumers’ willingness to still treat themselves with their favorite dishes when dining out. These latter two dishes also demonstrate how barbecue sauces are growing outside of their core applications, e.g., ribs and traditional barbecue proteins and appearing in a wider variety of dishes.”