Taco Bell Turns Heads With New Spin on Fan-Favorite Menu Items
Indeed, in an exciting new development for Taco Bell's extensive menu, the global fast food giant has officially brought back some of their most popular past menu items.
More recently, Taco Bell has set the food industry ablaze with their Crispy Chicken nuggets: a mouthwatering take on a popular fast food menu item. In the hopes of further capitalizing on the Crispy Chicken's revived popularity, Taco Bell is also testing out new menu items centered around the decadent protein option, as revealed by noteworthy food journalist markie_devo in a recent Instagram post.
Above all else, Taco Bell is currently offering a slew of items with Crispy Chicken as its main ingredient, including a Crispy Chicken Burrito and Crispy Chicken Tacos.
The Burrito will come filled with a mixture of Crispy Chicken, lettuce, purple cabbage, pico de gallo and cheddar cheese, with the optional addition of either spicy Ranchero or Avocado Ranch sauce.
Meanwhile, Taco Bell's latest Taco creation is filled with Crispy Chicken, lettuce, purple cabbage, pico de gallo, shredded cheddar cheese and a choice of either of Ranchero or Avocado Ranch sauce as well.
Taco Bell is also currently testing out a new shareable platter dubbed the Loaded Steak and Jalapeños Topped Fries. Based on Taco Bell's ultra popular Nacho Fries from 2018, the dish comes served with a healthy smothering of molten nacho cheese, grilled steak, a creamy jalapeño sauce and enough pickled jalapeños to leave your tongue tingling for days after the fact.
While these experimental new items are available at limited locations within Charlotte, North Carolina, Taco Bell has reportedly planned to further emphasize Crispy Chicken on its menu well into 2026.
Taco Bell Turns Heads With New Spin on Fan-Favorite Menu Items first appeared on Parade on May 27, 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
29 minutes ago
- USA Today
Taco Bell unveils new Baja Blast flavor with purple twist
Fans of one of Taco Bell's most popular items are in for a treat as the chain announced Aug. 12 a new flavor of its famous Mountain Dew Baja Blast beverage. For the first time in two decades, Taco Bell is expanding the Baja Blast line with a new flavor called Mountain Dew Baja Midnight. The drink, described by the chain as an "unexpected purple twist on the iconic tropical lime flavor fans know and love," will be available nationwide on Thursday, Aug. 14, as a permanent menu addition. Taco Bell says Mountain Dew Baja Midnight blends passionfruit flavor with the "instantly recognizable" taste of Mountain Dew Baja Blast. 'McDonaldland' debuted in 1971. Now its back. What to know about the new meal. Prices, frozen version, how to get a free drink with purchase The drink will be available in a regular and frozen option. The frozen version, called a Mountain Dew Baja Midnight Freeze, is only available for a limited time. The Baja Midnight drink costs $2.49 for a small, $2.79 for a medium and $2.99 for a large, while the Baja Midnight Freeze drink costs $3.79 for a regular and $3.99 for a large. Additionally, on Aug. 15, Taco Bell Rewards members can try a medium Mountain Dew Baja Midnight for free when they spend $5 or more in the Taco Bell app. 'BAJA BLAST has consistently sparked creativity, defied expectations, and continues to be a cornerstone of the Taco Bell experience,' said Taylor Montgomery, Chief Marketing Officer at Taco Bell, in a news release. 'Our fans made it iconic, and they're the reason we're expanding the universe for the first time with Mountain Dew Baja Midnight. It's unexpected, it's Taco Bell purple, and it's tasty enough to earn its place in the fandom.' Taco Bell unveiled new Refrescas drinks earlier this summer Taco Bell also announced on June 26 it was introducing new beverages called Refrescas to menus nationwide. According to the chain, the drinks are crafted to "quench every kind of craving – whether you're seeking a refreshing sip, an energizing boost or a frozen escape." The six drinks include three refreshers, two energy drinks and a cooling freeze. According to Taco Bell, the three Agua Refrescas join menus permanently after initially being tested in Southern California in 2024, with a positive response. The Agua Refrescas cost $3.99 for a 20-ounce drink while the Rockstar Energy Refrescas cost $4.49 for a 20-ounce beverage. The Refrescas Freezes are available in a 16-ounce or 20-ounce option and cost $3.79 and $3.99, respectively. Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@
New York Post
29 minutes ago
- New York Post
I tried to be the perfect wellness influencer — and it almost killed me
Being a wellness influencer nearly killed Lee Tilghman. From 2014 to 2019, she shared her rainbow-hued smoothie bowls, eight-step skincare routine, #selfcare rituals and thirst-trappy fit pics on her Instagram, @LeeFromAmerica, which had more than 400,000 followers — a significant number for the time. At her height she made $300,000 a year via sponsored posts, and nearly every item in her light-filled Los Angeles apartment was gifted from a brand. Yet, behind the scenes Tilghman was not well at all. Advertisement 8 In her new memoir, Lee Tilghman opens up about the toll being a wellness influencer took on her health. Olga Ginzburg for N.Y. Post She suffered from disordered eating. She was anxious. She was lonely. A critical comment on a post could send her into a spiral of depression and paranoia. She spent 10 hours a day tethered to her iPhone 'It was soul-killing,' Tilghman, 35, told The Post, taking in the New York City skyline from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Advertisement She chronicles it all in her wild, self-aware, new memoir, 'If You Don't Like This Post, I Will Die' (Simon & Schuster, out now). Tilghman recalls growing up in suburban Connecticut, getting her first AOL username at 12 years old and downloading Instagram the summer before last year of college, in 2011. Her first photo — of herself at a flea market in London during study abroad — got zero likes. After college, she moved to Manhattan and became a 20-something party girl, documenting her exploits on Instagram. She worked as a waitress at the trendy Chalk Point Kitchen, but, for the most part, she opted for drugs over food. Advertisement Then, one morning, after waking up from a cocaine bender, she opened Instagram and came across an account from an Australian named Loni Jane. This gorgeous, fit specimen had 'ombre-blonde hair,' a 'year-round tan' and a vegan, raw diet. 'I wanted that life,' Tilghman recalls in the book. 8 Tilghman was initially a party girl, posting sexy snaps of nights out to Instagram. Lee Tilghman/ Instagram She stopped drinking and began exercising. One morning, after a run, she made a smoothie with avocado, banana, coconut and kale that was so thick, she couldn't drink it from a glass. She poured it into a bowl, sprinkled some seeds on top, and posted it on the 'gram. Advertisement The likes rolled in. She began posting these 'smoothie bowls' nearly every day, in every color of the rainbow, with a bounty of toppings arranged like works of art. The clothing brand Free People interviewed her about her culinary creations for its blog. 'I was like, 'Okay, this thing is popping off.'' Tilghman recalled. 'Every time I posted a smoothie bowl, my following would grow. The comments would be crazy. People had never seen them before.' She left NYC for LA, to chase Instagram stardom. The term 'influencer' had just begun bubbling, and savvy millennial brands had just started seeing pretty young women as inexpensive ambassadors for their products. 8 Then, after a cocaine bender, she changed her ways and focused on healthy content. She started posting images of colorful smoothie bowls that quickly took off. Lee Tilghman/ Instagram Tilghman went all-in. When a follower DMed her and told her that fluoride caused 'brain damage,' she stopped using toothpaste with it — and promptly developed six cavities. When her roommate told her that bananas had a ton of sugar, Tilghman cut them from her diet. (She still made her smoothie bowls with them, since the bananas helped make the liquid thick enough to hold all the toppings; she just threw it out after snapping a picture.) Tongue-scraping, dry-brushing, double-filtered charcoal water, body oiling, fasting: Tilghman tried it all. 'I did two twenty-one-day cleanses back-to-back,' she writes in her book. 'I got rid of gluten, dairy, soy, peanuts, and sugar. I paid [a Reiki-certified healer] the first half of an $8,000 coaching package, which included breathwork, moon circles, and unlimited text support.' The more she tried — and the realer she got, posting about her struggles with PCOS (a hormonal condition that can cause bloating and irregular periods) or her past struggled with anorexia — the more followers, and brand sponsorships, she got. And the more brand sponsorships she got, the more time she had to spend posting. And the more time she spent posting, the more time she spent on the app, and the more she hated herself. Advertisement 8 Soon, she was getting attention from brands and posting smoothie bowls daily. Lee Tilghman/ Instagram She would often take 200 photos before finding one where she looked thin enough to post on the grid — often with some caption about self-acceptance and self-love. Her self-absorption and food phobias eventually alienated her from the rest of the world. She was so terrified of gluten, of soy, of sugar that she couldn't go out to eat. She once dragged her mom all over Tokyo — during a sponsored trip — in search of a green apple, because the red ones in her hotel had too much sugar. She was so obsessed with getting the perfect Instagram photo that she couldn't have a conversation. Advertisement 'I put my health [and Instagram] above everything, including family and relationships,' she said. 'If your body is a temple and you treat it super well and you eat all the right foods and do all the things, but you don't have anyone close to you because you're trying to control your life so much, it's a dark place.' 8 She left NYC for LA to pursue wellness influencing. Lee Tilghman/ Instagram It all came crashing in 2018, after she announced she was hosting a wellness workshop — and charging $350 for the cheapest was accused of white privilege, and her apology post only elicited more scorn. Some sponsors pulled out. Shortly after, her apartment flooded. She looked around and noticed that with the exception of her dog, Samson, every single thing in her place — including her toothbrush — had been gifted by brands looking for promotion. Advertisement 'I was a prop too—a disposable, soulless, increasingly emaciated mannequin used by companies to sell more stuff,' she writes. 'We all were—all the billions of us who thought we were using Instagram when really it was the other way around.' 8 Followers loved her fitness content, but behind the scenes, Tilghman was struggling. Lee Tilghman/ Instagram 8 One day, she realized that every item in her apartment, save for her dog, had been gifted by a brand. Lee Tilghman/ Instagram In 2019, she got rid of it all, deleted Instagram and went to a six-week intensive treatment center for her disordered eating. There, she had to throw out all her adaptogens and supplemental powders. Advertisement 'I felt like an addict when they're so done with their drug of choice that they can't wait to throw it away,' she recalled of her first day without the app. 'It was amazing.' Though she did admit that she couldn't stop taking selfies. 'I would be at a red light and just take 15 selfies — it was weird!' During the pandemic, she moved back to New York and did social media for a couple companies, including a tech and a perfume brand. She sporadically updated her Instagram in 2021, but really came back in earnest this past year, to do promotion for her memoir. 'I've been gone for so long that I have this newfound creativity and appreciation for it,' she said of her new, goofy online persona. 'The whimsy is back.' She also has a Substack, Offline Time, and has just moved to Brooklyn Heights with Samson and her fiance, Jack, who works in finance. 8 Tilghman is no longer an influencer, though she has used Instagram to promote her new book. And, she says, she would consider doing sponsored posts in the future. Olga Ginzburg for N.Y. Post She says that her book feels even more timely now than when she started working on it four years ago. Despite all she's been through, she doesn't rule out influencing completely. 'I mean, listen, living is expensive,' she said. 'I'm not opposed doing a sponsored post in the future. I actually said that to my audience, a couple months ago. I was like, 'Guys, I know I just wrote a book about not influencing anymore. But, rent be renting.''
Elle
2 hours ago
- Elle
Dua Lipa Channels Bridal Energy in An All-White Faux-Thong Look
THE RUNDOWN: Dua Lipa might be the reigning queen of Euro summer. Though her 30th birthday isn't until August 22, the Radical Optimism singer already kicked off the festivities this past weekend while on vacation in Ibiza, surrounded by family and friends, including her mother Anesa Lipa and her fiancé Callum Turner. In one Instagram post, Lipa was a vision in white, wearing a custom Jacquemus sequin dress. The shimmering look featured a completely open back and daring faux-thong cutouts, the perfect party-girl look for a month of celebration. The singer paired the look with a Tiffany & Co. Elsa Peretti Bone Cuff, a timeless It girl accessory. Lipa captioned the photos, 'Early birthday celebrations on my favorite island with my favorite people wearing the most gorgeous dress Simon made for me... I can't bloody wait for 30!!!!' Designer Simon Porte Jacquemus and the singer are longtime friends who never miss a moment to support each other—last summer, Lipa rang in the brand's 15th anniversary at a star-studded event in Capri. The Jacquemus dress wasn't the only all-white look Lipa sported in vacation posts from last week. The Future Nostalgia singer also wore a ruffled crop top and bikini ensemble by Chloé and a polka-dot bikini set from Spanish swimwear brand Inalbis. Though no wedding plans have officially been discussed beyond her engagement, Lipa's summertime-white outfits are definitely channeling chic bridal energy.
