TREND BITES:

Savory Sweet

December 8, 2023

We're rounding out this year the same way we started it—with a surprisingly craveable flavor combination. In January, we covered "Swicy," or sweet + spicy, and for December, we're diving into sweet + savory. This Trend Bite explores how to pair popular sweet ingredients with chicken to create undeniably tasty blends of sweet and savory.

Jelly & Jam

"The complexity of contrasting and unlikely flavors is key in creating a memorable dining experience” (Source: Smithfield Culinary’s “Sweet to Savory Trends"). With that in mind, you can create impressive meals by combining very ordinary ingredients in a way your customers have been trained not to expect. Jelly and jam are usually paired with breads, so if you show your customers how delicious they can be on protein, they'll remember it and come back for more! To start, try our PB&J Popcorn Chicken, Chicken Raspberry Jam Flatbread, or Cranberry Brie Crispy Chicken Sandwich recipes.

Maple Syrup

Like jelly and jam, syrup is often cornered into breakfast menus. However, consumers are getting more and more used to seeing chicken and waffles available for lunch and dinner, with Datassential showing a 20% increase in chicken and waffles on menus over the past four years. That means it's a great time to push the syrup-all-day agenda for other foods too! We paired maple syrup with white wine and mirin to build a sweet, complex flavor in this Miso Chicken with Walnuts and Grapes recipe. It's a fantastic, sweet dish to serve for lunch and dinner. But if you're looking for a basic Chicken and Waffles recipe, we have one of those too!

Try these applications!

Cranberry Brie Crispy Chicken Sandwich

With fresh apples, sweet cranberry jam, soft brie, and a crispy chicken filet, this Cranberry Brie Crispy Chicken Sandwich is sure to be a popular choice on your menu!

Honey Garlic Drummies

We brought the savory sweet trend to one of our favorite kids' items: our CN Whole Grain Boneless Drummies! Serve these Honey Garlic Drummies by coating them with a premade honey garlic sauce and topping them with green onion.

PB&J Popcorn Chicken

Add the sweet comfort of peanut butter and jelly to popcorn chicken for a fun snack or appetizer! Serve this PB&J Popcorn Chicken recipe and get inspired to try other sweet toppings on your snackable fried chicken.

Honey Garlic

Restaurant Hospitality claims that honey garlic is "made for wings" because it's "familiar enough for a wide range of consumers to gravitate toward it but unique enough to create interest and excitement on a menu." Your customers know what to expect when they order something with "honey garlic" in the name, but they'll still be impressed by the taste.

In addition to being a great flavor for wings, honey garlic is perfect for school lunch and kids' menus. We used honey garlic sauce on our Boneless Drummies for a delicious, kid-approved entree.

Sweet + Savory + SPICY

With the addition of chicken, all the fantastic sauces from our "Swicy" Trend Bite also bring in a comforting umami flavor. Complex combinations like sweet, savory, and spicy keep growing in popularity as consumers crave foods that are bolder and more exciting, especially in snackable bites like boneless wings. Draw attention to your offerings by calling out their bold flavors on menus and advertisements. The more flavorful the better!