In the important world of portability, sandwiches are the quintessential ever-evolving handheld…

Industry-leading menus show that everything from the flavor and menu placement to the ingredients and bread is up for innovation. To capture a larger piece of this delivery-friendly market, simply select a focus and explore the novelty your operation can bring to the dine-in or to-go plate.

Global flavors

An international focus opens the door to a different palate of ingredient combinations, spices, and bread types. Chefs rank global fare and flavors in the top five hottest culinary trends for 2022, according to the National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot 2022 Culinary Forecast survey.¹

A scan of U.S. menus shows that among chicken sandwiches alone, Tuscan, tandoori, curry, banh mi, and jerk chicken variations are appearing on trendy restaurant menus.² This demonstrates that others have done the R&D and found that these sandwich types with their traditional ingredients and flavors have legs.

For example, the Champion’s Curry menu in Los Angeles and Irvine, California, features Champion’s Curry Katsu sandwich on brioche bread, served with a cup of curry as a sandwich dip.

A glance at the bread type for the Jerk Chicken Sandwich on offer at Bahama Breeze demonstrates a well-coordinated theme. The Darden-owned chain describes the sandwich as hand-pulled jerk chicken and melted pepper jack cheese on hot-pressed Cuban bread.

The Southern Seoul sandwich at Char’d Restaurant in Tempe, Arizona, calls on flavor-forward chicken thigh meat, which it double-batter fries, then covers it in gochugaru garlic paste mixed with sesame emulsion and tops it with kimchi slaw — served on a toasted potato bun.³

Breakfast daypart

Breakfast is beloved by consumers, with breakfast restaurant meals ranking considerably higher than other dayparts across Yelp, Google, and TripAdvisor customer reviews.⁴ Popular as it is, morning sandwich innovation can easily go stale with only bacon and sausage proteins.

Breakfast, in fact, opens a lane to continue the crispy chicken sandwich wars that began in 2019 when Popeyes launched its vastly popular and widely acclaimed fried chicken sandwich.⁵

But how about a crispy chicken sandwich on the breakfast menu? It’s a playground with a lot of potential. As recently as March 2022, McDonald’s began testing a new Crispy Chicken Breakfast sandwich in select markets.⁶ The all-white-meat chicken is fried and served on a choice of biscuit or toasted English muffin.

While chicken biscuit sandwiches are widespread on menus, there’s room for incorporating new flavors and sauces in this familiar format. In February 2022, Wendy’s spiced up their breakfast lineup by introducing the Hot Honey Chicken Biscuit, featuring chicken breast topped with hot honey served on a buttermilk biscuit.⁷

There’s also plenty of opportunity for turkey on the breakfast sandwich menu. Muffin Can Stop Us, a breakfast concept in Glendale, California, features an English muffin sandwich section that includes the Madame Muff Muffin with turkey, egg, cheddar, spinach, and aioli as well as the Muffia Club Muffin with turkey, bacon, Swiss cheese, tomato, spinach, and aioli.

Replacing the bread with other breakfast ingredients, from French toast to waffles, is another way to innovate the breakfast sandwich. Savory waffle sandwiches are an emerging contender, according to Datassential.² Sheetz, a prepared food-forward convenience store chain based in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recently added a Waffle Crispy Chicken Sandwich to its menu, leveraging several trends at once.

Healthy options

Remember your mindful eaters looking for options they can feel good about now and in the future. For example, currently 9% of those on a diet are practicing the low-carb keto diet while an additional 24% indicate that the keto diet is one they are interested in practicing.⁸ This suggests that the trend will likely continue.

Growing interest in low-carb diets begs for a revisit of the sandwich carrier — like Jimmy John’s Sandwiches has done with its Unwich® which it describes as a healthy lettuce wrap sandwich. It comes tightly wrapped in lettuce leaves and paper. The menu touts, “Any sandwich as an unwich® contains 10g or less total carbs.” This includes its Turkey Tom with turkey, lettuce, tomato, and mayo as one of the lowest-calorie sandwiches on the menu.

If you choose to go with turkey or chicken as lean-meat sandwich protein choices, give them power on the menu by sourcing and marketing the poultry as free-range, no antibiotics ever, fed an all-vegetarian diet, and the like.

Whatever your choice of protein or carrier, ratchet up the flavor with your thoughtful ingredients. Spices being adopted on trendy restaurant sandwiches, according to Datassential, are poblano, wasabi, and pepperoncini peppers. Global ingredients showing up between the slices are falafel, harissa, tzatziki, and tahini. As for cheese, goat, brie, pimento cheese, and beer cheese are appearing more often.⁹

For any sandwich build that fits within your operational focus, be sure to choose themes with palate-pleasing flavor-first variety. Your guests will find your innovation refreshing.

Content courtesy of Perdue Foodservice

Sources:

¹What’s Hot 2022 Culinary Forecast, National Restaurant Association, Nov. 16, 2021, https://go.restaurant.org/rs/078-ZLA-461/images/2022_What%27s_Hot_Report.pdf

²Datassential SNAP! Chicken Sandwich Menu Adoption Chart, March 2022

³Jennings, Lisa, “Sandwich Porn: This Year’s Top Trends,” Restaurant Hospitality, Aug. 11, 2021, https://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/best-sandwiches/sandwich-porn-year-s-top-trends

⁴Thorne, Bret, “Breakfast Returns to Restaurants with Healthy, Spicy and Indulgent Options,” Nation’s Restaurant News, April 7, 2022, https://www.nrn.com/food-trends/breakfast-returns-restaurants-healthy-spicy-and-indulgent-options

⁵Wheeler, Kevin, “Popeyes Started a Chicken Sandwich War in 2019,” USA Today, Dec. 31, 2019, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2019/12/31/popeyes-chicken-sandwich-food-fight-2019-2020/2785127001/

⁶Lake, Amber, “McDonald’s is Offering This New Breakfast Sandwich,” eatthis.com, March 24, 2022, https://www.eatthis.com/news-mcdonalds-testing-new-breakfast-sandwich/

⁷Maze, Jonathan. “Wendy’s is Introducing a Hot New Breakfast Sandwich,” Restaurant Business, February 2, 2022, https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/food/wendys-introducing-hot-new-breakfast-sandwich

⁸Foodbytes, “Health: What Does it Mean Today” report (Datassential), November 2021

⁹Datassential SNAP Sandwich Ingredients Menu Adoption Chart, March 2022

From Oak Point we’ve added fresh, 3.5oz beef patties. From Advance we’ve added a new chili featuring sirloin, ground chuck and black beans. From Classic Delite we’ve added 3 premade sandwiches, Turkey, Ham and Cheese – Turkey and Cheese – Turkey, Salami and Cheese. From Margherita we’ve added sliced Genoa Salami. Last in foods, we’ve added Del Monte 4-pack mixed fruit cups. In non-foods we’ve added new cutlery kits from World Centric and a heavy duty grill brush from Chef-Master.

Dennis Paper & Food Service delivers thousands of foodservice products and supplies to restaurants and food operations in Maine and New Hampshire. If you have a question or are interested in becoming a customer contact us or call 1-800-439-2727.

Stock status subject to change. Posted 7/1/20.

Mac & Cheese
Does this dish really need an introduction? There are many renditions of this dish, which all have one thing in common; pure comforting deliciousness. Whichever rendition you present, be sure to send it out the door with a hefty amount of cheese sauce as the pasta will absorb a fair amount in transit.

Shepherd’s Pie
Layers of seasoned ground meat (beef, turkey, lamb or pork) topped with creamed corn and buttery mashed potatoes. Baked to a golden-brown deliciousness. Za’atar makes for a great non-traditional seasoning element for your ground protein of choice.

Mashed Potatoes
Potatoes served with buttery with a kiss of salt and pepper. Add lobster or crab for an added euphoric punch to the taste buds. Mashed potato soup with hearty biscuits is a great comfort category option.
Option: serve as a family style side to an entree.

American Chop Suey
Pasta, with ground meat and caramelized onions tossed in a rustic tomato-based sauce. Works exceptionally great with a chorizo and  beef mixture.

Chicken Pot Pie 
Tender chunks of chicken, mixed with fresh vegetables and chicken gravy; topped with pie crust baked to a golden brown flaky finish. Pack for a heat and serve item, great for a “Family Meal Pack”.

Fried Chicken & Waffle Sandwich
Fried chicken perched between two waffles with a spicy aioli, drizzled with maple syrup. Yes, just yes please.

Spaghetti & Meatballs
Most of us probably grew up eating this classic dish of spaghetti tossed in a rustic red sauce and tender rounds of seasoned meat. Topped with shaved parmesan, pairing with garlic bread or knots is a must.

Toasted Cheese & Tomato Soup 
This could be one of the most comforting combinations of all comfort foods! Velvety tomato soup, paired with a toasted sandwich of gooey melted cheese between butter toasted bread. Be creative with your cheese selections and don’t forget to dip your sandwich in the soup! That’s the best part.

Cookies
Be sure to offer desserts, cookies by the baker’s dozen is a great option and don’t forget the milk!

May your life and stomach always be full, 
Chef Tim

INGREDIENTS

• 4 slices sourdough or thick cut bread
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
• 1 cup cooked shredded chicken
• 1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce
• 1 cup basil pesto aioli

DIRECTIONS

1. 1. Mix chicken and buffalo sauce together.
   2. Brush bread with butter on one side.
   3. Place 2 slices of bread on cutting board. Top each with cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, chicken mixture and another slice of bread.
   4. Heat skillet over medium heat. Cook both sandwiches until cheese is melted, about 2-3 minutes per side.
   5. Remove sandwiches to a cutting board and slice into sticks about 2 inches wide.
   6. Serve grilled cheese with aioli for dipping!