Popeyes' New Chicken Sandwich 'Taco' Hack Is a Clear Jab at Taco Bell

Welcome to the chicken sandwich taco war?

Courtesy of Popeyes
Courtesy of Popeyes

Taco Bell leapt right into the grease-fueled flames of the fast food chicken wars on Monday, with the unveiling of its much-anticipated new fried chicken menu item, the Crispy Chicken Sandwich Taco. While it remains to be seen if this sandwich-taco hybrid will convert Popeyes Chicken Sandwich fans to the taco side, so to speak (probably not), the Louisiana-style chicken chain is already trolling it on Tuesday with a new menu hack created specifically for taco lovers. 

Popeyes posted a step-by-step "TikTurial" of the menu hack on TikTok, complete with the amusingly inaccurate text-to-speech effect. The company created the hack to ensure customers can enjoy fried chicken tacos and "maintain the high quality that they have grown to know and love from Popeyes," according to a spokesperson. Translation: Forget about Taco Bell's new take on a chicken sandwich and turn our actual chicken sandwich into tacos, if you're into that sort of thing.

Notably, the menu hack leaves you with two of the so-called tacos. Here are the steps outlined in the TikTok post (shown above):

1. Order the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich.
2. Remove chicken fillet from the bun.
3. Rub the top and bottom bun pieces together to spread the sauce.
4. Tear or cut the chicken fillet in half.
5. Fold the top and bottom bun pieces like tacos, then place the chicken fillet halves in each and garnish with the pickles.

Or... you can just skip steps two through five and just eat your chicken sandwich like a sandwich—you know, without having to play with your food. Then again, we won't judge if you want to try the hack just for fun. That's presumably what Popeyes is going for here. That, and snark. The chain did start the chicken wars with that shade-filled Chick-fil-A tweet after all.

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Tony Merevick is the Managing Editor at Thrillist. Follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick and Instagram @tonymerevick.