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First beef, now chicken. The plant-based alternatives are growing, but the real stuff is still popular.

Chris Torres, Editor, American Agriculturist

March 13, 2020

4 Min Read
El Pollo Loco's new plant-based Chickenless Pollo taco
CHICKEN WITHOUT CHICKEN: As if the Impossible Whopper was enough, California-based El Pollo Loco has launched a plant-based taco and burrito. Photo courtesy of El Pollo Loco

“Chicken tacos and burritos. Without the meat.”

Yep, that’s the pitch that California-based El Pollo Loco is rolling out with its new Chickenless Pollo tacos and burritos. First it was beef without the beef, now it’s chicken without the chicken.

The chain of fast-casual restaurants — there are 480 El Pollo Loco restaurants across Arizona, California, Louisiana, Nevada, Texas and Utah — is the latest restaurant chain to delve into plant-based meats, though with one big caveat. Instead of partnering with Impossible or Beyond to supply the meatless chicken, they created it themselves using a soy protein they developed in-house.  

“The recipe uniquely blends authentic Mexican flavors in an adobo sauce with a non-GMO 100% soy protein base that mirrors shredded chicken, all done with the better-for-you spirit of Los Angeles, El Pollo Loco’s hometown,” according to a press release advertising the product’s launch.

The company also helped launch the product by capturing a day in the life of Cordell, a Chickenless Pollo farmer.

I’ll give to El Pollo Loco, it’s a funny video, although it ascribes to some pretty typical and tired farmer clichés. Maybe some farmers do spend their free time playing the guitar on the porch, but knitting a sweater or building a tower from playing cards? I think not. But then again, never say never.

“It’s a brave new world, and me and my Chickenless Pollo, we’re just flying into the future,” Cordell says in the video.

We should get accustomed to these plant-based meat alternatives. They’re not going away anytime soon. But if you’re a beef, pork or poultry farmer, I wouldn’t get worried, at least not yet.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Impossible Foods Inc. had reduced its wholesale prices by 15% in order to compete with planned rollouts of plant-based products from Nestle, Smithfield Foods and Cargill.

According to the March 3 article, plant-based meat sales in U.S. retail stores totaled $1 billion for the year ending Jan. 25, up 14% from the previous year. But sales of traditional meat grew, too, albeit at a slower pace, 0.8% to $96 billion over that same period.

Expect the plant-based meat market to grow as other restaurants, including McDonald’s, which is testing a plant-based Beyond burger in Canada, expand their offerings.

But people still like their real meats. Look at Popeyes. According to a February article in QSR magazine, sales of its new chicken sandwich have gone through the roof.

“This has been a very exciting time for the Popeyes team, and in fact, has been an exciting time for all of us who spent a long time in [the quick-service industry] and have never seen the kind of guest response for a single product launch like the one we had for our Popeyes Chicken Sandwich,” said Popeyes CEO Jose Cil during a recent earnings call.

The launch of its chicken sandwich helped increase company sales by 13% in 2019 and by 37.9% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year.

Every time I pass by a Chick-Fil-A the parking lot is always full and the drive thru is jam packed. No plant-based chicken here, at least not that I know of.

Farmers, I think, should welcome the competition. Put your products head to head vs. the plant-based stuff. I’m sure the real stuff will do just fine.

As for me, I tried an Impossible Whopper recently. It was OK. I mean, it wasn’t gross or anything, it was just OK. Would I run back to Burger King to buy one? No. But I’m not a big fan of Burger King anyway.

I’ve tried some Boca Burgers in the past, and again, they were OK. Nothing special, just OK.

Now, I did have some Kobe beef burgers from a farmer in nearby Chester County. Those were amazing. They were the best burgers I ever had. I would go back and get those burgers again.

We produce some pretty good meat in this country and if it tastes good, people will come back.

I’m not planning on visiting California or any of those other states where an El Pollo Loco is located anytime soon. When I do, though, I’ll go loco for the real stuff.

About the Author(s)

Chris Torres

Editor, American Agriculturist

Chris Torres, editor of American Agriculturist, previously worked at Lancaster Farming, where he started in 2006 as a staff writer and later became regional editor. Torres is a seven-time winner of the Keystone Press Awards, handed out by the Pennsylvania Press Association, and he is a Pennsylvania State University graduate.

Torres says he wants American Agriculturist to be farmers' "go-to product, continuing the legacy and high standard (former American Agriculturist editor) John Vogel has set." Torres succeeds Vogel, who retired after 47 years with Farm Progress and its related publications.

"The news business is a challenging job," Torres says. "It makes you think outside your small box, and you have to formulate what the reader wants to see from the overall product. It's rewarding to see a nice product in the end."

Torres' family is based in Lebanon County, Pa. His wife grew up on a small farm in Berks County, Pa., where they raised corn, soybeans, feeder cattle and more. Torres and his wife are parents to three young boys.

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